Universal GameDev Challenge - Country of residence discrimination

Hello fellow devs.

I just noticed that, among the other rules, the challenge prevents Italian residents to participate in the Universal GameDev Challenge. While I understand why some of those countries could be kept out of the challenge for bureaucratic reasons, I do not see any reason why Italian residents have been excluded from the contest. Italy is part of the European Union, and being the only European country included in that list, I feel discriminated just because of my residence.

Before to jump to conclusions, I'd like to ask what the reason for this discrimination is. Unity has a history of inclusion and help for minorities, and I want to believe there is a reason for this, but I think that people from those countries have the right to know why they cannot take part in the challenge.

PS: i already tried to ask in the discussion channel, but I received no answer.

 

I'd posit that it has something to do with the extra regulation in Italy regarding the running of "prizes" and "competitions". A little googling around about Italy's competitions rules/laws results in some "interesting" requirements like "winner selection must be done in the presence of a public official" and "servers must be hosted in italy or mirrored in real time in the country".

It's random searches so it might not be up to date, but it looks like you guys have/have had limitations that would cause problems with any competition from outside your own country.

 

Some anti-gambling laws are written so broadly that it's hard to even set up competitions for charity.. Rhode Island is often excluded from American competitions because people don't want to deal with the hassle. I guess Italy is the Rhode Island of Europe.

Italians aren't a protected group though

 

I know Italy has some crazy rules about prizes and competitions, and after speaking with some other Italian game devs we all agree that this could in fact be the reason (It was the same with another challenge one year ago). Still, I'd like to have an official response. Also, if that's the case, I'd like to know if having a team leader living in a different country would allow us to participate anyway.

 

They have officially answered this few times in the past in their blog comments/twe when people have asked the same in other contests and yep it's related to the country laws. IIRC it was said that countries with sanctions or otherwise too complicated/impossible contest laws are almost always excluded.

 

You might want to consider putting in a customer support ticket then, you're asking quite a specific question which will likely require checking legal constraints for a specific case... not exactly a forum thing