Category: Betting

Gambling has always been a part of our gaming since times immemorial, needless to remind the Indian epic, the Mahabharatha. Since then it took so many forms and shapes to be an integral part of gaming. Recently, and especially post lockdown, there has been a huge shift in the Indian gaming industry. The improvement in infrastructure facilities, the increase in internet consumption by people and the exposure for a wide range of games opened the door for online gambling and betting. This has seen the evolution of several new games like online rummy, poker, cricket fantasy games, etc and given a chance to entrepreneurs across the world to expand their territory in the Indian market with the help of game outsourcing companies like RubixQ. But are all of them legal?

In July 2020, a 20-year-old parlour employee who makes tattoos had to hang himself for not being able to pay the 20,000 that he lost on a gaming app. This isn’t the first time such incidents happened. The addiction to gambling, be it offline or online, has the capability of ruining a person’s life and eventually after the debts mount upon them, it can lead to any drastic decisions like suicides. It is the reason why high courts across the states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, decided to ban online gambling games proactively before the number of such incidents rises. In September 2020, Andhra Pradesh government declared online gambling to be illegal. Instead of banning them, it made such activities an offence and people can be prosecuted when caught playing. These moves are made in a manner to scare people from gambling than preventing them altogether.

The Indian gaming laws categorize games broadly into two types – the game of skill and the game of chances wherein the latter comes into the gambling. This is the reason why Google had to pull out Paytm from the play store a while back, for violating the gambling policies and being the games of chances, whereas apps like Dream 11 are considered as games of skill. The Central government has no jurisdiction for gambling, the legislation of betting and gamblings lies in the hands of state governments and most of them have an exemption for games of skill. Recently Maharashtra government went to the Supreme Court to redefine what a game of skill is and what a game of chance is, and where the fantasy games fall under. The supreme court took up this and asked for a detailed report on it. If it passes the rule in the favour of fantasy games, that industry blooms like never before. Otherwise, they have to shut down.

Also, there’s another discussion floating around for having caps on gambling like 100 or 200 a day and there’ll be a cap for winning too accordingly. When the winnings are huge like in lakhs, the cap can increase up to 5,000 – 10,000. But then, the argument here is for the category of taxation for these games. If the winnings are in lakhs, though the companies are paying GSTs, the tax paid by winners is considerably less. So, they are looking at increasing this to a higher rate of tax for these activities.

According to research, the gaming industry in India is almost worth $150billions and in the worst-case scenario, corporates involved in it would only want regulations, not bans. For example, horse racing bettings are regulated, casinos in Goa and Sikkim are regulated. There’s another angle to this whole debate – psychological impact. There was a case where a college student of age 23, got addicted to gambling and eventually caught stealing, lying, losing control to end gambling sessions, getting unreasonably angry, etc. According to health experts, gambling is a behavioural addiction and it has its side effects of eating into the regular areas of functions. It can result in anxiety, impulse control issues, anger management issues, etc. So, with mental health being at stake, the ban is justified.

In economics point of view, legalization of these games with nuanced regulations and reasonable taxations can be effective, as governments can then have control over those activities. Otherwise, gamblings can happen in any form or manner and hoard a lot of black money that go unnoticed. There are some international examples like the UK Gambling Act of 2005 where they have a licensing regime for the 4-5 game categories. However, considering the facts that the industry is still in a nascent stage and the huge number of players, it is a strenuous task for governments to regulate the game of chances.

Castlevania Curse of Darkness is a unique video gamefor the XBox system in the series. Gamers and programmers call specialsurprises hidden throughout the game “Easter Eggs” and are stillpresent in this video games and gaming series. Weapon combining,innocent devils, the double jump right from the start, and specialweapons are some of the greatest draws to this video game.

Weaponcombining in this video game on the XBox system is an art. CastlevaniaCurse of Darkness differs from other Castlevania games in the videogames and gaming world in that instead of buying your weapons from ashop, you make your own. Yes, this is a big draw to this Castlevania.With special materials that enemies drop or by stealing these itemsfrom the enemies, you create your own weapons. Generally, with weaponcombining you need to use a previously created weapon along with amaterial or materials like jet black, aluminum bronze, carbon steel,ether, ceramics, etc. to create your new, better weapon. For example,jet black creates a broad sword. The first sword that you will be ableto make is a short sword. Using bronze, this is one of the few weaponsin the game that does not require another “starter” weapon to make.

Theirare certain weapons and armor in the game that are quite amusing. Abaseball jersey, schoolboy cap, and a clown suit are a few. You don’tactually “view” these items on Hector (Hector is your main charactersname in Castlevania Curse of Darkness), but the clown suit will raiseyour luck and the sports kit increases your strength. Play around withthe armor choices to see which suit will work best for you in eachsituation. It is a plus in game play to change both your weapons andyour armor during battles and between to saturate your stats to yourbenefit.

The funnies in the weapons category actually look coolas a visual graphic. The funny ax is called the Piko Piko Hammer thatrequires a rare item to create and makes a squeeky “piky piky” soundwhen you attack. The frying pan requires two rare items to create andmakes a “sizzling” sound when you attack. The Deck Brush is the spearweapon funny in Castlevania Curse of Darkness. You know, a deck brushlike the ones that pirates used to swab the deck or your Dad uses tosweep the garage. This is one fun weapon to use. Champion gloves allowyou to become a champion boxer in five seconds or less or die trying.No, not really but these are the weakest of all the punching weapons inthe game.

Then there is an entire weapons category called”special weapons”. Yes, these other weapons mentioned sound quitespecial but these next weapons are categorized as such. The ElectricGuitar is one of the favorites here. Melt faces with your face meltingsolo, then jump and attack for the guitar smashing finish! You playthis weapon poorly at best and the weapon is slow but a whole lot offun. Fire Flask is a molten cocktail, the Bat is too awesome with itsspikes, way slow but good for knocking enemies back off you when theyget too much and you need just that split second to regroup.

Theimportance of weapon combining and upgrading your weapons is not onlythe damage which is given but some enemies are weaker against oneweapon as opposed to another. for instance, Gaibon is weaker againstspears but a Final Guard would be weaker against a mace.

Weapontypes effect how your innocent devils evolve or mature. The innocentdevils are helpers or friends you find throughout the game to assistyou during battles and for healing. The base battle type innocentdevil, Magnard, will evolve into either a Speedmail or Golem dependingon which weapon is used and then those will evolve into something else.The Golem will mature into the Legendary Iytei (pronounced E-Tay) orJuggernaut first and then into the Legendary Ironside or LegendaryLiquid Golem.

Legendaries are apex predators and do not evolveanymore. Iytai is the weakest of the Legendary Battle type innocentdevils but is most useful. Each type of innocent devil can do it’s ownthing. Some fairy types open chests and heal you. Their are fourLegendary Fairy types and each has it’s own special ability. One has anability called “Press It and See” which you need to get to a secretarea in the game to enable. Another can read ancient runes on the wallsand one more can make you invisible. The fourth Fairy type is theLegendary and is going to remain a mystery. It is a task just gettingthe innocent devils or ID’s to Legendary status.

Bird type ID’shave five Legendaries and the Bird does what you’d think, allows you tofly over short distances. Mage types has four Legendaries and can stoptime with one able to purify undead. Those pesky Blood Skellies won’tdie without it! The Devil types have only one Legendary and you need aweapon called the Chauve Souris. Oops, enough spoilers but it certainlyis a needed piece of information and will save you from visiting GameFaqs more than necessary.

You can have only one innocent devilout at any given time in your particular deck with you at all times,you can carry six. The others get stored at Julia’s Shop located inBaljhet Mountains for your safe keeping and to breed them. While theseinnocent devils fight they drop things called devil shards. By devilforging allows you to create a new ID of the same type as the parentand the spawn will become become stronger than the parent! Taking thedevil shards to Julia and either selling them or forging them will gainyou money or a new innocent devil.

The premiere elite Battle typeinnocent devil would be an Ironside for three consecutive generations,being born from a level sixty Ironside that dropped the devil shardeach time. This would be impressive on its own but, after the thirdgeneration Ironside, have it drop a level sixty devil shard and breedthat one as a Rasetz until level sixty again dropping a devil shard.Take that last one and breed to be a Rasetz! This is the uber creation!This fifth gem will be sweet. Shelling out damage its aura blast willdo upwards of five hundred damage to each enemy. Its glow soul abilityis quite impressive for certain.

Always remember where you’regoing by checking the map often as it is easy to turned around.Castlevania Curse of Darkness is challenging fun for players who getinto the details or just a relaxing time for casual game play for videogames and gaming choices.