Lawyer evaluation: What are the legal risks of chain game battle royale gameplay?
Original author: Lawyer Shao Shiwei - Senior lawyer at Shanghai Mankiw Law Firm
introduction
With the development of 5G, blockchain, VR and other technologies, the gaming field is also constantly exploring from web2 to web3. Dao of Dragon, as one of the first metaverse game projects in China, is a dragon-themed metaverse dragon development game running on the BSN chain. Since the platform was launched, it has continued to gain popularity, and users have also gained good benefits. Its various gameplay methods have also been imitated by other project parties. So are there any legal risks in playing on this platform? This article analyzes this.
01 Basic introduction to the platform
According to its official WeChat public account, the birth of Dragon Island stems from Zhongchuan Yunchuangs all-out attack to solve Shuzangs pain points; in the form of Yuanverse + Shuzang + Game, all users make a joint decision , development and creation of the Metaverse Data Collection Platform.
In the Dragon Island system, there are three major islands: Chaos Island, Sanctuary Island, and Star Island. The functions, attributes and other system settings of each island are slightly different, but in the final analysis, the core gameplay is one-stop start, dragon production Produce materials and circulate them to dragons. Also circulate materials and harvest slowly. Based on this, the following typical Star Island system will be discussed as an example. Star Island has [Dragon Egg], [Dragon Essence], [Dragon Soul] 】Three main materials, these materials are produced by three kinds of dragons: 【Dragon】, 【Holy Dragon】, and 【Magic Dragon】, and can be purchased in the 【Market】 of the App.
Different ratios of [Dragon Eggs] and [Dragon Souls] can be used to synthesize dragons with different attributes and levels. The dragon needs to be placed in the corresponding incubator to produce materials. The incubator will consume durability during the production process. The durability can only be increased by using [Dragon Soul]. After the durability is exhausted, the incubator will stop operating. The dragon will consume energy in the process of producing materials. To replenish energy, you need to use [Energy Potion]. [Dragon Essence] is the only material to synthesize [Energy Potion]. Once the dragons energy is exhausted, it will stop producing.
The main strategy of Dragon Island is how to obtain higher returns through the combination of materials.
02 How to play platform activities
The platform will launch various popular activities from time to time. We will introduce the popular mini-game [Evil Dragon Cave] as an example.
The gameplay of [Evil Dragon Cave] is as follows:
The user chooses a cave to explore, selects a room and puts in the materials to participate in the game. After the countdown ends, the dragon appears. The user in the room where the dragon appears loses, and the users in the remaining 4 rooms win. In the app, the platform prompts the following:
In the platform, the sources of materials can be summarized as follows:
Ways to obtain dragons: synthesis, market purchase, participation in activities.
Ways to consume dragon eggs, dragon essences, and dragon souls: They can all be sold in the market, and you can participate in activities such as the Lucky Wheel.
Ways to obtain dragon eggs, dragon spirits, and dragon souls: purchase in the market, dragon eggs-hatching, dragon souls-magic dragon forging, dragon spirits-sacred dragon prayers.
In other words, all materials can be monetized by buying and reselling them on the market.
03 Possible legal risks
This gameplay involves certain gambling risks. The process of gambling is that participants invest legal currency, and through some activities/playing games, they can eventually obtain large or small legal currency, forming a closed loop from money to money.
Based on my countrys current regulatory norms and practical cases, the risks of online gambling not only exist in gambling websites and card games, but have also gradually spread to all types of games. After the online shooting game forms a loop of deposits, bets, and withdrawals, the behavior may be suspected of opening a casino.
It can be summarized based on the provisions of the Guidelines on Key Points for Supervision and Enforcement of Virtual Currency in Online Games issued by the former Ministry of Culture in 2010.
Generally speaking, as long as an activity or game meets the following three elements at the same time, there is a risk of being suspected of gambling:
① Paid investment: Payment includes cash, virtual currency obtained by payment, game props exchanged for virtual currency, etc. direct or indirect payment;
② Random gameplay: If the minimum or maximum value of the output greatly exceeds the amount of investment, it has a certain nature of using small to gain big;
③Cash/kind output, that is, related functions/gameplay directly or indirectly generate cash.
Take the gambling ban in the gaming industry as an example:
According to the Guidelines on Key Points for Supervision and Law Enforcement of Virtual Currency in Online Games issued by the former Ministry of Culture in 2010, online games that promote gambling content mainly have the following three forms:
On the premise that users invest legal currency or virtual currency directly or in disguise, online game operating companies obtain game props or online game virtual currency through random methods such as lottery, betting, and random drawing;
Online game operating companies provide users with games that contain forms or content that are deemed gambling by regulations and relevant competent authorities;
Online game operating companies provide points for users to use on the premise that users invest legal currency or virtual currency directly or in disguised form, and use the points to obtain game props or online game virtual currency through random methods such as drawings and bets.
The Notice on Regulating the Order of Online Game Operations and Prohibiting the Use of Online Game Gambling jointly issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Information Industry, the Ministry of Culture, and the General Administration of Press and Publication stipulates:
Commissions related to game winning or losing are not allowed to be collected or disguised as virtual currency;
Those who open games that use game points to bet on winning or losing, guessing, etc. must set the number of winning and losing game points for each game and daily for users, and are not allowed to provide game point trading, exchange, or disguised exchange for cash or property in the form of virtual currency or other methods, and are not allowed to provide services. Game points transfer services such as gifts and transfers between users must be strictly managed to prevent facilitating online gambling activities.
Therefore, combined with the above provisions, the activity rules of Evil Dragon Cave may be considered to involve gambling. The specific analysis is as follows:
(1) Paid investment: To participate in the game, users need to have dragons, dragon eggs, dragon essences, dragon souls and other materials. These materials can be obtained through market purchase, or through participation in activities, hatching output, synthesis, etc. Obtained after a longer investment process. However, combined with the relevant regulatory provisions and spirit, this behavior may be essentially regarded as the user’s paid investment behavior;
(2) Random gameplay: Users input materials and bet on which room the evil dragon will appear in. Those who win the bet can divide the materials invested by the losers. Judging from the consequences of winning or losing, the activity has a certain small-scale effect. Broad nature;
(3) Cash/physical output. The materials obtained by users can be sold and cashed out in the market. The consignment trading platform in the App provides a channel for users to exchange materials into legal currency.
(The picture source is the monetization screenshot posted by netizens)
Based on the existing judicial environment, from a substantive point of view, the exchange of game props purchased with legal currency for fragments/materials to participate in activities is not much different from the investment of real money, that is, as long as the behavior satisfies the paid investment-random gameplay-cash/ This model of physical output may meet the behavioral requirements for the crime of opening a casino.
04 Mankiw Lawyer Compliance Advice
In addition to the Evil Dragons Cave game, games such as Wheel of Fortune and Hela Racing on the platform are also probability gambling games, and there are also gambling risks. The platform needs to adjust its activity mechanism and break the chain of paid investment - random gameplay - cash/physical output in order to significantly reduce risks.
In addition, if the platform game type is intellectual competition, physical exertion, etc., avoiding the randomness of winning or losing can also reduce the risk of gambling.
Since Dragon Island 1.0 was launched in early January 2023, based on consensus popularity, the value of pets on the platform surged 10 times in a short period of time. However, less than half a year later, due to the settings of the game mechanism itself, problems with the economic model and other reasons, the value of pets on the platform soared 10 times. As a result, the value of pets has dropped sharply.
But it is undeniable that Dragon Island uses blockchain technology to treat dragons as digital collections, and its brand image has scarcity and collection value. The platforms rich gameplay, such as dragon hatching and camp battles, greatly increases the playability of chain games and allows users to participate more deeply in the game itself. How to set up a more long-term economic model so that users can stay on the platform continuously and stably, instead of being like the situation of some Shuzang platforms last year where old users just ran away and new users became leeks. Maybe the platform needs to constantly think about it. The problem.
Shanghai Mankiw Law Firm
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Special statement:
This article is an original article by Shanghai Mankiw Law Firm. It only represents the personal views of the author of this article and does not constitute legal consultation or legal opinions on specific matters. If you need to reprint the article, please contact Mankun Law Firm staff: MankunLawFirm
