PEGI was right to change its rating for Balatro, unfortunately they still don’t seem to understand why. This kind of absurdity is bound to happen again if they keep sorting games with what looks like a basic word filter instead of looking for how the game would present a problem depending on the audience.
Their new rating has been lowered because Balatro has “fantasy elements”. Does it now? Flashy effects on cards, sure, but everything in Balatro is a simple set of mathematical rules. You could make a completely physical version of Balatro (if you don’t mind spending a lot of time tracking scores and joker rules).
The real reason Balatro does not need 18+ is the same reason you don’t worry about kids playing classic Solitaire. In fact, you should worry more about Solitaire nowadays, what’s with making Solitaire Collection an adware with subscription.
Balatro is not predatory at all, it’s a buy-once game with completely abstract scores and nothing to win or lose in real life. It only borrows poker card combinations. You don’t even place bets in this game!
If “fantasy elements” is now enough to make your game kid-friendly according to PEGI, watch EA rebranding its disgusting lootbox nonsense as magic sportsball cards crafted by elven wizards or something.
Yeah…
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A game with actual gambling disguised as a loot system - perfectly fine, PEGI 3+
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A game that depicts gambling but has no actual gambling in it - absolutely fucking NOT, PEGI 18+
I can understand why PEGI would be hesitant to give a game depicting gambling a rating of 3+…
But putting it as 18+, on the same level as actual, real money gambling games is ridiculous.
It shows a complete lack of awareness regarding the difference in danger between depiction of gambling vs actual gambling. And perhaps more dangerously means malicious publishers (cough EA cough) are able to get away with slipping disguised real money gambling into their games (and in front of children eyes) unnoticed.
It’s not even depicting gambling. You can’t wager anything, and the only overlap with gambling is some terminology and that your scores are based on poker hands, which is based on rarity.
The gameplay is basically Slay the Spire with scores instead of HP, and no choice of paths to take. In fact, I argue there’s more gambling in StS because you can gamble your HP a bit to get a better chance at finding the right card depending on the path you choose.
Balatro has nothing to do with gambling. Full stop.
Don’t forget betting on the two knights fighting event!
And it’s way better to take the riskier option. You wager 50 and get two options:
- 70% chance of 100 gold - expected return = 35 gold
- 30% chance of 250 gold - expected return = 170 gold
They’re rewarding gambling. In real casinos, the larger the jackpot, the lower the expected return, generally speaking.
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I have to wonder if some people don’t understand how card games work. Do they think if the game contains an ace of spades it must be gambling? Most card games don’t involve gambling at all and even those that do don’t have to use actual currency. Do kids not play card games and bet with matchsticks anymore?
I once had a professor who very seriously apologized to the class for bringing up a certain topic. It was playing cards. We were learning about probability. I was shocked that he thought he had to apologize about something I’ve played with my whole life.
Would he also apologize about money, since money is also used in gambling?
“But money has other uses!” … So do playing cards.
Except money is what makes gambling problematic! Lol
Is it some puritanical thing where some people utterly hate anything even vaguely related to gambling? I have heard comments about it a few times before but never really bothered asking more about it. Mostly when I was younger and I didn’t really have any respect for religious beliefs when I was 10. Just saw them as weird.
I grew up not being allowed to play with playing cards because of “the appearance of evil.” My parents now use them, so I guess they got over it, but they still prefer other types of cards (e.g. Rook was our go-to).
It’s basically puritanical nonsense, yeah. My religion (still very much involved) is against “games of chance” and people get dogmatic about it. My take is that as long as I’m not expecting something for nothing or hoping to get positive return when the math says I should expect a negative return, I’m good. So no gambling, but playing poker for fun is fine (no stakes).
Yeah, I’m pretty sure there was a religious reason behind it. I’m not religious myself anymore but grew up in a very religious area, specifically Mennonite, but not the old order kind. Gambling was a sin and therefore anything associated with gambling like cards and dice were sinful by extension.
It’s not even unique to card games.
I had a board game that was about a race between merchant caravans through the desert. The way it worked was every player started with the same limited amount of small tokens representing water canteens, and every turn they all chose any amount of them, they revealed it at the same time, and the one who used the most could advance 5 squares, the second 4, etc.
The whole game was about trying to guess how many canteens other players were going to use on a specific turn, and use the right amount to land where you want and keep enough for the rest of the game. And of course, you’ve got all the reasons to bluff.
That’s basically a pure gambling game. It doesn’t feature any random element, and its only currency is a bunch of colourful plastic toys shared evenly between the players.
If I was PEGI, I’d do a CTRL-F in the rulebook, see words like bluff, gamble and bet, and slap an 18+ rating on it.
