LATAM excluded from contests and sweepstakes

[mariliamarilia]

Any reason for that? I thought it could be an oversight but I checked old contests and sweepstakes (with in-game prizes) and none of them included any country from Latin America. Since a lot of players from here started in Endwalker are there any plans to review this "sanction" (for the lack of a better word)?

[Vrankyl]

I would imagine that it has something to do with the game not being officially supported in that region. Online contests and sweepstakes are subject to all sorts of various laws in individual countries, and so SE likely only works to ensure they are valid in the countries where the game is officially supported. Even then there have been several promotions where certain regions that are supported have been unable to participate.

[mariliamarilia]

I would imagine that it has something to do with the game not being officially supported in that region. Online contests and sweepstakes are subject to all sorts of various laws in individual countries, and so SE likely only works to ensure they are valid in the countries where the game is officially supported. Even then there have been several promotions where certain regions that are supported have been unable to participate.

I understand your point, but is Square Enix supported in the whole of Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania? The new sweepstake says that these continents fall under juristiction. Because if it is, well, then it's a whole new problem the fact that South America is excluded because we have a big population, bigger than, for exeample, Oceania (there are two full servers of Brazilian players and this counting Brazilians alone, not the other Spanish speaking countries of LATAM) - not that I'm implying that there is any problem with Oceanic servers, I just mean that if it's a population problem we certainly fill the quota. Besides, France, for example, falls under juristiction however French Guiana, a french territory in South America, is also not accepted..

[Packetdancer]

Not sure what the specifics are with regards to Square-Enix, but putting on my "I used to work in game dev" hat for a moment, I can say that in my own experience, running contests internationally was a massive headache because of different laws in different areas. (Things like "do you have to offer the option of taking an equivalent value in cash for whatever your prize is", which means you have to set a cash value on something which may be purely digital, whether there are specific laws on what channels you must use to notify contest winners, etc.)

So at least in my own experience we ended up relying on publishing and distribution partners in various regions to handle region-specific details for us where we could. And if our partner in that region couldn't or wouldn't handle the local logistics of a promotion, we just excluded that region.

Now, in SQEX's case they are the dev and the publisher both -- whereas I used to just work in dev, not publishing -- so hypothetically they already have legal teams to handle a variety of different regions. And thus who can presumably handle all the legal fluff around promotions and giveaways in their specific region.

But as was pointed out, I don't think they officially publish in Latin America (though I may be wrong).

So I suspect it may be a matter of "we restrict it to regions we already have an established policy and legal guidance for running promotions in." And that may include regions they don't officially publish FFXIV in, but do officially publish other games in (and thus may have that established policy already).

[Shibi]

... are there any plans to review this "sanction" (for the lack of a better word)?

"restriction" is likely the word you want. Sanction in it's negative sense is a "penalty for disobedience".

[mariliamarilia]

"restriction" is likely the word you want. Sanction in it's negative sense is a "penalty for disobedience".

Thanks for the help! Since English is not my main language I struggle sometimes...

[mariliamarilia]

Not sure what the specifics are with regards to Square-Enix, but putting on my "I used to work in game dev" hat for a moment, I can say that in my own experience, running contests internationally was a massive headache because of different laws in different areas. (Things like "do you have to offer the option of taking an equivalent value in cash for whatever your prize is", which means you have to set a cash value on something which may be purely digital, whether there are specific laws on what channels you must use to notify contest winners, etc.)

So at least in my own experience we ended up relying on publishing and distribution partners in various regions to handle region-specific details for us where we could. And if our partner in that region couldn't or wouldn't handle the local logistics of a promotion, we just excluded that region.

Now, in SQEX's case they are the dev and the publisher both -- whereas I used to just work in dev, not publishing -- so hypothetically they already have legal teams to handle a variety of different regions. And thus who can presumably handle all the legal fluff around promotions and giveaways in their specific region.

But as was pointed out, I don't think they officially publish in Latin America (though I may be wrong).

So I suspect it may be a matter of "we restrict it to regions we already have an established policy and legal guidance for running promotions in." And that may include regions they don't officially publish FFXIV in, but do officially publish other games in (and thus may have that established policy already).

I thought about that and maybe it's the most reasonable explanation, but that still leaves me wondering about French Guiana - since it's a french territory (much like the case with USA and Hawaii) and they publish in France it should be allowed to participate, shouldn't them?

[Ath192]

Even though there are many many FF fans in Latin America Square has never acknowledged that part of the world exists.

[Packetdancer]

I thought about that and maybe it's the most reasonable explanation, but that still leaves me wondering about French Guiana - since it's a french territory (much like the case with USA and Hawaii) and they publish in France it should be allowed to participate, shouldn't them?

I think the analogy would be more like the US and Puerto Rico, or the US and American Samoa; both of those are US territories, neither is a state (where Hawaii is).

If France and French Guiana were identical, legally, then French Guiana would be part of the EU; all passport control and quick-travel agreements that apply to France would apply to French Guiana, for instance -- and French Guiana would be bound by all EU trade regulations, as France is. I do not believe that is the case. (Though, take that with not just a grain but an entire shaker of salt; I'm a former game developer who now works in embedded systems and hardware design, not an international trade law expert or anything.)

As such, I suspect there are enough relevant legal differences that it's probably easier to exclude territories that maybe-kind-of-partially meet the standards than trying to squish the standards around to fit them in.

(None of which makes the key point of this thread -- that players in an entire chunk of the world are excluded from contests/competitions -- any less unfortunate.)

[Feronar]

I imagine it is most likely for legal reasons. Contests and sweepstakes are often targeted by laws and regulations that vary widely depending on where you live. If SE wanted to allow players from those areas to enter, they would have to do legal research and clear the contests in every jurisdiction they want to operate in, which would be expensive.