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If you search for "poker" on PEGI's site, it seems that many games which are actually about simulated gambling are rated 12 or 16. They seem to think Balatro is more likely to expose children to realistic gambling than, say, Prominence Poker or Pure Hold'em World Poker Championship, which seems completely bizarre, given that those games are about playing poker and Balatro is a fancy kind of solitaire with no betting.
The pathetic thing is games of the ilk of balatro and luck be a landlord (also OG peggle) are actually the kind of game that plays with your gambling impulses but in a healthy and fun way, these games should be celebrated for subverting the language of gambling to make something beautiful, how pathetic to have so little actual understanding of video games and yet have this kind of power to impact the industry.
I've always suspected I might be susceptible to gambling addiction so I stay out of casinos.
Instead, I go to the arcade. Which is like a low stakes child casino. Win a bunch of tickets and then either buy something stupid with them, or, just straight give them to some kid.
My point being, we've specifically constructed casino-like facilities for children and it's regularly accepted, so why should Balatro be different?
Yeah how dare you pay $9.99 one time to gamble all you want! If you're gonna get those dopamine hits, you better be spending real money at the tables!
The thing you have to understand about PEGI is that they are mentally challenged.
It's clearly market manipulation.
The reasoning in question:
This game teaches - by way of images, information and gameplay - skills and knowledge that are used in poker. During gameplay, the player is rewarded with ‘chips’ for playing certain hands. The player is able to access a list of poker hand names. As the player hovers over these poker hands, the game explains what types of cards the player would need in order to play certain hands. As the game goes on, the player becomes increasingly familiar with which hands would earn more points. Because these are hands that exist in the real world, this knowledge and skill could be transferred to a real-life game of poker
So, this game teaches skills and knowledge that are used in poker. The skills in knowledge are limited to... playing and making poker hands. That's it. Also, "as the game goes on, the player becomes increasingly familiar with which hands would earn more points" -- is hilariously funny. The idea that knowledge of what a poker hand is is anything related to the dangers of gambling is ridiculous.
As the game goes on, the poker hands also get increasingly unrealistic and different from real poker including things like five of a kind, and a pair being worth more than a royal flush.
If you tried to take the skills you learn from balatro to a poker table you would get kicked out basically immediately.
I place a torn up joker on the table, a tarot card, a llanowar elf card, and a pair of threes
"So with my score multiplier basically I own the casino."
The dealer frantically calls security
"Sir, you can't bring stone slabs to the table and play them as if they were cards. Also, where did these glass shards come from?"
I've never gambled, but I'm pretty sure if I got 1.630e11 chips at a casino, something bad would happen to me, the casino, and the economy if I cashed it out. I think that's 84 billion chips....
My thief archer build in Morrowind and Skyrim lead me to a life of thievery and now I'm serving a life sentence at maxium security prison. Very sound logic.
One "teaches" you to gamble, the other allows you to gamble. And the one that just teaches you has a higher rating. Crazy.
Totally his fault for not heeding the ancient warning.
Give a man a fish, you get PEGI 3+. Teach a man to fish, 18+ you sucker.
It's really dumb if you know the two games (poker and Balatro).
Poker is a game of incomplete information where you need one single higher ranked hand than your opponent per round. The stakes are money you bet that your hand is better. Bluffing is an important part of the game.
Balatro is mostly a game with complete information (apart from the order of remaining cards in your deck and certain bosses that flip your cards). You bet no money. There is no bluffing. Money does not correlate to chips. It is about the rating of your hand (poker has no rating, only relative ranking). You play multiple hands. You can't fold. Bluffing doesn't exist. Cards can be improved, ratings can be improved, the decks can look nothing like poker decks, etc.
I know this is anecdotal but I'm now living in a ditch because of Balatro. I never gambled before in my life and all the poker knowledge Balatro me taught caused me to start extreme gambling and now I'm dead in a ditch.
Tell me you are corrupted to the core, without telling me you are corrupted to the core.
Is the rating purely because it uses playing cards? Poker hands?
Yahtzee and literal poker with betting are included in Nintendo clubhouse/worldwide 51 and it's rated Pegi-12.
Would balatro get a pass if it used cards numbered 1-13 instead of traditional cards?
This whole thing is bonkers.
Anyone can walk into a store and buy a deck of cards.
I bet the gift shop of any casino in Las Vegas would sell a souvenir deck of cards to a kid without a second thought.
Kmart and target both sell literal "poker kits" with decks of cards and chips with no restriction on who can buy it. In the toy section with the other board games no less.
Actual gambling - 3+
Suggestion of gambling - 18+
The queen of hearts is inherently obscene, that's why my copy of Alice in Wonderland is rated 18+
I recently played it. If anything I think it has a subtle anti-gambling message.
The more hands you play, the more you realize you can't actually win without "cheating"
Play it like poker? Congrats, you're fucked, you literally cannot win against the blind.
Stack the deck in your favor with creative use of Joker cards and a few dozen extra aces? The game becomes trivial
If the game teaches you anything it's that if you play by the rules, the house will ALWAYS win.
I just played it last night, and then again today with my kids watching. I explained how the hands are scored, and they seemed to get the gist of it.
It has absolutely nothing to do with gambling. You don't wager anything, there's no opponents, and the terminology is all different, for example:
And so on. The only thing that's actually similar is the hand scoring system, but you mess with that as well with buffs and whatnot. Balatro will make you a worse poker player, and not even teach you the rules.
I don't think it's anti-gambling, it has nothing to do with gambling. It's like saying solitaire and blackjack are similar because they both use playing cards...
I’m willing to bet PEGI was lobbied to push for that 18+ rating by ea and other publishers because balatro is taking revenue from them. They don’t get how a game without microtransactions is doing better than they are
You didn't ask the question the ea way.
You're supposed to ask with a hefty bribe.
Baltaro devs may need to invest in gambling to earn enough money to bribe PEGI the way EA almost certainly does.
What do you mean, almost? EA is literally a member of Video Games Europe, the organization which manages PEGI.
Seems like an advertising opportunity. First solitaire game rated 18+ without any gambling, I assume no nudity, language, etc.
There's actually lots of foul language while playing Balatro, but it all comes from the person playing, not the game itself.
Would love to see thr EFF branch out and take this on. Great opportunity to set precedence.