- cross-posted to:
- balatro@lemm.ee
- cross-posted to:
- balatro@lemm.ee
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)
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Simulated card game with no actual betting = BAD
Actual gambling with real money loot boxes targeted at kids = GOOD
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
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:
- Get government regulators off your back
- Give independent creators a higher rating to keep them niche
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.
According to PEGI, Sonic 2 should be rated 18+ because of simulated gambling.
Old pokemon games 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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
Time to +18 super Mario 64 DS
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?
The I in PEGI stands for Information, for many they inform the game includes warning that the game has gambling. If the EU doesn’t have adequate laws prohibiting or limiting underage gambling PEGI doesn’t have the authority to overrule.
There’s no money involved though, it’s a closed single-player game without a betting mechanic that happens to use playing cards and poker hands for scoring. Meanwhile others have mentioned FIFA and stuff with loot boxes/packs, which are borderline slot machine mechanics that eat money.
I don’t think that explains the dichotomy in ratings between, say, Balatro and FIFA, one of which let’s you gamble with real currency and the other is a pixelated deck builder.
But still: it does not matter. PEGI can not enforce its ratings on anyone. It’s an “information” to parents and nothing more than that.
I’ve played RPGs, aimed at kids and young adults, with full-on casinos in them that didn’t get this rating. Belatro has no microtransactions, there’s no real money involved after purchasing the game itself. I would say it’s less harmful than learning actual poker or blackjack in a kid’s JRPG, since Belatro is not a real game that a person could ever play in real life.
the game has no gambling whatsoever. it only has poker aesthetic. it uses the term “ante” to mean “level”, it uses traditional poker hands, and it uses chips to define points. otherwise it’s just a non gambling card game. it would be like putting this rating on go-fish, or solitaire because they use the same cards that poker does. this game could not teach you how to play poker.
the association with gambling is entirely superficial. what has everyone up in arms is that there are many games with micro transactions that are essentially a roll at the slot machine, and intentionally designed using gambling psychology, that people lose thousands of dollars at every day. those games don’t have their gambling mechanics considered at all by ratings boards. it shows that pegi doesn’t put much work into their ratings. one game that looks like gambling but isn’t gets and 18+. the many games that have real predatory gambling tactics but hide them are free to do so with impunity.
hell, do you remember when half of twitch was people “rolling” for cs:go skins and trading them for real money. that was just straight up regular gambling that streamers were faking numbers for to show them making a profit. they used dishonest third party sites to trade the items and broadcast themselves getting unrealistic results. the only reason it stopped was because of the dishonesty of the third party sites coming out. not because of the underage gambling for a promise of actual financial returns. that still happens in many games. most of which have a lower pegi rating than cs:go or balatro.
PEGI is a joke, but it’s a consistent joke. Any gameplay that looks like playing a casino game is consistently “simulated gambling” and an instant 18+. PEGI is why the Pokémon series stopped putting Game Corners in after gen 4, even though Pokémon’s “slot machines” were timing-based skill challenges.
I can’t believe we would’ve missed the luigi casino on Mario 64 DS…
There’s no gambling in the game. Not with real money, nor with fake money. They labeled it 18+ for “looking like” gambling.
Using the same logic, solitaire should be 18+.
I actually asked someone if by this same logic playing cards should be considered “gambling materials” and they said yes. So even though it’s absurd I think there are a good amount of brainwashed or stupid people who believe it.
