Dice Are No Longer Welcome in Tibia Depots

Tibia’s patch notes from October 6 included one short line in the Fixes and Changes section: “It is no longer possible to use dice in depots.” That was the entire announcement. No explanation, no long developer post and no dramatic farewell to one of the oldest forms of casino activity in Tibia.

Then again, that is about as much conversation as you usually got from a depot casino anyway. You typed a keyword, you got a roll.

A depot with a side business

Anyone who has spent enough time in Thais knows exactly what this change is about.

For years, characters could be found around the depot advertising dice games and staying in the same spots for long periods of time. Some appeared to be online almost constantly, while others seemed to respond to the same keywords again and again.

It was easy to get the impression that some of these characters were automated, although there is no need to assume that was the case for every dicer. What was obvious to players was simply how persistent they could be.

It was not necessarily the gambling itself that annoyed people. It was the combination of constant advertising and characters that seemed to have very little interest in anything other than the next dice roll. Above all, it was the real estate. Those spots were not decorative. They were the tiles players needed to step on to reach the depot chest and drop their loot, or to open the market and check prices. More than one player returned from a long hunt, backpack bursting, only to find the way blocked by a casino.

They were there to run a business.

And they were very committed employees.

FUN FACT: Scientists estimate that the time lost to “Excuse me, can you move?” in Thais depots could have cleared several Demona runs.

The dice problem has been around for years

This change also isn’t the first attempt to deal with the issue.

Dice usage in depots had already been restricted in the past, partly because of problems associated with dice casinos and automated characters. That did not exactly kill the casino business, however. The casinos simply adapted.

Players found other locations, including houses, and continued running their games away from the original restrictions. It was a familiar pattern in Tibia: one location becomes unavailable, and another one eventually takes its place.

The dice themselves were never really the problem. It was the way they were being used and the amount of space and attention the casino activity could take up in busy areas.

A very simple business

Running a dice casino did not require much from the character itself. There was no need to hunt monsters, travel between spawns or spend hours collecting supplies.

For the player running the casino, the job was relatively simple: advertise, wait for customers, roll the die and handle the gold.

That simplicity also made the characters easy to recognize. Some became almost permanent fixtures of the game, sitting in the same area for what seemed like an endless amount of time.

You could log in, see the same character advertising a casino, leave for several hours and come back to find the same character still there.

Whether that was dedication, automation or simply someone with a lot of free time was not always clear.

But it certainly made the dicers memorable.

FUN FACT: Some depot dicers have been standing in the same spot longer than certain Tibia patches have existed. Historians are considering declaring them protected landmarks.

So what happens now?

The patch only mentions depots, so there is no reason to expect dice to disappear from Tibia. The casinos can simply move somewhere else.

There are houses, streets and plenty of other places where someone can find a corner and start advertising. Whether that actually happens on a large scale remains to be seen.

Maybe the familiar dicer characters will move a few steps away. Maybe new casino spots will appear. Or maybe, after years of being associated with spam and complaints, the whole thing will slowly become less common.

Either way, one of the most visible places for dice casinos is now off the table, and the depot chest is finally within reach again.

Good riddance

Let’s be honest. Nobody is going to walk into Thais after this patch and think, “What a shame. The casino is gone.”

The players who wanted to gamble will find somewhere else. Everyone else can enjoy a little less advertising and a little more space.

And the characters that spent their days waiting for the next roll? Well, they can update their CV. “Five years’ experience standing still. Excellent at blocking traffic.”

The dicers had their time. They advertised their games, occupied the same spots and became a familiar part of Tibia’s background noise. Now they will have to find somewhere else to continue the business.

Maybe that sounds like a small change. For anyone who remembers the old casino characters, it really isn’t.

The dice are no longer welcome in Tibia’s depots. Consider this an eviction notice for the people who came with them.

Screenshots: random Tibia videos found on YouTube by searching “tibia dicers”.