Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

blog.trampolinetales.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 102 posts

Re: Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

#41

Post by jahsome »

paulddraper wrote: post #20
autokad wrote: post #2

>Today I received an email from Google Play Support stating that Luck be a Landlord has been geo-blocked in the following countries: United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Iran, Jordan, South Korea, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. >According to Google, the app "contains content that doesn't comply with the Gambling policy." > It should go without saying that I 100% disagree with this d…

> it violates the gambling policy of those countries FYI for future reference, countries' policies are more commonly referred to as "Laws."

I love it when people are simultaneously needlessly condescending and also wrong.

Re: Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

#42

Post by ryandrake »

exac wrote: post #4

It seems to be a recurring case with app review processes that Apple and Google only review your app, and won't allow comparisons to be made to other apps. From a game theory perspective, perhaps this makes sense, as any bargaining power that a successful app might have to come to a special agreement with Apple/Google is diminished if their app isn't in compliance.

If you get pulled over for speeding, you won't convince the judge with "Well, other cars were also speeding."

Re: Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

#44

Post by vinceguidry »

hyperhello wrote: post #19
notacoward wrote: post #16

> A literal clone of my game, which raised $6,000,000 in venture capital Ding ding ding! There's your explanation for you.

Are you saying the Google reviewer is on the take?

Cash rules everything. Indie devs get the shaft.

The fact of the matter is that with $6MM you can hire the talent needed to actually make a game like this palatable to conservative regimes. The reskin of this game hides the offensive elements. It also happens to take the soul out of the game. By turning it from a gambling game to a 'roguelike deckbuilder' you manage to transform it from gambling to playing games, avoiding the censors.

LbaL author, being just one person, would be completely unaware of how games are built and marketed around the world.

Re: Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

#45

Post by bubblematrix »

DrFlipper wrote: post #31

What is the appeal of this game? (Beyond exploiting addictive personalities with a very thinly-veiled gambling simulator that is rightly being banned.) It looks so boring. I can't tell if the reviewers proclaiming this as an "innovation" in the "roguelike" (?) genre are trolling or not. It's an ugly slot machine game where you click a buttonn to spin. This would have been uninspired trash in 1993. What am I missing?…

Agreed, it literally looks like a slot machine app...

Re: Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

#46

Post by Paul-Craft »

fishtoaster wrote: post #25
johndhi wrote: post #15

As someone who makes decisions like the one Google made here at work, sorry, dude, but arguing about it publicly isn't going to change much. Almost certainly Google has received pressure from these countries on this issue and their business there is more important to google than your single app. Google likely isn't being unreasonable - but the governments of these countries are. Sorry.

Historically, it seems like "arguing publicly, getting public outcry, and getting the notice of someone higher up the chain" is pretty much the only way to effectively appeal these sorts of decisions at Google. I don't know if it'll work in this case, since google's argument ("this contains a slot simulator and some countries don't like that") isn't too egregious, but I can't really fault the dev. When the faceless r…

> Historically, it seems like "arguing publicly, getting public outcry, and getting the notice of someone higher up the chain" is pretty much the only way to effectively appeal these sorts of decisions at Google.

Not just Google. It seems like a lot of large corporations effectively outsource their customer service to (the platform formerly known as) Twitter and such. Complaining on social media gets results, even after one has been stonewalled by official channels.

And, even if it fails, you can frequently generate a lot of buzz by complaining loudly on social media. How many people reading this do you think had never heard of this game before just now?

Re: Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

#47

Post by RajT88 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #9
autokad wrote: post #2

>Today I received an email from Google Play Support stating that Luck be a Landlord has been geo-blocked in the following countries: United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Iran, Jordan, South Korea, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. >According to Google, the app "contains content that doesn't comply with the Gambling policy." > It should go without saying that I 100% disagree with this d…

The issue is that other apps with similar (or outright copied) functionality are allowed in those countries. The problem is with Google's inconsistent appeals process, not with the laws of those countries.

I wonder if the word 'Luck' in the title is what is causing all the ruckus.

Could be some arbitrary guideline not documented that reviewers have to follow for certain countries. Who knows?

Re: Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

#48

Post by viktorcode »

The author conveniently forgets to mention that Luck the Landlord game is primarily a slot-machine. Instead, they provide counter examples of games that have slot machine mechanics in them to argue that Play Store policies are applied inconsistently.

Re: Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

#49

Post by echelon »

harrisonjackson wrote: post #38

One of least effective ways to argue your case is by pointing to other apps that have the same violations. I say that having submitted 50+ apps across various categories and dealing with thousands of app review exchanges to get them released. You can find apps that violate all sorts of guidelines and laws and it is super frustrating when yours gets blocked but it is part of the business. Did they slip by a reviewer t…

This only happened because App Stores are a central point of failure (and control and undue taxation).

Tell your legislators that Google and Apple need to open up to web installs. To make them first class, with no hurdles and no scare tactics.

In order to help facilitate this, open up devices to other stores from the moment of device activation - Google Play should be on iPhone, App Store should be on Android, etc. And build proper first-party browser support for "this website has an app, click to install".

If a customer knows about you and wants you, they should be able to grab you from your website. Or another marketplace.

The App Store system as it stands today is perverse and draconian.

Re: Luck be a Landlord is now banned in 13 countries on the Google Play Store

#50

Post by bakies »

DrFlipper wrote: post #31

What is the appeal of this game? (Beyond exploiting addictive personalities with a very thinly-veiled gambling simulator that is rightly being banned.) It looks so boring. I can't tell if the reviewers proclaiming this as an "innovation" in the "roguelike" (?) genre are trolling or not. It's an ugly slot machine game where you click a buttonn to spin. This would have been uninspired trash in 1993. What am I missing?…

You're missing the rougelike part. This game is more about deck building and rougelike elements than it is about gambling. The button to spin is indeed the least interesting part of the game.
Post reply on HN