Tbh felt crappy signing up for a thing only for someone to much later go "Hey I know you wanted to split this table for a weekend but what if instead you tabled only on the substantially less busy day that is also like 3 hours shorter. No? Oh okay well I won't table with you then".

Like c'mon dude.

It's incredibly difficult to think of any other politician in all of North America that seems like the kind of person you could just like...sit down and hang out with. The rest either speak in fascist dogwhistles and/or seem like they'd be constantly talking about things they read on Facebook.

Anyway shout out to anyone who is currently/has formerly struggled with gambling addiction and is also a gamer in the year 2025.

Sorry we can make games about literally anything and instead choose to Be Like This. 🫠

And I think in most any act of play people enjoy there's an addictiveness inherit to it, but I think there's a big difference between "it's fun so you want to spend time with it" and consciously designing around a well-established culture rooted in addiction for the sake of engagement of a product

Now with publishers looking for the 'Next Balatro' this fantasy seems popping up with small team indies everywhere. When I see games that incorporate some sort of die rolling sim or blackjack or something I nope out b/c it's like a value statement of "we want to be addicting just like gambling :]"

Remember a family friend, 12 yr old, showing me GTA: San Andreas. He would ALWAYS drive directly to the casino and blow his money away - not because it was really beneficial or fun but because he was just rly hooked on the loop and fantasy of gambling. I think even just that fantasy can be predatory

It's interesting to me how many people perceive gambling as harmful only when it directly takes money, and not all the predatory real world cultural and visual cues associated with the culture and lifestyle. IMO it's just as weird for a small indie game to pull from it as it is a mobile slot sim.

In a post-Balatro world it feels like we've been seeing a ton of "this game is literally just a slot machine but it's sorta ironic about it so it's ok" or "1/3rd of this game is literally a system where you gamble on blackjack" and I just think it's a little fucked up we're just like...doing that.

You give me a million dollars? Awesome I am immediately spinning up a fund for like, a hundred micro-grants to indies every year