PKMN.NET Forums
Misc => Debate => Topic started by: sans the skeleton on April 26, 2016, 20:22
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so like
in short: game corners and the like gradually got phased out of pokemon due to gambling things and laws in europe and other places. they thought the kids would become hardcore gamblers because of the games for some reason??? (like whos kid plays the slots on a video game and then immediately goes to a casino to spend their entire college fund??? no kid i know of??)
like cmon give us your opinions, do you think they were right in doing that or not? do you think nintendos hands were tied? would you have made that decision if you were at top?
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I'm curious, what were the gambling laws in Europe?
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something to do with the european union in response to loads of controversy due to 'exposure to minors' and the 'unpredictable element' and how youths were impressionable, etc. people were all up in arms about it, especially allowing minors to participate in it in any way, so nintendo eventually budged on it. so "the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) organization implemented stricter guidelines that limited gambling to adult-oriented video games and rated all games featuring gambling 18+" (as quoted from another website). so obviously nintendo doesnt want to make 18+ pokemon games so im guessing they had to follow that
its also why the ABSOLUTE ABOMINATION called voltorb exists in the non-japanese releases of HGSS
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I liked voltorb flip a lot, but that's just me.
I don't think they're right in doing that because it's kinda nonsense that someone would develop a gambling addiction based on a video game.
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Yeah, the idea that gambling in Pokemon, which can be just an innocent slot machine in which a Clefairy points at what reel to hit, can cause gambling addictions amongst minors, is a bit farfetched. No Pokémon pun intended.
Just because I can train a Charmamder doesn't mean I grab a lizard from outside and stuff it chock full of habaneros until it breathes fire and burns my foes either. The idea that video games influence violence in real life is a bit silly IMO. I play GTA but I don't have the urge to go outside, carjack someone and commit some casual mass murder.
Sure, that's a little different from Pokémon, but considering Pokémon gambling tends to be innocent slot machines, the logic still applies. Seeing a Clefairy point at reels while cheery music plays in the background isn't gonna make a minor run out and blow all the money on his parents' credit cards on gambling in real life, it's just not how it works. But the theory that video games warrant violence tends to blow everything out of proportion.
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I think if anything it can sort of diagnose a problem down the line, but I doubt it'll be the cause of it by itself.
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Adding on to what Meowstic said, researchers have actually concluded that there is no link between playing violent video games and then committing violent acts.
Just putting that out there.
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being from america where gambling i feel is less of a problem than in europe, i have a couple opinions on why condemning gambling from pokemon isn't that different than condemning violent video games. the answer is there's a lot bigger societal issue at work.
in America, you can gamble in a couple of places. Mostly, your friend's house or a casino. That's just about it. And there's only a few casinos in the whole country. My state is trying to get a casino added to it and there's so much blowback, it's taken 3 years so far to try to get it approved and I'm not even sure where the proposition is at at this point. Could never happen. The closest casino is 2 1/2 hours from where I live, the only other places I've seen gambling has been in my own house in real life or in a game.
In Europe, I've been in general stores and they have slot machines! I've been in bars and they have slot machines! Casual restaurants, slot machines! Rest stops, slot machines! No wonder gambling is such a problem, it's everywhere. Not only that but they have a million different flashy varieties of them. I think there's a problem in Europe (I've heard a few locals personally tell me they've lost significant amounts of money gambling), but the issue isn't "starting young with video games", its the fact that gambling is everywhere and it's so appealing.
Not saying gambling in Europe should be down on lock like it is in America, but jesus CHRIST that and cigarette and condom vending machines were the things that made me go "what" the most my first week being here.
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As pretty much everyone knows I worked in a bookies for years and certainly here in the UK we were constantly made to live in fear of underage gamblers. We were always being tested, either by the company, or the Gambling Commission, or by the police themselves, and knowingly serving someone underage could land the person responsible a hefty fine, if not jail time. (Although my ex manager was sacked for serving someone who showed us a fake ID so even asking for proof of age wasn't enough to stop you getting into bother.) Anyone under the age of 18 wasn't even allowed over the door, even babies in prams. So I imagine Nintendo were probably given little choice other than to censor it.
But as Liz says, it's bit redundant because gambling is everywhere and more available than ever. When I first started my job our opening ours were 10am till 6pm. When I left that had changed to 8.30am till 10pm, and now I hear that the shop opens at 7.30 in the morning. So that's fourteen and a half hours a day someone can go to a bookies and gamble, and then when the shop eventually shuts they can just gamble online instead. But that's another debate for another topic!