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Didn’t one of the ea sport games have a literal slot machine you buy tokens to spin as part of their MTX?
What? Did the playing cards have their tits out or something?
It was imagery of gambling. And yeah, that tracks.
Sure, but there isn’t any actual gambling, and Balatro works a lot differently to actual gambling. It’s not the gateway drug PEGI seems to think it is…
Their reasoning is because it uses poker hands, it teaches you poker which could lead to gambling. Pretty ridiculous.
Yeah, the hands are what make poker dangerous…
My concern with poker has to do with betting, and therefore risk-taking, and Balatro doesn’t have that. Learning how poker hands work is an academic exercise, and I absolutely encourage it, since it’s such an important cultural thing (i.e. shows up in lots of movies).
So yeah, absolutely ridiculous.
Crazy. The benchmark for age ratings should be based in the game design, not solely aesthetics. Balatro doesn’t tell you to enter your credit card details and use psychologically manipulative tactics to maximise player spend, like other games good for ages 3+.
Of course, then PEGI would need to do some actual research into the games they’re rating.
🤡🤡🤡🤡
It’s E in America according to IGN.
If it’s E in NA, then why is it rated 18+ in Europe?
NA mostly uses ESRB while most of Europe uses PEGI as their rating board. They’re different organizations so they can have different criterias for rating as well as different inspectors actually doing the rating.
“Gambling,” because it uses poker hands, I guess.
Which is completely stupid because there’s no gambling in the game at all, poker hands are simply used to score points. It’s completely nonsensical.
I put this in the other post too. This is literally their description on steam.
Combine valid poker hands with unique Joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds. Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncovering hidden bonus hands and decks as you progress. You’re going to need every edge you can get in order to reach the boss blind, beat the final ante and secure victory.
Combined with playing actual poker hands, yeah that’s going to get tagged for gambling. They knew what they were doing and this performative outrage is a viral marketing campaign.
If Balatro is gambling then so is every game that has a chance based mechanic. Genshin Impact is PEGI 12 and you can spend money on loot boxes, which is absolutely gambling. Balatro is identical to Hades, except you fight with cards.
The law is poorly written, or is being applied incorrectly here. Balatro is in no way simulating a casino, which I’d be more inclined to say games that do that should have a more mature rating. Bit of a slippery slope though, nothing stops a casino from adding a new game that mimics an existing genre of video game mechanics, and then regulators saying the entire genre is gambling. It’s all pearl clutching, not backed by any science, etc. made by the same people that want to ban Mortal Kombat and think Counter Strike causes school shootings.
They could release just swap a dozen words, it wouldn’t get this rating. None of those words are required for it to be a good game. The essence of gambling that society wants to protect children from is not part of Balatro any more than it is Solitaire.
want to ban Mortal Kombat
To be fair, Mortal Kombat is pretty brutal and I don’t want my kids playing it until they’re older.
Eh I played when the OG Mortal Kombat came out all the time at the local pizza place when I was like 9, and I turned out fine. I’ve only murdered a handful of people so far. It’s not like I became a cop or anything like that.
Yeah, I’m not worried my kids will become serial killers or something, but I am a little worried about them “playing” Mortal Kombat in real life w/ their friends. I had friends who practiced “professional wrestling” moves, and I’m worried someone could get hurt reenacting what they saw in the games. My kids reeenact DND/FF-style things w/ friends, and fortunately that’s pretty harmless.
By the time I was about 12 or so, I stopped doing that kind of reenactment, so I think that’s a decent time to let kids start playing those games. I’ve played a ton of violent video games (lots of Halo, GTA, etc), and I’m pretty chill and would never hurt a fly. Video games don’t cause misbehavior, but they certainly attract deviants who would likely hurt others anyway.
Super Mario 64 DS and New Super Mario Bros both include poker. PEGI rated them 3+.
