I’m sure GTA would get hit with a higher rating for other reasons first…
The reason gambling is a problem is because it’s easy to get addicted to chance, which is particularly problematic for games with a negative expected return and high chance-based payouts. For those games, the house always wins, but the player keeps playing because they think they’ll get lucky and beat the house. I am 100% against anything of that nature in games.
However, the only “risk” in Balatro is not scoring a high enough score and having to start over again. This has much more to do with other “roguelikes” like Slay the Spire than actual gambling, because you’re not really staking anything. LIterally, the only overlap is that poker terminology is used (hands, “blinds,” chips, etc). The actual mechanics have nothing to do with gambling.
MTX are bad because the house (publisher/devs) wins due to preying on the player, so they should absolutely be rated higher than a game like Balatro, which doesn’t do anything of that nature at all.
I would have no problem with my kids playing Balatro, and I may even pick it up to play with them because it has fun mechanics. They’ve watched me play Slay the Spire and Inscryption, and Balatro looks very similar to those, with the main difference being the look of the cards and mechanics for scoring. That’s it, there’s no gambling.
I’m sure GTA would get hit with a higher rating for other reasons first…
The reason gambling is a problem is because it’s easy to get addicted to chance, which is particularly problematic for games with a negative expected return and high chance-based payouts. For those games, the house always wins, but the player keeps playing because they think they’ll get lucky and beat the house. I am 100% against anything of that nature in games.
However, the only “risk” in Balatro is not scoring a high enough score and having to start over again. This has much more to do with other “roguelikes” like Slay the Spire than actual gambling, because you’re not really staking anything. LIterally, the only overlap is that poker terminology is used (hands, “blinds,” chips, etc). The actual mechanics have nothing to do with gambling.
MTX are bad because the house (publisher/devs) wins due to preying on the player, so they should absolutely be rated higher than a game like Balatro, which doesn’t do anything of that nature at all.
I would have no problem with my kids playing Balatro, and I may even pick it up to play with them because it has fun mechanics. They’ve watched me play Slay the Spire and Inscryption, and Balatro looks very similar to those, with the main difference being the look of the cards and mechanics for scoring. That’s it, there’s no gambling.