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Luck Be a Landlord Might Be Banned from Google Play
- jsheard 2y agoLBAL and Balatro being banned or 18+ age-gated for having gambling "vibes" despite not actually simulating gambling, while the stores are full of gacha games which are designed to bleed players dry through real-money gambling mechanics is a ridiculous state of affairs. The latter makes Google and Apple insane amounts of money though so of course they're not going to do anything about them unless their hand is forced.
- inanutshellus 2y ago> not actually simulating gambling Nit picking I guess, but... looks like a slot machine simulator... and slot machines are synonymous with gambling IMO.
- skyyler 2y agoIt's not simulating gambling any more than Peggle is simulating gambling. It takes the aesthetic of a slot machine but there's no wagers. There's no gambling mechanic. Are we really that blind to what gambling is that there are people that think playing poker without wagers is a form of gambling?
- jsheard 2y agoBalatro is similar, it leans heavily on Poker aesthetics but mechanically the only thing it has in common with Poker is that it starts with a standard 52 card deck and the hands you can play are (mostly) the ones used in Poker. You could play it for a hundred hours and still have absolutely no idea how to play Hold'em.
- Suppafly 2y ago>You could play it for a hundred hours and still have absolutely no idea how to play Hold'em. On the flip side, it's super similar to those video poker machines in bars and restaurants. If you allowed the option to increase the bet and got rid of the special joker abilities, it's basically the same thing. People claiming otherwise are being willfully ignorant. I love Balatro, but it's definitely gambling adjacent and depending on how rules/laws around children gambling are defined, it probably should be age gated, or those rules/laws should be updated to reflect reality, you can't have it both ways. But also, I'd say the same about all of those games with gacha and lootbox mechanics.
- skyyler 2y ago>option to increase the bet There was no bet in the first place, that's the point. It's not gambling because there's no wager.
- aidenn0 2y agoIIRC even the author of Balatro has said he would be fine with any state in which his game gets rated the same as games with actual gambling, instead of those games getting a 3+ rating.
- bluefirebrand 2y ago> If you allowed the option to increase the bet and got rid of the special joker abilities, it's basically the same thing Other than the fact that no real money is involved, which is really the core problem that reasonable people have with predatory gambling apps
- bee_rider 2y agoNow based on this thread, I’m very confused as to what Google is trying to ban or what the law (are they trying to comply with some law?) actually says. Balatro is not gambling, it has a gambling aesthetic but no actual money changes hands. Lootbox games are gambling, at least if we accept the idea that the things in the loot boxes have value; money goes in, and then you get something out with a random component to the value. But they don’t have a gambling aesthetic, they are usually wrapped up as something related to the game, right? I could see Google wanting to comply with some directive not to “glorify gambling” or something along those lines. This would be independent of whether or not the games actually are gambling. Anyway, I don’t think people are being willfully ignorant. I think they are just assuming Google is trying to regulate actual gambling. Not gambling aesthetic for non-gambling. But I have no idea what Google actually is trying to do. I will note that it is pretty suspicious that the one type of gambling they managed to regulate is the one that doesn’t make them any money other than the first purchase…
- oneeyedpigeon 2y ago> it starts with a standard 52 card deck Well, most of the time :)
- sjsdaiuasgdia 2y agoIf you grew up in certain communities or religious groups, standard playing cards were forbidden items because of their association with gambling. In many of these communities, obvious replacements like Rook decks [0] are somehow perfectly fine. Even though you can easily emulate a standard deck using this deck that consists of about the same number of ranked cards divided into 4 suits. Two things that are practically identical, but one is "evil" and one is not purely by association of how some people use one of the things. As a species, we draw some pretty weird dividing lines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_(card_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_(card_game)
- pjc50 2y ago> If you grew up in certain communities or religious groups, standard playing cards were forbidden items because of their association with gambling. Yes, and this is extremely stupid.
- Spivak 2y agoIs it? If you go to any casino you'll see playing cards plastered on every wall and suit themed decor. Even games without cards use red/black. Media depictions of gambling are usually cards. People who go to Vegas take home a souvenir deck of cards. Casinos A deck of cards which you can use to play non-gambling card games but that doesn't use the same "branding" I'm sure works really well. It's hard to feel "cool" when you're playing with a Fisher-Price deck.
- wink 2y agoYes it is, potentially. Where I live (and grew up) the only game played with these type of cards is Poker, and we didn't exactly play Poker growing up - so all our local games use a different deck of card. And in other not-too-distant regions they use yet another deck or two. This might be the "worldwide standard" but that doesn't mean anything.
- Spivak 2y ago
- SkeuomorphicBee 2y agoIt is like chocolate cigarettes, they are not real cigarettes, they don't have nicotine nor smoke, and yet they serve to present and normalize real cigarettes to kids, so there is an argument for banning them. Where you draw the line is a difficult ask (a chocolate with packaging and wrapping copying exactly a cigarette pack seems like a clear case, but what about cylindrical chocolates that vaguely resemble? Probably not). I think it is fair to argue where to draw the line, but I think some "looks like gambling but without gambling" do in fact deserve more scrutiny just because of the resemblance. (On the other end of the spectrum we as a society should really crack down on the "doesn't look like gambling but is gambling" epidemic.)
- skyyler 2y agoTo extend your analogy, banning Luck Be a Landlord while allowing lootboxes and the like is kind of like banning chocolate cigarettes while allowing kids to have nicorette gum. One of them has the aesthetic, one of them has the actual negative thing. The aesthetic being banned is supposed to be in support of reducing the impact of the actual negative thing, but the actual negative thing is being PROMOTED instead of banned. It all feels very pants-on-head kind of up-is-down logic.
- jhbadger 2y agoThis is the sort of hysteria that got comic books censored in the the 1950s and "violent" video games in the 1990s. The argument that fictional depictions of undesired behavior cause real cases of it just isn't supported by evidence, but only assumed.
- pie_flavor 2y agoGambling is not when a lot of colors flash by on the screen, no matter what kind of pattern they flash by in. Gambling is when you bet real money on a game of chance. If simulated gambling includes simulating any game commonly gambled on even when the actual gambling part is removed, does it include dice?
- floydnoel 2y agodo you happen to work for google, perhaps in the app review department?
- wodenokoto 2y agoSpending money to win is synonymous with gambling. virtual money that gets renewed when you start a new game is as much gambling as shooting hellspawn in Doom is murder.
- drdrey 2y agothis is purely based on aesthetics. Even Mario games use the slot machine “skin” to represent RNG
- woodrowbarlow 2y agothe gacha games have a higher age rating -- that's the difference. this is friction between the ESRB/PEGI and app-store moderation.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- AlexandrB 2y agoI just checked and Genshin Impact has a 12+ rating in the App Store. AFK Arena is rated 9+. Many other gacha games are 12+. This doesn't seem like a "higher age rating" to me.
- woodrowbarlow 2y agobalatro is fighting to keep the 3+ rating it was originally assigned.
- jsheard 2y agoFIFA is a gacha and that has a 3+ rating too. The above games have higher ratings because they have moderate violence, not because they are gachas.
- aidenn0 2y agoWhich would be the same as EA Sports FC, which has gacha mechanics.
- shagie 2y agoIn the Mac app store, where Baltro is an arcade game: Age Rating 12+ Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References Infrequent/Mild Simulated Gambling Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
- thih9 2y agoLooks like the stores allow apps acting like a casino and they’re only against apps looking like a casino. Perhaps LBAL should get reskinned (with no slot animations and with some pocket monster collection instead of cards, or similar) - with no change to the gameplay.
- codeflo 2y agoI think that's exactly the point. And maybe from a business perspective, that's the correct (if cynical) decision -- the behavior of "activist" groups and/or public outrage seems to be driven purely by optics and screenshots, not substance.
- giraffe_lady 2y agoThe generation of gambling addicts who were raised into it with mobile gacha games isn't quite grown into adulthood yet. Anti-gambling activists have limited resources too. They're going after what they recognize, which is casino gambling and simulations of it. This new shape of gambling just isn't on the radar of non-tech people yet.
- jprete 2y agoI'm imagining exactly who makes these calls, if a human is even involved, as someone spending five seconds on a moderation app looking at screenshots and immediately pushing the "gambling" button so they can go on to the next task more quickly. It doesn't have to be a human, either, at this point it could be AI trained on the same bad answers.
- ryandrake 2y ago"Gambling" restrictions in apps and media are never about the actual dictionary definition of gambling. They are about traditional visual and audio patterns. Does the app look like a casino game? If it does (but no wagering is happening), then it's gambling, and if it doesn't (but wagering is going on), then it isn't gambling. Raters probably have a list of checkbox items (icons typically associated with cards and chips, green felt, red-and-black color schemes, maybe certain sound effects), and if enough of them are checked, it's "gambling". If none of them are checked, like an anime-themed gacha game, then it's not gambling. It really probably is as simple as that. It's just like "sexual content" ratings in TV and movies. It's not really about sexual content. It's about whether or not you show a nipple or genitalia. A show can have plenty of steamy sexual stuff but it's unlikely to be classified as sexual content unless it visually contains key checkbox items. Likewise, if it merely shows a body part in a non-sexual context, it gets labeled as sexual content.
- Eavolution 2y agoBalatro having an 18+ age rating is insane. The only thing gambling about that game is it uses poker hands for scoring, and has an element of luck. How is that different to any other mobile game with a luck component (see 99% of them) with a scoring mechanism inspired by poker? To me gambling requires betting of long term/valuable resources. In Balatro, the only thing that you'll affect is each individual run, you're back to square one after each as it's a rouguelike. Games like Clash Royale where you can spend actual money on chests for items that affect the game long term, not just for a single match, to me is actual gambling, whereas playing a poker hand using fake chips that only affects that single <1h run absolutely isn't. It looks like whoever came up with the ratings just saw it uses poker hands for scoring and represents a score with chips, therefore it's gambling, and gave it an 18+ rating, when you're not actually gambling anything (either real world money, or long term items in the game)
- jsheard 2y ago> Balatro having an 18+ age rating is insane. PEGI can't even make their minds up, I believe it was originally given an 18+ rating, which was amended to 3+ when the publisher appealed, and then it was amended back to 18+ unprompted.
- gambiting 2y agoThe fact that Fifa(sorry, EA Football) has a 3+ rating while having the most predatory gambling mechanics in any video game but Balatro gets 18+ is just proof that the system is not working correctly.
- sbarre 2y agoOr it's working exactly as intended. Pay-to-win isn't just for the game itself.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- miohtama 2y agoIn the modern world of compliance-industrial complex, private companies like Google and Apple are tasked to police what's morally acceptable or not: https://www.amazon.com/Compliance-Industrial-Complex-Operating-Pre-Crime-Society/dp/3031192230 https://www.amazon.com/Compliance-Industrial-Complex-Operati...
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoWhat counts as gambling simulation? Is the original Legend of Zelda gambling simulation because you can wage 10 rupies to win 100 in that one cave?
- spondylosaurus 2y agoIn the first three generations of Pokemon, Celadon Game Corner has those in-game slot machines where you can bet and win tokens. In gen four, the Japanese games keep the Celadon slots, but in every other release they got replaced with a minesweeper-y game to appease PEGI.
- surfpel 2y ago> The latter makes Google and Apple insane amounts of money though so of course they're not going to do anything about them unless their hand is forced. Similarly, they avoid drawing attention to their shenanigans by keeping the vibe clean
- Der_Einzige 2y agoWhile we are at it, WTF is with us as a society normalizing gambling behavior with places like Dave n Busters and Chuck-e-Cheeze and their ticket machines? That stuff is probably worse than gambling from the perspective of ROI.
- bee_rider 2y agoI wonder if it is thought of as not really gambling because the ROI is so bad. The rewards have very little actual value, so fun must come from playing the games, and the toy is just a little trinket at the end. And if a kid ignores the tickets and just plays the games they like, they’ll probably have more fun. But the ticket minigame is something that some find fun, so… Anyway, I think this is wrong, because kids are mostly playing with their parents’ money. So it still becomes a system with a positive ROI from their point of view.
- nshireman 2y agoThe only logical path forward is to implement loot boxes with paid keys in LBAL
- tweetle_beetle 2y agoEveryone is paraphrasing what the judgement is. It's easy to find on pegi.info: > This game teaches - by way of images, information and gameplay - skills and knowledge that are used in poker. During gameplay, the player is rewarded with ‘chips’ for playing certain hands. The player is able to access a list of poker hand names. As the player hovers over these poker hands, the game explains what types of cards the player would need in order to play certain hands. As the game goes on, the player becomes increasingly familiar with which hands would earn more points. Because these are hands that exist in the real world, this knowledge and skill could be transferred to a real-life game of poker. Their issue with Balatro is that it teaches poker hands. Now search the PEGI site for 'poker' and you'll find numerous games with Poker in the title which are rated 12 and 16. 'Poker Smash' for Xbox and 'Poker Masters' for PC and three other games are even rated '3'. It seems that ratings have changed over time - early 2000s were much more leniant on gambling as a topic. Every game on Google Play with Poker in title, bar one, which I found had an '18' rating.
- Carrok 2y agoThis is still absurd. "Oh no! Learning poker hands! Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!"
- StefanBatory 2y agoI remember my old Donald Duck magazines that taught how poker or other card games work in my late '00/early '10 :P
- shagie 2y agohttps://projecteuler.net/problem=54 https://projecteuler.net/problem=54
- nox101 2y agoMario has "slot machines" in, even today
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- SkyBelow 2y agoI find it an interesting commentary on child protection laws (and standards organizations that don't reach the level of legal enforcement) and related to an idea I've had for years, that people are interested in appearing like they are protecting children more than they are interested in actually protecting children.
- bowsamic 2y agoI think it's fair enough to ban apps that resemble the aesthetics of gambling
- mschuster91 2y agoBut not to ban games running on actual gambling? As long as FIFA still has lootboxes it's hypocritical.
- oneeyedpigeon 2y agoI'd angle the bar even lower at that end. Any game that involves virtual money, that can be purchased with real money, and a random element should be classed as gambling. That would include things like Pikmin Bloom.
- Suppafly 2y ago>But not to ban games running on actual gambling? As long as FIFA still has lootboxes it's hypocritical. I'm ok with banning lootboxes.
- oneeyedpigeon 2y agoWoah, not even age-restrict them, outright ban them? Personally, I think it is ridiculous that a game like Balatro is considered to "resemble gambling" if a game like Solitaire, Minesweeper, or Pac-Man is not. A game that involves risking virtual (or actual) money on a minimally semi-random outcome can be classed as "resembling gambling", for sure. Nothing else should.
- bowsamic 2y agoBalatro literally teaches poker hands, so yes
- AlexandrB 2y agoGenshin Impact teaches how to blow hundreds of real dollars on "pulls" that may or may not give you anything of value. This is much closer to the essence of gambling than poker hands. Gambling is not cards or slot machines or pachinko balls or any of these aesthetic elements. It's the wagering of real money on an uncertain outcome. This is why sports gambling is gambling even though it doesn't involve any of the above aesthetic elements. Genshin Impact is much closer to gambling than Balatro.
- fsckboy 2y agopet peeve: the notice from google says "including simulated gambling" so to rephrase that as "they say it's gambling" is annoying
- skyyler 2y agoYou don't place a wager when playing Luck Be a Landlord, simulated or not. It's a survival game taking the aesthetic of a slot machine. I don't think Peggle was considered gambling when it came out, despite taking the aesthetic of a pachinko machine.
- pas 2y agoSlot machines are survival games, as long as you have money your game session survives. There are many elements to gambling, hazarding some amount of money is an important, but not the most addictive part.
- skyyler 2y agoGambling is the wagering of something of value on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value. There is no wager in these games.
- pas 2y agoArguably there's some fake/virtual/game money that you can wager by deciding which item to buy (or whether to buy at all). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXgPu1lXu84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXgPu1lXu84
- skyyler 2y ago>you can wager by deciding which item to buy This is the flimsiest argument I've seen for this so far! For the record, Luck Be a Landlord's items and symbols do not cost money. But if we followed your logic, any game that has a shop you can visit multiple times has a gambling feature. That sounds kinda silly to me.
- devteambravo 2y agoFighting against the plight that is the unbridled gambling put in front of large swathes of people with no grasp on math is treated as innocence. It will cost us so much as a society, so, so much more that the small short term profits it brings. For shame.
- ColdTakes 2y agoThere is a clone of Luck Be a Landlord named Random Card created by a South Korean developer that included microtransactions and gacha elements and Google gave that game an award. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2022/07/google-play-indie-games-festival-finalists-revealed.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2022/07/google-pla... So in Google's eyes, actual gambling is fine but simulated gambling is not even though both of them look like the exact same type of gambling. The only difference between the two is that in one situation Google gets a larger kickback.
- cratermoon 2y agoConsistency is not Google's strong suit, but I will put this out there: games that involve real gambling with real money can be aimed at adults and presumably age-gated to discourage minors from playing. Games that simulate gambling but don't involve real money aimed at minors and not age-gated are the problem. Much like the FTC in the US bans tobacco and alcohol advertising that could be interpreted as encourage underage use. For example, Joe Camel. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/1997/05/joe-camel-advertising-campaign-violates-federal-law-ftc-says https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/1997/05/... There's a reason you don't see toys and merchandise for kids, even completely free of actual tobacco or alcohol content, carrying branding for those products. Is it completely consistent or good that Google gives an award to a game intended for adults while banning a similar game pitched to kids? No. Is it at least consistent the legal and social conditions in the US? Yes. If you want to make an argument that it's fine to target minors with products that simulate or appeal to similar interests as gambling, smoking, or alcohol, by all means make it. But don't conflate entertainment provided for adults with games for kids.
- ColdTakes 2y agoThis isn't a lack of consistency, it is policy. The biggest games on mobile are gacha games which are all gambling with cutesy characters. You are giving Google the benefit of doubt when they don't deserve it. Should Luck be a Landlord be banned from the Play Store? I don't care but pick a side. If you're against it then be against all of it and not just the part of it that doesn't make you a ton of money.
- Workaccount2 2y agoTo be fair, if you were to design a game meant to create false positives for gambling, it would probably be a game just like this. While a sympathize with the dev, this is a bit like carrying around a replica gun in public and complaining that you constantly have to ward off police reports. Parents are gonna see the slots and file reports.
- lenerdenator 2y agoTo me, the point is that trillion-dollar OmniCorp LLC should probably have an actual human review the game's content before the game gets yanked from the store, given that they have the resources to do so.
- foxyv 2y agoYou don't get to be a trillion-dollar OmniCorp by paying people to do things.
- AlexandrB 2y agoAs another commenter pointed out, this is ridiculous in light of all the gacha bullshit. It's like being arrested for carrying a replica gun in public while every other person around you is carrying a real gun but with kawaii Hello Kitty charms glued to them and the police leave them alone.
- riscy 2y agoThat’s why replica guns are _required_ to have bright orange tips on the barrel: so other people (like police) know it’s not real. If this game is centered around a Vegas-style slot machine aesthetic & animation, people will think it’s gambling.
- skyyler 2y agoCalling Luck Be a Landlord "Vegas-style" is detached from the reality of the situation, frankly. There are Vegas Style slot simulators for sale! https://www.walmart.com/ip/Monopoly-Casino-Vegas-Edition-PC/10223670002?classType=REGULAR https://www.walmart.com/ip/Monopoly-Casino-Vegas-Edition-PC/... Walmart is selling one right now that is rated "E for Everyone"! This is a game that simulates gambling, complete with wagers / bets and winnings and everything. Luck Be a Landlord doesn't have a function to bet before spinning. It doesn't feature gambling at all.
- acomjean 2y agoInteresting that our intellivsion game console in the early 80s came with the "Los Vega Poker and Blackjack" as the pack in cartridge. https://www.mobygames.com/game/10587/las-vegas-poker-blackjack/ https://www.mobygames.com/game/10587/las-vegas-poker-blackja... The cover art made gambling look like fun. Thought the game was not really bad, it wasn't much fun. A odd choice for a a kids game company. Though sponsored games weren't around but would come soon enough (Kool-aid man, heman ,main etc...) https://history.blueskyrangers.com/mattelelectronics/games/koolaid.html https://history.blueskyrangers.com/mattelelectronics/games/k... https://history.blueskyrangers.com/mattelelectronics/games/masters.html https://history.blueskyrangers.com/mattelelectronics/games/m... Almost all AAA games now come with a gambling minigame "Qwent", "Sabac". Often they get released on their own. Though I'll concede its a little different now that are smart phones are connected to our wallets.
- pjmlp 2y agoIt is the whole cancelation culture, if you want to have some fun, check some stand up comedians about kids from the 1970's were doing playing on the street, and what they are allowed to do nowadays (almost nothing). Given your example, I am sure you might relate, as a 70's child, I surely do.
- hsaliak 2y agoMaintaining a “finished” game or app on google play has never worked well for me. There is constant nag to update it for a variety of reasons. Even if the nag comes from device related sdk updates (just recompiles), a reupload requires you to comply with latest policies that often seem very subjective.
- Trasmatta 2y agoGod, the anxiety I feel thinking about updating an older Android app and fighting with the insanity of build spaghetti for days every single time.
- tslocum 2y agoAgreed. I wrote about this issue and others in "On the Importance of F-Droid" https://rocket9labs.com/post/on-the-importance-of-f-droid/ https://rocket9labs.com/post/on-the-importance-of-f-droid/
- paxys 2y agoThe app is 17+ on iOS as well, I assume for the same reason.
- helf 2y ago[dead]
- 999900000999 2y agoI've completely let both my Google Play and App store accounts expire. Google Play now wants a lot of personal information to upload stuff, and demands constant updates. For what? 3 people to download it ? All hands are going to be open source from here on out. If I feel like it I might set up a GitHub pipeline to build an APK, but I'm not playing this game with Google anymore. Apple is even worse because they can reject your app from random reasons, and charge you $100 a year even if you're not publishing new stuff.
- PittleyDunkin 2y agoHow have we ended up with the worst of the public and private markets with app stores?
- shermantanktop 2y agoDancing at the edge of a volcano has risks, and the person who falls in may feel that someone else deserves it more. And onlookers may agree that the dancer doing triple backflips shouldn’t survive if someone doing the Macarena flops into the cauldron. Lots of reasons to say “whatabout”? But they are all dancing up there.
- 015a 2y agoApple and Google's app store policies have destroyed billions in potential market capitalization of both large and small companies alike, and have measurably negatively impacted the national security of the west by destroying the resilient peer-to-peer software delivery supply chain common to systems like MacOS and Windows, replacing it with a centralized, easily exploited gatekeeper.
- legitster 2y agoRelated, I've noticed a lot of streaming services have began reclassifying the ratings of older movies and shows. So someone that was G or PG when released might be, like, 14+ on Amazon. Maybe it's part of an effort to add consistency to old ratings (which were famously inconsistent). But more often it's that the ratings are being "adjusted" for modern sensibilities - depictions of smoking, drinking, bigotry, etc. I have no idea where this new prudish attitude towards gambling is coming from, but it seems to be part of a larger cultural "vibes" shift.
- School-Cotton 2y agoSociety is, at least in the US, much less prudish towards gambling now than ever before. The major sports leagues refused to even put a team in Las Vegas for years because the entire city was taboo, now every broadcast has a million ads for gambling apps.
- pas 2y agohttps://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tHiB8jLocbPLagYDZ/the-online-sports-gambling-experiment-has-failed https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tHiB8jLocbPLagYDZ/the-online... tl;dr the online mobile phone based gambling (oh, excuse me it's sports betting) apps' societal cost is too high, the whole economy is basically predatory (because the sane platforms were driven out of the market) https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-sports-gambling-industry-needs https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-sports-gambling-industry-ne... https://www.slowboring.com/p/online-sports-betting-hurts-consumers https://www.slowboring.com/p/online-sports-betting-hurts-con... """ [...] total sports wagers had grown to well over a hundred billion dollars annually and states with legalized mobile sports gambling had seen a corresponding rise in calls to addiction hotlines [...] While most gamblers wager responsibly, a concerning minority do not. Large samples of individual financial data show that legalized sports gambling decreases credit scores, increases debt loads, and substitutes positive investment activities. These effects are particularly prevalent among low-income men. """
- raldi 2y agoThis post would benefit from a screenshot. Here’s one I found: https://shared.fastly.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1404850/ss_6419b6d713a5cb51c3b3eae5db669459059ff142.1920x1080.jpg?t=1733060571 https://shared.fastly.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/stea...
- nfriedly 2y agoThis is the game, since it wasn't linked to from the post: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trampolinetales.lbal https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trampoline...
- soared 2y agoIt looks exactly like a slot machine?
- skyyler 2y agoIt looks like a slot machine but features no gambling mechanics. The payout is a result of the symbols you collect through a session, not a function related to a wager placed before spinning. In fact, there is no wager. It has more in common with something like Slay the Spire than it does Ceasar's Palace. Any game with a paid lootbox (TF2, Overwatch 2, etc) objectively has more gambling than this game.
- cratermoon 2y agoTo the folks mentioning every game under the sun with a random element and calling it "gambling", that's wrong. Gambling involves random events, of course, but not just random schedule. The payout being random is what makes gambling gambling. People don't spend hours at the slot machine because every once in a while they get a giant jackpot. They spend hours because relatively frequently they get some payout, but any given payout may be small or large. Same with the lottery: people don't keep playing it because of that 1 chance in a few hundred million of getting the (as of this writing) $95 Million (Mega Millions) or $285 Million (Powerball) . People play the lottery every week looking for that $2 or $5 payout, or on good weeks a $20 or $50.