Is P2P really skill-based? P2P, also known as Pay To Play, has been a phenomenon during the past few months (or even years) in Pixel Worlds. The games that P2P represent are considered to be fully skill-based but, that’s not the reality. In the next paragraphs, I decompose every game that is considered P2P.
GAMES:
Maze:
The main and only goal in maze is to jump and/or avoid (dodge) the randomized disappearing blocks, to get to a portal that will redirect you to another portal with the WLs by the side. Imagine two players have the same hardware and internet speed, one of them performs a pre-jump while the other pre-run, if the bottom gate (which is randomized) opens then the player that did the pre-run will most likely win because he was lucky enough for the bottom block to open.
Gates are randomized.
Little to no skill involved, the player with the best hardware and/or internet wins.
Pre-Jump or Pre-run (Similar to the roulette (Red or Black)).
Connect Four:
The objective in connect four is to connect 4 blocks in a row to win. Pretty simple right? Well, not really. A lot of players decide to use programs (solvers) that give you the answer to how to win in almost every scenario. Try to think about this, two players are playing under the same rules and both of them are using solvers. Who do you think will win? Simple answer, whoever started the game will win (You can try this by yourself using a connect four solver, I used this one:https://connect4.gamesolver.org/en/). And, guess how the P2P host chooses who starts. Randomized gates.
Tower:
Everything that I said about Maze applies to Tower too but instead of running to the portal, you have to climb up.
TTT (Tic-Tac-Toe):
Couldn’t find anything illegal for this one, only the fact that a lot of players use solvers which maybe could be considered “Use of 3rd party programs”.
PVP:
Everything good with Player Vs Player.
ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS:
P2P is a way for illegal traders to “clean” WLs since it’s easy to explain where they come from.
A lot of P2P worlds are a scam and the owner will ban you whenever you drop/trade your WLs.
Easy to make hacks look like “skills” (Maze and Tower).
That has been all the information I’ve gathered throughout the months. If you want to write a counterargument to any of the sections in this post you are free to do. I hope developers can acknowledge that their decision about making P2P legal was a bad idea and now they make it illegal.
I would like to end this post with the following:
“Gambling is based on chance, but some online gambling can look like video games and apps that involve skill. This might look like fun to teenagers and might lead some young players to think gambling also involves skill. This could give them unrealistic or false beliefs about gambling and the odds of winning.”
-Source: https://raisingchildren.net.au/pre-teens/behaviour/behaviour-questions-issues/gambling
See, I don’t think P2P is designed to be used with big bets like 1pl. I think it’s made to be so you can have fun and win a little bit of wls for yourself. But it shouldn’t be considered a way to profit a lot of wls.
P2P is basically minigames that are covered with bets of wls, if P2P was just be PFF (play for fun) people wouldn’t hate it. We usually are skeptical because we’re trusting a person our wls, if it was just games with prizes that you don’t need to pay for, it would be much better
Maze
Gates are randomized.
Game environment being randomized does not equate to a game of chance. You can play multiple first person shooting game with randomly rotated maps, and it does not change the fact that it is skill-based.
Little to no skill involved, the player with the best hardware and/or internet wins.
The skill being tested is reaction. Take a person who has played this game for hundreds of time and put him against a newbie who’s just done his first run to understand the game. Chances are, the experienced player will score more wins. The skill level of reaction being tested is slim, but it is still the dominant determining factor for the winner.
Pre-Jump or Pre-run (Similar to the roulette (Red or Black)).
Wrong. That’s completely different than red or black. An initial advantage over a game is very common and tends to happen to most games including chess. This is not an empty claim, and a study has already shown this. According to a database on CheesGame.com, taking into account almost 1 million games, White wins 375,647 (37.79%) and Black wins 245,053 (27.72%)—a staggering figure of approximately 10% winning chance.[1]
Connect 4
A lot of players decide to use programs (solvers) that give you the answer to how to win in almost every scenario.
It does not mean suddenly the game is non skill-based. It’s up to the organizer to figure out ways if any player is cheating using this method. However, it does not mean the game is suddenly a game of chance.
And, guess how the P2P host chooses who starts. Randomized gates.
Chess official tournaments are decided in a similar manner. The organizer will determine who gets White and who gets Black and will inform the player BEFORE the game begin. Now I’d love to see you trying to convince me chess is now a game of chance instead of skill-based.
Tic Tac Toe
maybe could be considered “Use of 3rd party programs”.
The term “third party software” is not referring to having ANY active background software. By this logic, you will also be punished for having Windows Explorer or web browser (e.g. Chrome, Edge, Firefox) running YouTube music in the background. Oh, let’s forget the hundreds of background apps every computer runs in order to function.
Additional problems response
P2P is a way for illegal traders to “clean” WLs since it’s easy to explain where they come from.
Perhaps, but it is not the only method they use, especially when it gives them risk of losing the money. They can do “giveaway” and have their accounts win by “random pulls” which gives them zero risk at all. They can also make it look like they get a fantastic deal when trading on worlds like TRADE or even PWE order system, and more. I cannot name all, but trust me there are more desirable ways, and banning P2P for this is silly.
A lot of P2P worlds are a scam and the owner will ban you whenever you drop/trade your WLs.
It is not a reason why we should make it illegal. Car crashes across the world. In the US alone, accidents and unintentional injuries is ranked top 3 leading cause of death. It’s bad for people right? It’s killing them! Let’s ban all transportation. Oh, not to mention criminals use vehicles for their getaway after robbing old lady trying to do grocery.
Easy to make hacks look like “skills” (Maze and Tower).
By your logic, since hacks now are used in P2P, we must ban P2P. How about we ban playing the game altogether because all sorts of hacks come from this game existing in the first place.
I’d also like to end this reply with the following quote:
Game of skill refers to any game, contest, or amusement of any description in which the designating element of the outcome is the judgment, skill, or deftness of the participant in the contest and not chance. In a game of skill, outcome is determined mainly by mental or physical skill, rather than by pure chance.[2]
Nice thread. I have never liked P2P Worlds and I have always been against it. We could sit and talk about it for hours, but this have come to the same resolution. I think it’s time to take a deeper look into this, and the consequences it could bring.
I agree. People might think that P2P is skill based, but it’s only partly skill based. No P2P game is 100% skill based, there are always some luck factors that come in. In a Casino (which is illegal) you use 0% skill and 100% luck, but in a P2P you could use 20% skill and 80% luck which is technically not illegal but it’s close. So where is the limit? What if there is a game with 5% skill and 95% luck?
P2P is skill based more than 20% because, let’s take maze as an example, gates are randomized but parkouring through this is purely skill based, if player has bad internet, in my opinion its his fault, then he shouldnt play. P2P games are skill based, people just use it as a way to scam, if these 10yo kids wouldnt use it as way to scam fellow players, P2P could be actually very fun and entertaining game, but this never happends, the story is literally same as in thread above me.
