About half the games are pure luck, and half blend skill with luck, similar to the way poker blends skill and luck.

The really huge jackpots like the one last night tend to be in the luck based games, of course, but there are some players that stick just to the skill games.

I'll do a more thorough write-up on the Wiki about how the skill-based games work, but basically it's like this: The payouts of a particular type of game are fixed, but the cost-to-play varies. The server adjusts the cost-to-play such that the game returns 95% to players overall (plus up to 3% Dragon's Treasure.) So essentially the skill based games are indirectly PvP - the best players can consistently win those games that they are good at.

Most of the skill based games cost 0.01+ BTC per play, though there's a very low-stakes "Rice Pond" just southeast of town center. Rice Pond is a perfect introduction to a simple skill-based game. There's a video explaining the game on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1iKY0VHKQQ

There are two main pieces of Federal legislation that deal with gambling: The "'Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006'' which deals with funding gambling accounts, accepting or extending credit for purposes of funding gambling accounts, transmission of money by wire for that purpose, etc. The full text of the law is here:

  http://www.gambling-law-us.com/Federal-Laws/UIGEA-Text.htm

There's a catch-all that would allow the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to write a regulation declaring that Bitcoins are a money transmission mechanism, but they haven't done this yet.

There is also the original "Federal Wire Wager Act", which only deals with bets on sporting events.

Finally, there are Pennsylvania laws to be aware of, but those deal with places of gambling, and manufacture of gambling equipment. Interestingly, there's a special exemption for manufacturing playing cards in PA, but no exemption for dice.

I suppose that you might make a case that "programming" is manufacturing, or that a 3D virtual world is a place, but that doesn't seem to be the intent of the law. If that were so, every MMORPG with trade-able items and an element of luck (IOW, all MMORPGs), would be violating the PA law to the same extent.

Answers to a few questions:

ptmhd: An email address is requested but not required. We'll only ever use this to tell you about Dragon's Tale news, and other games that we (eGenesis) make. So, you may get a message when we release A Tale in the Desert VI, for instance.

Film2240: The soldiers do limit how often you can return to them, and they require you to visit many different soldiers before returning. Check the wiki for tips on coin-hunting from soldiers. For instance, you may elect to skip smaller gifts and collect fewer larger gifts: the soldiers pay attention to the *number* of gifts that they give you, not the size. You can also make a small deposit - a tenth of a Bitcoin bypasses probably hours of running around to soldiers.

As to the idea about letting you reclaim large losses within X minutes, it's just too hard to make the math work: If the game worked this way, you could place a single large bet; if you win, withdraw the BTC. If you lose, reclaim the bet and try again.

That would be clever, but no, just a 3D game engine.

Were you doing Beetle Racing with us yesterday? I just finished a really nice, clean interface to that game. Hoping to get some races going this afternoon.

Just an update on the free Bitcoins in soldier statues: I've made it so that a given soldier won't repeatedly give Bitcoins to the same character. There were already controls in place such that each character had to rotate through different soldiers, so this is sort of the reverse of that.

So far it's has worked well - as I write this, every soldier now has a gift of at least one Bitmill (1/1000 BTC), and quite a few have gifts of 2 or 3 Bitmills. Gifts of 10, 50, 500, and 5000 (5 BTC) happen from time to time, as well.

We're going to do some small-stakes Beetle Racing today, so come grab some gifts and try to multiply them if you're inclined!

Come on over to Dragon's Tale - we have a faucet in-game - just look for the Soldier statues. Most just give a bitmill or two (1/1000 BTC), but you can visit many. It's a casino MMORPG, so I hope you'll play the games, but if you're just looking for your first few bitcents, I'd be glad to help. The game's URL is in my sig.

Right now, 0.01 BTC is the minimum withdrawal. It's also, right now, the minimum gift that any of the Soldier Statues give, so players can withdraw any gift right away.

The 0.01BTC gifts are getting sort of expensive - I think we gave away 25 BTC or so in the last week, and might be down net 12 BTC for the week. IOW, some people deposited BTC and played: Some won and took their winnings, some lost, some got free gifts and played with those, some took gifts and withdrew them.

I'll soon start doing a mix of <0.01BTC gifts, along with existing denominations (0.01, 0.05, 0.50, 5.00), and allowing smaller withdrawals. There will be a checkbox for the player withdrawing to pay a 0.01 BTC TX fee, and it will be permanently enabled for withdrawals <0.01 BTC. (Most nodes won't confirm transactions <0.01 BTC without a 0.01 BTC fee, correct?)

Teppy

We're working on a new island which will reveal the story of Dragon's Tale as your character progresses. If you'd like a preview, contact me in-game (I play "Di"), and I'll warp you to the new island.

We've been using Bitmill for a while now in Dragon's Tale. People seem to understand pretty naturally.

We also use Bitmicron for 1/1000000 of a Bitcoin, and will soon switch to Satoshi for 1/100000000 of a Bitcoin.

Teppy

Make sure the install directory (the one containing elaunch) is writable. elaunch will download a file egenesis.lc from one of our servers, and then look inside that to figure out what stuff in that same directory to patch. (Executable and library files.)

In the last week I've paid 3 different people for services using Bitcoins: One for advertising, and two for tech projects. Already I find Bitcoins quicker and more convenient than PayPal.

Bitcoins trickle out at the rate, currently, of about 1-3 BTC/day to the statues in total. If you go behind the big pagoda, you'll see a faucet (a little homage to Gavin's original Bitcoin Faucet) and you can click on it to see how many coins are in statues total, and how many are in the system in total.

Every day it will distribute about 1/14 of whatever is in the faucet, to the statues.

It distributes 24x7, at random intervals, so there's no "best" time to hunt for coins. If a given statue has more than one denomination of gift, it will always offer the highest one. A good hunting strategy is to seek those statues in out-of-the-way locations, because they tend to be searched less often, and the larger gifts sit there longer.

I'll be releasing a new Dragon's Tale game "The Great Wall," later today. Takes about a minute to learn, and you get to show off your best plays. I'll demo it at 2:00PM EDT.

You don't have to spend any BTC, Dollars, Euros, or Yen to play Dragon's Tale. The software is free, no credit card is required, truly no catch. We do ask for an email address, but don't require one.

We're the guys behind "A Tale in the Desert," which has been around for almost 8 years, won all sorts of awards, and is respected in the MMORPG world for our unique social and crafting gameplay.

Dragon's Tale is a new kind of game - it's a cross between an MMORPG and a casino. Imagine a casino where some of the games are luck-based, and some are skill-based, and where you increase your character's level up by gambling.

I'm giving away free Bitcoins because I think that some people will try the games at low-stakes, and then want to play for higher stakes. But it bugs me when companies say "free (whatever)" and then there's all sorts of fine print that makes it not-free.

The gifts are small, but they're real, and if people like the gameplay itself, the game should be successful.

I've implemented a feature in Dragon's Tale, the Bitcoin-based Casino MMORPG, that gives free Bitcoins, with no catch.

As you explore, you'll come across Soldier statues like the ones shown above: Click on one and "Ask for a Gift." They'll often give a 0.01 Bitcoin gift, but sometimes a 0.05, 0.50, or even occasionally a 5.00 Bitcoin gift, no strings attached: Unlike other casinos, these are real gifts that you can immediately withdraw. Of course I hope that you'll use the gifts to experience all the unique games that we've built into Dragon's Tale, and I hope that you'll even bring a few Bitcoins of your own some day to play.

Dragon's Tale runs (natively) in Windows, Linux, and OSX, and can be downloaded here.

About to give away 300+ of unclaimed Bitcoins - if you got a party invite but haven't logged in yet, do it soon!

Teppy

Should now be fixed, sorry for that bug. Confirm here once you log in.

Final prize pool and schedule, all times EST:

500 BTC to be split at the start of the party among those who learned the game and got a party invite by either Kat, Ramapithecus, or Di, and who show up during the first 4 hours. (12:00 Noon)
100 BTC prize for the biggest gain in Bitcoins during the party. (So biggest low->high swing). Awarded at 5:30 PM.
100 BTC consolation prize for the biggest loss in Bitcoins during the party (Biggest high->low swing). Note that the same person could win both prizes. Awarded at 5:30PM
50 BTC for the best bug find - Announced here sometime tomorrow
50 BTC for the best game suggestion - Announced here sometime tomorrow
200+ BTC prize pool split among the top 21 party challenge scores. We'll do this at around 4:30 PM. Any unclaimed BTC from the pool of 500 will be added to this pool.

Hey, Steven - I see that you've figured out a bunch of games on your own - I've flagged you for the party - see you there!

Teppy

ptmhd: good idea - I've lowered the costs on many games (installed lower-stakes versions, or implemented mixed-stakes wagering):

There's a new area southeast of the Palace with a Bitmill (1/1000 BTC) based Rice Pond fishing game, some 1 BTM and 100 BTM plants, coconut trees, etc. Also, 1 BTM and 100 BTM Bamboo Ponds.

Silly Monkey and Beetle Downs now allow wagering in any denomination from 1 BTM to 1+ BTC.

Berry seeds now come in Field (1 BTM), Island (10 BTM), Wild (100 BTM), and Garden (1 BTC) strains. Not all species of berries come in all strains, because berries are a skill (discovery) game.

Finally, there are two new Fire games: "Element Fire" is east of the Palace with some really nice fireworks for 1 BTM per launch, and Gem Fire is on the hill west of town for 100 BTM per launch.

Remember to check soldier statues for free Bitcoins - the ones right near the entrance tend to be dry, but there are a ton of statues around with 50 BTM gifts, and you can hit as many of these as you'd like. I even see several statues with 500 BTM gifts right now.

I've just made a cool little addition to Dragon's Tale - the in-game equivalent of the Bitcoin Faucet.

Any time you see a soldier statue, you can click on it and see if it's hiding a gift. Like the real Bitcoin Faucet, gifts are sometimes 0.05 Bitcoins, and sometimes 0.50 Bitcoins. And as a little tribute to the original Bitcoin Faucet, occasionally a soldier will have a 5.00 Bitcoin gift.

Statues are hidden all over town - the more remote ones may tend to be visited more often, and so may tend to have larger or more frequent gifts.

You can withdraw any gifts immediately if you'd like, though we're hoping that you use them to explore some of the games within Dragon's Tale. There are just a few low-stakes games at the moment, but filling those out is our next major push.

There are some restrictions - you can't just click the same statue repeatedly for multiple gifts, but discovering the rules and figuring out a way to maximize gifts is considered part of the game.