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#Spaceninja contest excludes more than half of the world..


(XBOX)Spin1984
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At first I thought DE was joking when they said that you can win a trip to space, but when i found out it is for real, i was sooooo happy. Finally, I would at least have a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream and go to space! Until I read the terms & conditions, more than half of the world is excluded from it.. Seriously DE?! 

Kinda messed up don't ya think? 

Otherwise, everything else i saw on the tennocon lifestream was really awesome and I can't wait untill its all in game! 

But this contest kinda broke my heart.. 😢

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8 minutes ago, Inquisitor_Melhody said:

Could you explain please what this has to do with our governments? As in France we have a long "tradition" of "Space Exploration", I don't really get why France is not in the list of eligible countries.

Because it has zero to do with Frances tradition of space exploration and everything to do with Frances stance on contests/sweepstakes. 

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Le 07/07/2019 à 21:55, Oreades a dit :

Because it has zero to do with Frances tradition of space exploration and everything to do with Frances stance on contests/sweepstakes. 

Obviously there is something that would explain why so many countries are put aside, but I really wonder what is it.

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It's down to legal reasons.  Some areas (not just countries but states, counties and sometimes even individual towns) have strict or just plain strange rules about contests with prizes.  I think I read once that in Canada, you have to answer a trivia question (or something similar) to claim any sweepstakes prize because that's "enough" to make it a skill based prize rather than random chance.  I know that in lots of sweepstakes and promotional contests just within the USA, there'll be something in the fine print that says "Prize not valid if it's against the laws in your location.  Residents of 'this state' and 'that one' are not eligible to enter."  And it's because "this state" and "that one" have weird laws that make it just too much trouble to even try to award the prizes there - it's easier to just "Nope, sorry but you're not allowed."

And there's all kinds of different laws that could be at play.  Some areas might consider the prize as taxable income, even though you'll never directly touch the money and have no say in how it's spent.  Some might prohibit it as gambling, or require some kind of (often expensive) local license before they're permitted to even offer the prize in that area.  Some places may simply forbid such contests outright under the assumption that they're "close enough" to gambling and therefore morally wrong.  And because the prize almost certainly requires traveling to the launch site (which I assume is probably in the USA somewhere) then some people might be forbidden from receiving the prize even if the contest isn't otherwise prohibited there.

It would be wonderful if they could "just offer it everywhere."  But unfortunately the reality is that in some places it's such a legal ball of snakes that it's just not possible.  😞

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Whilst I fully understand the legislation and such that prevents many countries from taking part, I did genuinely laugh at how limited it is.

USA, most of Canada, Germany and the UK... And that's it. As nice as this offer may be, perhaps streaming it to an international audience without clarifying the extent of the limitation was... not the play.

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14 minutes ago, (PS4)IroncladBomber said:

Well, if the Rocket is owned by NASA or an American company, think there is a lot of Legal issues with them shooting a Foreign National into space.

I'm not sure this is actually true (or which entity is being saddled with legal issues), but regardless - I'm not sure how this would explain the countries that are covered. Those countries are just as "foreign" as any other country. 

EDIT - For clarity (because tone doesn't usually come through clearly over text), I'm not trying to be overly harsh here. Just legitimately unsure how we would correlate this to the country list. 

Edited by Ascarith
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1 hour ago, Ascarith said:

I'm not sure this is actually true (or which entity is being saddled with legal issues), but regardless - I'm not sure how this would explain the countries that are covered. Those countries are just as "foreign" as any other country. 

EDIT - For clarity (because tone doesn't usually come through clearly over text), I'm not trying to be overly harsh here. Just legitimately unsure how we would correlate this to the country list. 

Fair point, I really don't know the legality of any of it, Just that DE wants to send someone to Space, and I am sure it isn't an easy thing to get approved.

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Il y a 9 heures, (PS4)IroncladBomber a dit :

Well, if the Rocket is owned by NASA or an American company, think there is a lot of Legal issues with them shooting a Foreign National into space.

I don’t think it would have an impact. Other countries launch US astronauts up regularly, as NASA themselves haven’t launched anyone into space since 2011. Besides their focus lies elsewhere than commercial flights. Boeing and SpaceX might eventually, but neither one of them is quite ready to launch manned rockets. And because they got contracted by NASA, their focus lies predominantely on inter-planetary travel anyway.

It’s most likely going to be with Virgin Galactic if anything. They’ve been focussing on sub orbital launches in the last few years, and on space tourism. Sub orbital is a little disappointing though, but also the only commercial possibility right now.

I suspect EmberStar is bang on the money with the bit about gambling laws. Some EU (ie most) are super strict with sweepstakes and lootboxes and stuff. The UK have absurdly lax gambling laws, for some reason.

 

 

Edited by Pixxelated
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It's impossible for "giveaways" to be global. Some countries have had outright bans for giveaways involving cash, some have absurd requirements (or outright ban) if they exceed a specific amount (which this exceeds the limit for multiple areas), others require a specific ministry to be involved and for them to approve it, the list goes on.

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Le 07/07/2019 à 18:41, (XB1)Spin1984 a dit :

At first I thought DE was joking when they said that you can win a trip to space, but when i found out it is for real, i was sooooo happy. Finally, I would at least have a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream and go to space! Until I read the terms & conditions, more than half of the world is excluded from it.. Seriously DE?! 

Kinda messed up don't ya think? 

Otherwise, everything else i saw on the tennocon lifestream was really awesome and I can't wait untill its all in game! 

But this contest kinda broke my heart.. 😢

Sadly it's not on DE, it's on the national gambling and prize draws laws. For example, being italian i will never be able to participate in any of that from DE because italian laws require the company to have an italian based offshoot to allow that kind of prizes. And DE has no italian offshoot and almost surely never will :S

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33 minutes ago, Autongnosis said:

Sadly it's not on DE

Ehhhh. They made the decision to advertise this giveaway to a global audience.

I realise you mean, "it's not on DE that it can't be global" whilst I initially read it as "it's not on DE that you're frustrated".

Edited by DeMonkey
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Il y a 2 heures, DeMonkey a dit :

Ehhhh. They made the decision to advertise this giveaway to a global audience.

I realise you mean, "it's not on DE that it can't be global" whilst I initially read it as "it's not on DE that you're frustrated".

Ye, i meant it the first way 🙂

Tho tbh i can't fault them for doing so. The marketing pull of announcing something like that at tennocon or via a random forum/twitter post is very different. 

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3 minutes ago, Autongnosis said:

The marketing pull of announcing something like that at tennocon or via a random forum/twitter post is very different. 

Very true. I wouldn't have done it via twitter/forums personally though, I'd have concluded the stream with "if you live within the USA, Canada etc then stay tuned for a special announcement".

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2 hours ago, DeMonkey said:

Very true. I wouldn't have done it via twitter/forums personally though, I'd have concluded the stream with "if you live within the USA, Canada etc then stay tuned for a special announcement".

Either that or there should have been a highly visible / explicit disclaimer, either in the script, or flashed on screen (like they often do with TV prize draws, giveaways etc.)

Shouldn't have been beyond the wit of the organisers to arrange that IMO.

 

Edited by FlusteredFerret
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6 hours ago, Pixxelated said:

I suspect EmberStar is bang on the money with the bit about gambling laws. Some EU (ie most) are super strict with sweepstakes and lootboxes and stuff. The UK have absurdly lax gambling laws, for some reason.

That's because the UK has a bit of a special relationship with the EU (gets some of its benefits and doesn't have to follow some of its rules and regulations).

Same with Canada and Quebec (the rules and regulations aspect), which makes it a bit funny every time a contest like that includes Canada, because what it looks like is no one seems to like Quebec.

Edited by Renegade343
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16 hours ago, (PS4)IroncladBomber said:

Well, if the Rocket is owned by NASA or an American company, think there is a lot of Legal issues with them shooting a Foreign National into space.

The contest rules actually state that the prize is just the money, using it to go to space is on you.

"The Sweepstakes shall award one (1) Grand Prize of $250,000 USD cash (awarded as a check), which as at the beginning of the Entry Period, was the equivalent cost estimated by the Sponsor for a trip to space. The cash prize will not be adjusted if that cost estimate changes. The Winner must arrange for the space trip directly with a provider if the Winner chooses to use the cash awarded for a space trip."

Which is probably for the best.

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To all that are complaining about this : grow up !

This is a huge gift they are making ! But no, you'd rather make it a bad thing because YOUR country is not in the mix.

It was obvious, for many legal reasons, that it would only be available in northern countries, those that are the most controlled. And even in those, ofc there are compatibility issues. You're talking about slingshotting civilians into a flying vehicule over all form of borders, do you think sometimes ?

And EVEN if it was all DE's doing, restricting countries for the glory of Evil, they're still giving that chance to someone ! When you see a dude giving a coin to a beggar, do you get angry and go tell him that he has to give to all tge beggars near where you live ?

Just be happy about all the exposure WF is gonna get from this, grow up and stop thinking about yourself. In a way, we're all part of this adventure, so rejoice instead of being a lousy spoiled brat.

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