For an industry that started with 8-bit, pixelated games such as Tetris and Pong, the gaming industry has grown substantially in the last few decades. Today, developers have created a wide range of games exist to suit the taste of any prospective gamer, from ultra-cinematic, content-packed games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, to side-scrolling platformers such as Cuphead, to Cult Classic Indie Games Such as Undertale, Stories Untold, and Hotline Miami, the industry is one of the biggest and most advanced the world has seen.
Video games can transport the player to essentially any world, from a fantasy landscape with incredible vistas in Breath of the wild, to a 1940’s variation of New York in Mafia II, to literal Hell in the Doom Franchise. One thing which a few video games simulate, to the joy of some, and the chagrin of others, is gambling, which is seen a lot in minigames and sometimes even story beats.
But why do developers do this? Is it for purposes of worldbuilding and immersion, to make the player feel like they could do anything that can be done in the real world within the game itself, or is it to increase time spent within the game by players by giving them more small games to play to immerse themselves and pass the time?
This article will explore the reasons behind gambling minigames, the most prevalent games that feature gambling, and even some controversy that came from these minigames.
Immersion
While not perfectly able to simulate some of the best online blackjack casinos for real money, these minigames are pretty close to the real deal. By doing so, they are making the video game world more realistic and grounded, making gambling fit with the characters around it. One of the most prevalent examples is Bethesda’s Fallout: New Vegas, which is set within a post-nuclear Las Vegas, so it’s only logical that gambling is one of the core minigames around it, with a card game known as caravan being featured within the game.
Another game that benefits heavily from the inclusion of a multitude of gambling minigames is SEGA’s Yakuza Zero, which shows the seedy underbelly of Japan and its ties with organized crime. The game puts you in the shoes of two different characters within the Yakuza, and the use of several gambling minigames within the game, such as poker, mahjong, and roulette, immerses one even more as it fleshes out the world it’s set in.
Keeping the Player Interested and Increasing Game Time
Something such as steam and GOG emphasize, which helps validate some more reviews, how much time a person spends on a game. For this reason, some video games opt to add eye-catching and captivating casino and gambling minigames to keep their players entertained. The most well-known of these is seen in CD Projekt Red’s 2015 game, The Witcher III, which like New Vegas, includes a card game created for the game called Gwent.
Gwent, throughout the games, is used in a way for characters to make bets and wagers, but the protagonist can also head into most taverns and play Gwent anytime they’d like to, as a way to unwind in between missions and partake in a more relaxed form of the game. The card game within a game would increase tremendously in popularity due to this game and even spawned a free-to-play game and its card deck.
The Grand Theft Auto Online Controversy: The Diamond Casino
During the winter of 2019, Rockstar games added one of their most significant updates to their game Grand Theft Auto Online, by adding the Diamond Casino, which added a full heist, new missions, player housing, and a new location to visit with several features.
However, one of those features included gambling to win in-game prizes, such as cash, cars, and clothing for your character. This was deemed extremely controversial due to the addition of gambling to the game. It was subsequently banned in numerous countries where gambling laws collide with this feature, such as Luxemburg, South Africa, and South Korea.
While Rockstar games and the GTA series as a whole have often been the subject of controversy since the conception of the first Grand Theft Auto title, this piece of controversy was one of the few which had the potential for legal action and went against numerous international laws.
Closing Statements
Whilst the addition of casino games to major titles can merely chalk up to the developers looking for ways to perfectly immerse the player in the world they have created, sometimes this can lead to certain lines being crossed, as was seen in Grand Theft Auto Online, which came quite close to resembling a real online casino with the addition of gambling, and due to its worldwide popularity, stirred up controversy in countries which either outlawed it or restricted it heavily.
