Skill City Frequently Asked Questions (and answers too!)

Hot Topics

What is Skill City?

Is Skill City Safe?

Why do you ask for certain information when I make an account?

Installing

What are the system requirements? Is there a MAC Version?

Should I adjust my firewall / router?

Playing Skill City

Is Skill City Free?

Why should I subscribe?

What is Skill Match? Why do I have to wait when I click it?

Is this gambling?

Why am I not able to enter cash tournaments?

What is the service fee for tournaments?

What is lag or network latency, and how does it affect me?

Tokens, Billing, and The Bank

What are tokens?

How do I withdraw the money in my account?

Why do you ask for my Social Security Number?

Misc Questions

My card was declined but a charge shows up on my bank statement.

Do you take credit cards from outside the United States?

Privacy Policy

Disconnection Policy

Cheating Policy

What is Skill City?

Skill City provides you with a game client you download and install on your PC computer. Using that client, called Skill City Navigator, you can play our games in a real-time head to head tournament, or by yourself in practice mode. Playing games earns tokens which can be used to customize your avatar, house, or enter prize drawings!

If you are old enough, and your state of residence allows it, you can enter in to Tournaments for cash or other prizes.

Is Skill City Safe?

Skill City uses industry standard encryption (SSL) for transmitting credit card transactions over the internet. Your data is also stored in an encrypted format in our database to ensure that it is safe even when it's not in use.

Network traffic from your machine to our servers is also encrypted, to prevent anybody from intercepting your private information.

Skill City keeps logs of all money transactions, and will use that ledger to make sure that your money is safe and accounted for at all times. Your cash deposits and prize awards are safe.

Why do you ask for certain information when I make an account?

Skill City respects your privacy, and will not sell your information to marketing agencies, spammers, or any other third parties.

Providing this information does not mean we are billing you. Skill City is free to play.

Your email address is required so that we can send your password if you forget it, and to make sure that your account information is unique.

Date of Birth is required for our compliance to the COPPA regulations and to ensure the safety and privacy of chilren on the internet.

Your email address will also be used to inform you of any critical alerts regarding your account with Skill City, and for prize notification. Please do not block emails from skillcitygames.com or you may risk forfeiture of any awards as "unclaimed."

What are the system requirements?

Your computer should meet the following minimal system requirements:
64MB Video Card with 3D Acceleration
DirectX 9.0 compatible video card
Windows XP or Vista
200 megabytes of free hard drive space
1.5 Ghz or faster CPU

Broadband (cable, DSL, satellite) internet connection

While we have tested that Skill City works with dialup, they often have very high latency (also called lag) which can cause disconnections or game errors and may lead to your removal from tournaments or score errors. We do not recommend wireless connections (802.11) as they typically have high latency. See our disconnection policy for more information.

We recommend that you run Windows Update to ensure that your system has all the latest updates. Selecting to install optional updates will also guarantee that you have the .net 2.0 Framework, and DirectX 9.0C which are required for Skill City to function.

Systems below this minimum may run Skill City, but will be unstable and may cause ejection from tournaments, disconnection, or other errors.

The is no Macintosh version available at this time, however Intel Macintosh machines are able to use BootCamp to switch to Windows. Skill City will run just fine this way. While we have received reports that Windows emulators will run Skill City on older Macintosh and Linux operating systems, we do not officially support this.

Should I adjust my firewall / router?

Skill City uses port 80, or port 4000 if you have problems with port 80. Most users will not need to make any adjustments, however some firewalls and home routers may block Skill City from communicating to the internet. We recommend that you consult your firewall manual for directions on allowing these two ports. If your firewall has Stateful Packet Inspection (netgear routers have it enabled by default), also called SPI, then it is recommended you disable that feature.

Is Skill City Free?

Skill City is free to play, and does not require that you have a credit card to create your account and play during your free trial.

After your free trial expires you will be limited to one game. Purchasing a key with tokens will allow you to unlock all the games in one area, for three days. You can earn tokens by playing the free game, so there is no need to ever pay for Skill City with this system.

Skill City does not make its money by selling your information to advertisers, we make money off our loyal subscribers who wish to support us so that we can continue to bring you fun head-to-head games. Your privacy is guaranteed!

Why should I subscribe?

As a subscriber you do not need to use your tokens to purchase keys. You will automatically have access to all games, in all districts. You will also receive free tokens every month on your billing date.

Certain contests and prizes may only be open to Subscribers, or to VIP Subscribers. When a new game is announced, Subscribers will get the chance to be the first ones to play it.

What is Skill Match? Why do I have to wait when I click it?

Skill Match is the system that we use at Skill City to find a player for you to play with that is roughly as good as you are.

We use a complex ranking system that involves a lot of math to determine how good you are at a game. When you seek an opponent, you can choose Skill Match and then let our system find somebody who is just as good as you are. It's great for finding just the right challenge, but you might have to wait for somebody who is within your same rank to see your game!

If you do not wish to wait and want to just play against anybody, you can always run an Open Match instead.

Is this gambling?

Skill City does not offer gambling services of any kind. All the video games Skill City offers are games of skill. You have 0 chance of winning simply based on random events.

Skill City tournaments are NOT gambling, and your entry fee is NOT a wager. It is a fee paid to us for the service of providing you access to our games and all the costs associated with running our service. When you win a tournament you are given a prize that is predefined.

Skill City is not an online casino. It is an online video game arcade that provides a matching service for players looking for a challenge.

Why am I not able to enter cash tournaments?

There are laws that may prohibit skill-based tournaments from taking place in certain states. Some states allow such tournaments, but they require an age limit, while others have blocked them entirely. Please see the list of banned states below. If your state is on the list you can still play all our games and enjoy Skill City with tokens and free play options. You should not attempt to enter or play cash tournaments, circumventing our system in order to do so is a crime and you may be prosecuted.

The following states, or ages, are blocked:

Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, Vermont, Alabama: age limit of 19, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi: age limit 21, Nebraska: age limit 19, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington

This list of States with restrictions is based on information available to us at the time of the last update of this FAQ. Skill City makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of this list. Further this list does not constitute legal advice. If you are not aware of your State’s laws regarding skill-based tournaments, or are unsure of whether you qualify to participate in Skill City’s tournaments, you should seek legal advice from your own attorney before attempting to participate.

What is the service fee for tournaments?

Skill City removes ten percent of each participants entry fee as a Service Fee for hosting the game. You will notice that the amount of the prize for each tournament reflects this. Why do we do this? That little fee is how we make our money. We dont sell your information to advertisers like other so-called free services. Our service is free, and your privacy is guaranteed.

What is lag, or network latency, and how does it affect me?

Skill City is working hard to make sure that your game is always fair, and to prevent cheaters who will do everything they can to win at your expense.

To do that, we have to make sure that you and your opponent are synchronized during game play, with an acceptable time lag of about 3 seconds. Often the route your traffic takes to reach us, and the route our traffic takes to each you, can traverse a very long pathway on the Internet. All along this path there are hardware devices called routers, and they can become congested as traffic spikes and dips throughout a normal day. During a high traffic spike, it might be enough to cause you to experience "slow response times" using the Internet.

Rarely it is enough that messages from Skill City will not be received by you at all, or they will be received over 3 seconds old. This will cause Skill City to end your game with a notice that lag has happened. This is done to prevent cheating, and to prevent your opponent from experiencing a freeze in his or her game as messages are lost.

As soon as this happens, our servers instantly record a log of the pathway from us to you. This will help us determine where the high latency (lag) is located. Every day these logs are reviewed by technical support staff so that your tokens can be refunded if necessary.

The Internet is good at switching routes when one becomes congested, if you were to try your game again the lag will probably not reoccur.

What are tokens?

Tokens are the currency used in Skill City. Every time you play a single-player game you will win tokens! You get more if you do better! You can also purchase tokens in the Skill City Bank by using your credit card.

Tokens allow you to do many things in Skill City. You can use them to buy items and clothing for your avatar, you can enter tournaments with them, or you can use them to buy tickets to contests. If you choose not to subscribe to Skill City then you will have to use tokens to purchase keys so that you have access to other games.

How do I withdraw the money in my account?

Visit the Skill City Bank from within your Skill City Navigator program. There is an option to withdraw the cash that is in your account.

You can choose only Check option at this time, although Paypal will be available by mid June 2007.

Withdrawing money through check or Paypal has a fraud prevention service fee associated, and costs one dollar. If you have less than one dollar in your account, you will not be able to withdraw it. All values are in United States Dollars.

Why do I have to provide my Social Security Number?

United States residents must pay taxes on any money made in one year. We are not required to report that you made any income from us unless you make $600.00 or more, in one year. This includes the value of prizes.

Our system will notify us that you are trying to cash out enough money to put you over the six hundred dollar mark, and we will require that you provide us with information for a 1099 tax form, otherwise the IRS will be very upset with us and with you! If you live outside the United States, then you are subject to your own governments income reporting system. Please consult your local tax authority for instructions.

My credit card was declined but a charge shows up on my bank statement.

Your credit card was most likely declined because the billing address you provided was not the same as the billing address your bank has on file. It is crucial that you only use the same address your bank has.

Skill City uses AVS to validate your credit card and address at the same time. If they do not match, your bank will decline our transaction and will not give Skill City any of your money. However, your bank will still show the transaction on your statement for up to ten days before they remove it automatically. If you use online banking for example, you will notice the pending transaction for several days before it disappears. This is done by your bank, and Skill City has no ability to tell your bank to remove it as we never received your funds.

Do you take credit cards from outside the US?

Skill City will accept and Visa or Mastercard transaction that passes the address verification system (AVS). If you are an international user and would like to find out if your card is supported, please contact your bank. Many international credit card issuers will work, however there is no guarantee that yours will.

Privacy Policy

Skill City understands that you do not wish to receive bulk email, or SPAM, and we will never sell or distribute your personal contact information to any third parties or business partners. Your personal information is kept in our database, and never revealed to anybody for any reason.

The only acception to this rule is when requested by law enforcement officers, or courts of law, by the proper legal channels.

Skill City requests that you add *@skillcitygames.com to your email address book to prevent important emails regarding your account from being blocked by your spam filter. Skill City will email you if you forget your password, or to send you important statements about billing or account updates. From time to time Skill City may send you announcements to update you on pending special events like server outage or unusually large tournament prizes, but we will not annoy you with newsletters or junk mail.

To help us prevent cheating, Skill City may inspect the process list of your machine only when the Skill City program is running. This information will only contain signatures of programs currently running on your computer, and will only be used by trained cheat detection personnel at Skill City. Unfortunately this is required for us to prevent cheaters from spoiling the fun of Skill City for our players. If you are concerned about this measure, please do not run any other programs when Skill City Navigator is running.

Disconnection Policy

Skill City understands that your connection may be unreliable, or that there is a lightning storm outside your house, but we do our best to be fair to all players, even your opponent who is just as inconvenienced by your disconnection during a game. To avoid fraud, and protect all of our users, Skill City must take a firm stance on disconnection.

If a player disconnects during a game, they forfeit that match and lose automatically. No refund of the entry fee will be given.

If disconnection during games is a recurrant problem, and our technicians find that it is frequent and intentional then accounts may be suspended or banned for violation of the EULA.

Cheating Policy

Skill City currently employs a logging system that is designed to inspect the way you play a game, and to look at what programs are running when you execute Skill City. It notices every detail of a game, and can easily tell the difference between a person who is cheating and one who is not. We keep the system secret so that nobody can use it against us of course.

Cheaters who are caught will be banned and all cash in their account seized, only after a thorough investigation is performed. During investigation accounts may be suspended to prevent further action.

Cheaters information will be turned over to law enforcement agents so they can be prosecuted. Note that cheating at an internet game is considered wire fraud, and is a federal crime in the United States.

It never pays to cheat, and it ruins the games for everybody. We have a zero tolerance and swift response policy to cheating.

Skill City values your safety and enjoyment of our games above anything else!