Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.
Rule: You must post before you leave.
For context: https://sh.itjust.works/post/29595487 https://lemm.ee/post/50197116
(actual life-ruining gambling is okay though, as long as you give the slot machine a thematic paint job)
Did they seriously add this into the game? Please say they did
No, I made it in Inkscape because I was pissed
Genshin impact PEGI 12
EA football game with loot boxes PEGI 3
Lesson, next game pay more to the regulators
Simulated card game with no actual betting = BAD
Actual gambling with real money loot boxes targeted at kids = GOOD
So like what about all the casino and poker video games released for PS2, Wii, Xbox, GameCube, and every system since 2003 that pegi has accross the board given 3+ ratings to? I think world series of poker would be more of a "Gambling" game than Belatro.
Time to +18 super Mario 64 DS
I knew things were rigged, when I saw the legally binding german rating board USK give it a 12+. This usually never happens, that PEGI gives a game a higher rating than the USK
You can make bets in IRL card/dice games but also bet on sports, politics, etc. It's not the cards that are the problem.
PEGI cannot be arsed to play the game, they just request video footage of various gameplay scenarios. This works somewhat OK for profanity, sex and violence but they really need a reform now that dark patterns are a thing.
They're not interested in reform. This is the system working as intended.
PEGI is an industry trade association like the ESRB and MPAA (for movies). The MPAA realized a while ago that if you have a ratings system setup by the biggest companies in the industry, you accomplish two things:
In the MPAA's case, they do give indy films higher ratings, and no, it's not just because indy films have more risque content. That was accounted for by comparing to a popular independent rating system.
The ESRB was started when some members of Congress (Lieberman and Kohl, both Democrats) glanced over at video games and acted like they were ready to pass legislation. That legislation would likely never have survived a First Amendment challenge, but the industry would rather not go through that. Besides, it presents an opportunity to do the second bullet point while looking good to their core customers by doing the first. All the various CEOs call each other up and the ESRB is formed almost literally by the end of the day.
And now we have PEGI doing the same thing.
dark patterns
"Well if the game is too dark, then we would notice in the video and besides small children being afraid of the dark, you can just turn up the screen brightness"
-Some old as fuck asshole who doesn't really know much about the tech world anymore, assuming they ever did.
Dark patterns were always a thing, they just weren't as recognized.
I wonder if anyone on this forum has played the game enough to realise that the entire rating is entirely justified just on basis of the bloody wheel of fortune, which while pragmatically only 0.05% of the game is the bit that keeps me up at night and regularly makes me make poor decisions that hurt both myself and the current run.
You always spin the wheel. It's the rules. If it fucks up your build, then you're playing the wrong build.
Do i want to sell all my worldly possessions for one more chance at a chromed out Common joker? No. Will I? Yes
Nope!
That's what we call it, the Wheel of Nope!
I've only got 20 hours in Balatro
"Wheel of Nope!" Is accurate
I haven't seen it trigger yet lol
According to PEGI, Sonic 2 should be rated 18+ because of simulated gambling.
Old pokemon games too
They actually already did change the rating for the virtual console release of Red/Blue. I always thought it was stupid, because the game corner was explicitly run by the bad guys.
Isn’t that why they stopped adding it in the new games, to avoid a higher rating?
AFAIK, yes. But could be other reasons too, I havent played the newer ones but I heard they made them even more focused on kids, could be that too
Solitaire too. The entire game is based on cards' relative values and matching suits. A player might recognise the connection to other games where a French deck is typically used and use that knowledge to learn several hands used in games of chance. Extremely dangerous, I'm sure you'll agree.
Is there a way to request a re-review? The game has zero actual gambling in it lmao. It’s amazing to me that somehow in 2024 I see sports betting plastered everywhere, but Balatro is the problem. Idk when things changed but gambling used to be relegated to specific places so that it was out of reach of kids. Now there’s like 100 sports betting sites that seemingly cropped up overnight.
They already requested to re-review it and got shut down. All my homies hate PEGI and their bs.
Lazy ass PEGI. You’d think they would employ people to actually play the games instead of half-assing it.
The ESRB isn't any better either. They rate games based on a few minutes of footage (IIRC 8 minutes minimum) of what the publisher considers to be the worst offending elements.
That isn’t even enough to get context in an every day conversation, let alone an entire video game.
I could easily showcase the worst examples of real gambling in modern games in eight minutes (except maybe Diablo Immortal because the microtransaction hell they've created is actually impressive). The problem is that publishers get to select what parts of the game is presented to the board, so they can simply not include the real gambling parts.
Things changed when greedy capitalists realized that they could get literal children addicted to gambling on devices that have their parents' credit card saved.
For some reason, I can't edit the post body, so I'll write it here. The image is my own work. Font is m6x11 by Daniel Linssen.
Is it really worse than the ESRB?