• racemaniac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    We can all imagine the imagery of balatro being somewhat a problem.

    But less of a problem compared to games with actual gambling for actual money in the form of lootboxes or gacha mechanisms?

    If you can get that to make sense, i’d love to hear it. Can there be a serious warning regarding gambling on balatro? for sure. But how is gambling imagery 18+, and actual gambling with actual money 3+? That’s just insane.

    What is most likely to get kids to become gambling addicts? Them learning pokerhands via balatro, or them gambling real money on lootboxes & gacha games and getting addicted to the thrill of winning after gamblling money?

    • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      No that part is very hypocritical, and I’m sure it has a lot to do with how much money the big game developers can throw around to make sure their loot box game isnt marked for adults.

      I think both lootboxes and poker games are bad in this sense, its just the other reasons people are giving that are nonsense.

      To say clearly, the rating board is hypocritical and should also mark lootbox games accordingly.

      • racemaniac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        Have you ever played balatro?

        Because calling it a pokergame makes me think you haven’t. It’s a deckbuilder that uses pokerhands (and impossible pokerhands) as mechanic to score, but there is no actual gambling, and except for which hands exist in poker and their relative value, you don’t learn any pokerskills. You also don’t do any gambling, you modify your deck of cards, and gather jokers that modify what cards are worth and how they score, and end up also making hands that are impossible in poker etc…

        I can imagine the imagery and the link to poker to require some warning, but i’d find it hard to say it stimulates you to gamble, as it’s not a gambling game, doesn’t teach you the poker rules, and is a completely different kind of game. It just uses poker to flavor the gameplay, and uses some other poker terms (blinds, ante, chips) to indicate difficulty/score.

        • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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          21 hours ago

          I dont disagree with what you brought up but you left out that the game literally looks similar to any general poker gambling site.

          Its poker with a twist, which absolutely exists in casinos.

          • racemaniac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            11 hours ago

            It does? I guess we’ll differ on that opinion i guess.

            Unless showing you a hand of playingcards means you look like a general poker gambling site. It has a very specific artstyle, and since its gameplay is completely different from actual poker, so is how it behaves. For me it’s close to a slay the spire or heartstone kind of game, and looks like that…

            • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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              9 hours ago

              I didnt mean specific if I said that, it generally looks like one. Like an old one from yahoo or something. The heavy poker themes and learning poker hands is enough.