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Originally posted by Burntvet

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Originally posted by skydiver12  

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Originally posted by DashiDMV

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Originally posted by DeniZg As a person with legal background, I wonder whether those packs are legal in many of the countries, especially the EU ones. They look pretty much like lottery to me, since buyer does not know what he or she is getting. I believe you need to have special government permits for such activities. Bioware most likely did their legal homework, but still, would be an interesting separate topic.

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    The way they get around not being classified as gambling is you get an item every time. Even if it is crap, since you get an item every time, you are technically always getting something for your money.   I have seen games that have gamble items that give gamble items as prizes. It's a mess. 

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That's wrong.   It's not considered "gambling" because you don't get [material] value, neither can you trade your virtual goods for [material] value. That's why it isn't considered "gambling" by the legals. Boxes in the cartel market are considered a service. Whenever you get always "something" [inferiour] or nothing does not matter to the nature of "gambling". It's still gambling. If i would give you a 2$ drink for each 10.000 you bet and lose, it's still gambling.

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That is only true if the items from the "cartel packs" can not be sold to other players.

If they can be sold, for cash on 3rd party websites for example, then this type of activity may violate gaming laws in one or more places, because then those things actually would have value.

If that is true in the case of TOR, I don't know, as I am not bothing to play this game.

For other games, 3rd party item sales have/do take place.

 

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No, it does not affect the legality of "gambling" for EAWARE if someone (3th party) unallowed sells virtual goods for material goods. EAWARE is not accountable for their doing.

Selling virtuall goods themselves as a private person is considered a paid SERVICE, and as such not (yet) enforced by any law regulations. What most account / gold buyers don't realize is, they can't sue goldfarmers for not delivering.

EAWARE can't close your account (terminate their service to your account) but they can't demand the money you obtained from any account or virtual item sales.

Unless you live in South Korea. :D
/enough OT

I bought 4 packs with cartel coins i got for being  asubscriber during release. Got two pets, one rare pistol that i gave to my smuggler, one rare speeder and some toys like that  red eye glow and republic flag.

So i guess i am lucky? i got something out of every pack i opened.

And no i don't want others to stop buying cartel packs because then i won't have option to buy adaptive armors, pets, mounts, toys and weapon skins from GTN for stellar prices.

Bad advice OP;)

Its optional so for those with spare cash and less in game money they can open CC for rest of us who have enough in game currency can buy it from GTN. All these items can be traded so everyone wins.

Originally posted by Whitebeards

Its optional so for those with spare cash and less in game money they can open CC for rest of us who have enough in game currency can buy it from GTN. All these items can be traded so everyone wins.

If you put more cash in to the game,you lose and house wins.

If you get something out of the game without spending any,you win.

People who gambles ,they do have spare cash,but that doesnt mean that when they use it then they win,sorry.

Lol, I had a terrible nightmare: I was constantly buying Cartel Packs and nothing was in them!

LOL XD

Originally posted by skydiver12

 

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Originally posted by Burntvet

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Originally posted by skydiver12  

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Originally posted by DashiDMV

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Originally posted by DeniZg As a person with legal background, I wonder whether those packs are legal in many of the countries, especially the EU ones. They look pretty much like lottery to me, since buyer does not know what he or she is getting. I believe you need to have special government permits for such activities. Bioware most likely did their legal homework, but still, would be an interesting separate topic.

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    The way they get around not being classified as gambling is you get an item every time. Even if it is crap, since you get an item every time, you are technically always getting something for your money.   I have seen games that have gamble items that give gamble items as prizes. It's a mess. 

---

That's wrong.   It's not considered "gambling" because you don't get [material] value, neither can you trade your virtual goods for [material] value. That's why it isn't considered "gambling" by the legals. Boxes in the cartel market are considered a service. Whenever you get always "something" [inferiour] or nothing does not matter to the nature of "gambling". It's still gambling. If i would give you a 2$ drink for each 10.000 you bet and lose, it's still gambling.

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That is only true if the items from the "cartel packs" can not be sold to other players.

 

If they can be sold, for cash on 3rd party websites for example, then this type of activity may violate gaming laws in one or more places, because then those things actually would have value.

If that is true in the case of TOR, I don't know, as I am not bothing to play this game.

For other games, 3rd party item sales have/do take place.

 

---

 

No, it does not affect the legality of "gambling" for EAWARE if someone (3th party) unallowed sells virtual goods for material goods. EAWARE is not accountable for their doing.

Selling virtuall goods themselves as a private person is considered a paid SERVICE, and as such not (yet) enforced by any law regulations. What most account / gold buyers don't realize is, they can't sue goldfarmers for not delivering.

EAWARE can't close your account (terminate their service to your account) but they can't demand the money you obtained from any account or virtual item sales.

Unless you live in South Korea. :D
/enough OT

You don't get it.

If someone pays $1 for "random loot bag" and an item in that bag can be resold either at a 3rd party site or otherwise for say $100, that item has monetary value (whether it is a good, i.e. a bag of rocks or a service i.e. getting your car washed, is irrelevent). If those items can not be resold or traded, then problem largely solved.

But if people are paying $1 for a chance to get an item that can be sold for $100, and it is EA doing the selling, that is a problem for EA as far as gambling laws are concerned.

If the virtual items can be resold, i.e sold for real money, it probably violates gambling laws.

What EA/BW does or does not do to anyone's acct is irrelevant. That people do it and it violates the law is enough.

That it is not enforced more is simply that the law has not caught up yet, but it is slowly getting there. (SOE ran afoul of several states gambling laws with their TCG and TCG tournaments. And they were forced to stop some of their activities in several US States.)

This kind of stuff really makes me sick. Everything should be obtainable in game. These cash shop crap things just ruin these games. Yes I know wow has the same basic thing with the TOC games and while I bought a few packs when they first came out, I didn't buy them for the free ingame stuff I bought them for game itself, but in the end the game wasnt that interesting.

You shouldn't have to pay money to get items imo, not even cosmetic items and especially it shouldn't be a CHANCE. If you want to sell items, at least just sell the items. Chance should be for ingame drops, not things you pay money for that are otherwise pretty worthless.

Im really starting to hate this industry.

This reminds me of Blizzards WoW card game that had a chance of having a rare cosmetic item in each pack.

I've returned to the game recently and spent all my cartel credits on these packs.  I got the throne speeder, 4+ pink crystals, the elite/non elite longspur, and a load of other useful (as well as useless) items.

I'm quite happy, but would love the Nihlus mask/white crystal but am assuming the chances of getting one of those is next to zero.

Originally posted by Elikal

Lol, I had a terrible nightmare: I was constantly buying Cartel Packs and nothing was in them!

LOL XD

That's no dream!  That's my reality!

Livestream Q&A Coverage from today

Q: How often will new gear become available on the Cartel Market?

Hickman: Our intent is to update it weekly. Add one or two new things, changes some prices. There will be an update next week. There will be a big update before the holidays.

Schubert: We have a new cartel pack with super rare items planned for each month for the next several months.

Hickman: New Life Day items coming soon. Life Day robes, orbs, tinsel bomb, and the Czerka LD-1 Celebrator - something red, festive, and you can ride it.

Schubert: We'll be adding new stuff regularly. We want to add archetypal armor, stuff that looks like a traditional Jedi Knight and the iconic classes.

New Cartel PAck. NOOOOOOO!!!!!! Sigh... need more coins LMAO

Originally posted by DrunkWolf

Im just wondering if i have the facts strait before i start laughing at people who spend money on this.

You spend real money on a box then you open it and you MIGHT get somthing good out of it? and the somthing good is vanity crap like speeder or a flag or mask or somthing?

are you people serious?

No they're serious. People really are that addicted to their virtual world goodies. They want the speical item so they can flash it around and say "Look at me, I'm a special snowflake."  

This whole thing reminds me of how baseball card fans flash around their special rookie and rare expensive cards after blowing through tons of worthless packs and bubblegum. 

Originally posted by Sigurd57

Originally posted by Elikal

Lol, I had a terrible nightmare: I was constantly buying Cartel Packs and nothing was in them!

LOL XD

 

That's no dream!  That's my reality!

 

Snap out of it!  Just stop buying once and for all !

Remember in gambling, it is house (in this case EA) that wins, not consumer.

More money you throw at it, more house wins it.

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

Livestream Q&A Coverage from today

Q: How often will new gear become available on the Cartel Market?

Hickman: Our intent is to update it weekly. Add one or two new things, changes some prices. There will be an update next week. There will be a big update before the holidays.

Schubert: We have a new cartel pack with super rare items planned for each month for the next several months.

Hickman: New Life Day items coming soon. Life Day robes, orbs, tinsel bomb, and the Czerka LD-1 Celebrator - something red, festive, and you can ride it.

Schubert: We'll be adding new stuff regularly. We want to add archetypal armor, stuff that looks like a traditional Jedi Knight and the iconic classes.

 

New Cartel PAck. NOOOOOOO!!!!!! Sigh... need more coins LMAO

All items are already in the game's files: shop here

Originally posted by Deewe

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

Livestream Q&A Coverage from today

Q: How often will new gear become available on the Cartel Market?

Hickman: Our intent is to update it weekly. Add one or two new things, changes some prices. There will be an update next week. There will be a big update before the holidays.

Schubert: We have a new cartel pack with super rare items planned for each month for the next several months.

Hickman: New Life Day items coming soon. Life Day robes, orbs, tinsel bomb, and the Czerka LD-1 Celebrator - something red, festive, and you can ride it.

Schubert: We'll be adding new stuff regularly. We want to add archetypal armor, stuff that looks like a traditional Jedi Knight and the iconic classes.

 

New Cartel PAck. NOOOOOOO!!!!!! Sigh... need more coins LMAO

 

All items are already in the game's files: shop here

If they'd buy these items NORMALLY I'D even consider buying a few of them. But putting my fate in the hands of moddy Lady Luck... no way. My dad worked in a casino, and the only one winning from gambling is the casino itself!