When I first saw the headline “Coming Soon: Skill Gaming in Second Life!” I thought “Ooh – what neat new feature are they rolling out now?”
But no.  What is happening is that a whole lot of devices previously allowed as TOS-compliant “skill games” under the wagering policy are now going to be outlawed. The problem is that now if you want to operate a skill game, you need to apply to be a skill game (SG) operator (US$100+quarterly fee), switch or move to a SG sim (US$325/month to “own”), and buy and run only approved devices created by approved SG authors (US$100+quarterly fee).
IÂ have a difficult time imagining that very many creators or operators will take linden up on the offer: margins are too thin and the added complexity and cost is likely to be too much for most. Â I, for one, don’t see any chance that I’ll invest the money to be an approved creator – I don’t make anywhere near enough money from such games.
I suppose Linden is solving a real problem here… seems to me that they’re once again creating more problems for SL due to rather poorly considered policy changes. Â We’ll see, I guess.
I’m guessing this is in response to legal threats. Let’s be honest, the vast majority of “skill games” are really barely-disguised gambling. I suspect the FBI, after their fairly successful crackdown on online poker, have turned their attention to more obscure platforms, and told the Lindens to make some changes or else.
I think this will ban costume contests at the Yak, though, since all the boards I know of allow the manager to set an entry fee (even though we don’t use it.)