Squeal of Fortune/Controversies
On 2 April, 2012, Jagex added the ability to buy Squeal of Fortune spins with real money. This caused several controversies. Players became enraged by this new update and started a riot in Falador, world 66. Mod William posted a thread on the forums about this new update on the Recent Game Updates article, and within a day this resulted in thousands of negative posts by furious players demanding its removal.
Real World Trading
Many players view the ability to buy spins as a form of Real world trading, because the spins have the potential to give very valuable and desirable rewards, or hundreds of thousands of experience points. Jagex mods, such as Mod Moltare in Mod Mark's friends chat, have stated that buying wheel spins is different from buying gold or items from a third party, because the gold or items are not the third party's to sell but a first party's, Jagex, which differs from the valid legal principal of selling whatever interest one has in an item (even if it is no interest), thus the buying of gold is legal, but violates game rules and is cause for banning.
They claim that buying spins is not a form of RWT. Many players, however, disagree, saying that overall negative effect on the game is still the same, and cite Jagex's own policies regarding real world trading. Since the sale of spins violated Jagex's own rules on Real World Trading, on 5th April, 2012, Jagex changed their explanation for the rule against Real World Trading to make room for selling spins and other future content<ref>Revision history: Real-world trading</ref>.
Player Reactions
Despite RuneScape's long history of fighting against real world traders, some players believe that RuneScape may soon become insolvent as Jagex is seemingly rewriting their previous rules.
Within the first week of spin-selling, over fifteen thousand players voiced their objections to the "Wheel-World Trading", and the "Steal Your Fortune" on the update thread or one of the hundreds of other ones. To put this number in perspective, most update threads receive only two to three thousand posts, most of which are positive or ambivalent. The fifteen thousand replies to the spin update are as good as entirely negative, with only one positive post in the first twenty pages. After one week of consistent player objections, Jagex locked the forum in which these objections were voiced, but opened a special Squeal of Fortune feedback thread later on.
Financial Security
If a member is paying by credit card, and the credit card information has been saved with Jagex, there originally was no identity verification between clicking the in-game "buy spins" button and confirming the transaction. This means that someone with unauthorized access to a RuneScape account could turn up to $200/day of the rightful owner's money into Squeal spins. Since there is no option to disable spin purchasing on an account, it is also possible for children whose parents pay for their RuneScape membership to spend their parents' money on Squeal spins without their knowledge. These issues have provoked accusations that Jagex is violating laws concerning customer data protection. Jagex has replied with reminders to keep your RuneScape login information secure.
Additionally, they changed their Terms and Conditions<ref>Terms and Conditions as of April 2, 2012</ref><ref>Current Terms and Conditions</ref>, effective 2nd April, 2012 to avoid lawsuits by adding a line in the Subscription section:
| “ | We reserve the right to charge you for any unauthorized use of your subscription by third parties. | ” |
It should be noted that anybody whose account existed before the Terms were updated were not alerted of this change. However, in the Terms and Conditions it states Jagex does not need to do this, and users are responsible to check for changes:
| “ | We may change these terms and conditions to reflect: changes in applicable laws; regulatory or security requirements; relevant guidance or codes of practice; technical alterations to Jagex Products; and to improve clarity and consistency. Please check the terms and conditions whenever you use a Jagex Product. If you are not a subscriber, we will treat your continued use of a Jagex Product as acceptance of these changes from their effective date as shown above. If you are a subscriber, we will treat you as bound by the changes on the first renewal date for your subscription after the effective date and so you should cancel your subscription (as explained below) before this renewal date if you don't like the proposed changes. | ” |
In any case, if Squeal spins are bought by an unauthorised third party, the issuing bank of the debit or credit card, and other payment providers such as PayPal, have facilites available to reverse charges for disputed transactions. As of a patch note update, however, the security around buying spins has been "tightened".
Gambling
As RuneScape contains no age verification (just asking if the user is at least 13 on signup), it is possible for children under the age of 18 to spend real money on the Squeal of Fortune.
Jagex has stated that since every spin on the Squeal wins an in-game item (even if only Cabbage or Fishing bait), and since there is no potential for real monetary return, the act of purchasing spins is not truly gambling. Many players maintain that such a low-value spin is functionally equivalent to a loss, and that a purchased Squeal spin therefore counts as gambling. Other players maintain that a loss is incurred when spins are purchased, and that with the hope for a rare item, the Squeal of Fortune becomes a form of lottery. Overall, the Squeal of Fortune is more qualified as a Big Six Wheel.
If a low-value spin is considered a loss, or if Squeal of Fortune is considered a lottery, then the act of selling spins would violate online gambling laws, and the act of selling spins without age verification would violate age restrictions on gambling in several countries.
Precedent
Many players have been concerned by the precedent that this sets for the future of RuneScape. These players maintain that once Jagex makes an update connected with selling items or experience for real world money, they will be more inclined in the future to make updates connected with real world trading, despite having promised in the past that microtransactions would never be added to RuneScape.
The former official Jagex policy on real world trading is as follows:
"We don't want players to be able to buy their way to success in RuneScape. If we let players start doing this, it devalues RuneScape for others. We feel your status in real life shouldn't affect your ability to be successful in RuneScape."
Jagex Response
On August 14, 2012, Mod Timo responded by giving this quote about the controversy surrounding the SoF and Solomon features: [1]
| “ | Some general answers from me (and I'll try to get some further answers/opinions on this as well):
Bots - We're working on it. Hopefully we'll have more information about this soon but I can't give you an ETA at the moment. It's definitely an issue that we are aware of and are focusing our energy on. ICU are a secretive bunch, but maybe we can get some more info out of them shortly. Sof & Solomon - I see both of these systems as additional ways people can support Jagex and RuneScape while getting something back for it. Previously, membership was the only way to do so. Now, you can support us in any way you choose. Including not spending a single penny by playing the game for free! People may not like that others are spending money on cosmetic items or spins, but the fact is that lots of people are using both Solomon's Store and SoF. (Both for free and paying for them.) What some might see as 'pushing', we see as adjusting, balancing and changing for the better. You may not like these updates, but there is a large cross-section of the community who do even though they may not frequent the forums or feel like sharing their opinion publicly. This doesn't invalidate contrary opinions but it is important to look at not only what is being said, but what is being done in-game. RWT - Any money we make off Solomon's Store and SoF goes directly back to us. It is as much real world trading as membership and selling t-shirts are. |
” |
— Mod Timo
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Two weeks after Mod Timo replied to players on the forums about SoF and Solomon's Store, Mod MMG posted his response about the two features of the game in a news post on the homepage: [2] On the forums related to this post, Mod Michelle used Mod MMG's quote rather than him addressing his own post: [3]The forums had a mixed response on the message as well as some players wondering why Mod Michelle was using Mod MMG's quote. Along with speaking about the two features, he also spoke of another bot-nuke day appearing within the upcoming months as well as an update through graphics with HTML 5. Some players accused the message as being a way for Jagex to gain the trust back from the players who despise the two features while others praised it as being a great way to eradicate bots from the game as well as to improve it graphically.