Airtime Comptitions - acceptable or not

[wrestler]

Hi,

One thing we have often been asked for is airtime competitions - where the winner gets airtime. We have said we will check with Mxit since that may well be considered as gambling.

Let me outline what we are considering and then it would be useful to know whether it is acceptable or not.

We give players free GP (game action points) every hour and they use these game points to train, fight enter tournaments and perform other in game tasks. They can also buy extra GP (which we call paidGP) which they use for doing more actions. The current tournaments cost 50GP to enter and the winner gets GP based upon the number of competitors.

What we have been asked for is a tournament that costs 50GP to enter but which gives airtime as a prize - now, since this would result in more people buying paidGP and make it more likely other people would join the game these tournaments would probably be self financing. However since this is a game where the results include many random elements it could be considered as a sort of lottery aka gambling.

What is Mxits view on this? Acceptable or Not?

[Rob]

Hi Wrestler,

As long as this complies with the Customer Protection act (CPA) and our code of ethics, it should be fine. Correct me if I'm wrong: Users enter tournaments, purchase in-game points (or virtual coins) and performs tasks to become ultimate winners. As a reward, winners will be incentivized by means of Airtime?

I think incentivizing users is a good way to encourage participation and retention, however on the other hand, I am not the biggest fan of creating an app which is purely based on competitions as apposed to meaningful content that would retain users and provide them with status and real interest.

So in short, this is permitted. Just a word of advice, create an awesome atmosphere where users are challenged and enjoy the app for the content it provides rather than 'stand a chance to win something', both facets together will work great.