Talk:Balatro

Balatro was nominated as a Video games good article, but it did not meet the good article criteria at the time (April 25, 2025, reviewed version). There are suggestions on the review page for improving the article. If you can improve it, please do; it may then be renominated.

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Wiki Education assignment: Intro to Technical Writing

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 8 October 2024 and 23 October 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Grpera16 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Grpera16 (talk) 21:27, 9 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The meaning and origin of the name 'Balatro' should be included.

Here In ancient Rome, a balatro (/ˈbɑːlɑːtroʊ/ BAH-lah-troh) was a professional jester or buffoon.[4] Balatrones were paid for their jests, and the tables of the wealthy were generally open to them for the sake of the amusement they afforded.[5 Kaukênteo (talk) 12:46, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

WP is not a dictionary, it is only sufficient to point out that LocalThunk chose a word related to jesters for the game. Masem (t) 12:58, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 23 January 2025

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: page moved. Arbitrarily0 ^(talk) 21:07, 30 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Balatro (video game) → Balatro – There is a possibility this is primary topic versus the term Balatro, by pageviews (although the pageviews are an uneven comparison, the game dwarfs the pageviews for the page Jester.) Since the other item at Balatro is just a redirect for a non-english term for the better-recognized "Jester", I feel the game may occupy the primary topic, but as usual, I am not 100% certain and would like to seek input instead. We could delete Balatro and leave a hatnote at the top directing readers to Jester ASUKITE 16:54, 23 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Note: WikiProject Middle Ages, WikiProject Comedy, and WikiProject Video games have been notified of this discussion. ASUKITE 16:56, 23 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Support. I find the rationale compelling, especially since the term is a redirect to Jester. The fact that the disambig page is 10x the view count of jester itself says a lot. - Cukie Gherkin (talk) 17:15, 23 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support Generally I don't like to see popular contemporary works displace more historical /academic terms, but the Roman meaning here is sufficiently obscure thst the rename and hat note would be reasonable. Masem (t) 17:38, 23 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support You have a point that WP:USEENGLISH is compelling here. Since "Balatro" simply means "jester" in English, unless there is a massive difference, the video game is what the word most likely refers to in English. Obviously, a hatnote should be there pointing to jester. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 18:41, 23 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support per above (with a hatnote for the other article). This is definitely the primary topic. Minikiwigeek2 (talk) 20:09, 25 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support per above. Definitely primary topic and widely known Lankyant (talk) 00:18, 26 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support as the Roman Balatro does not have its own page, therefore Balatro the game is a unique page and doesn't require disambiguation except with a line at the top of the game article saying "For the Roman profession, see "Balatro (Jester)", or words to that effect. gbrading (ταlκ) 15:50, 27 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Support as Google Trends data strongly suggests that this is the primary topic. There are very distinct search spikes after the game's announcement and release; usage is negligible prior to both.

Anerdw (talk) 19:27, 27 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Official Timeline of the production released

Local Thunk released the full timeline of the production of Balatro.I think it is a useful source, especially for the "Production" section.

https://localthunk.com/blog/balatro-timeline-3aarh Yoshiman6464 ^♫🥚 22:53, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

See the refideas, and there has been lots of third party RSes that have commented on the timeline. I plan to try to add it in over weekend. Masem (t) 23:07, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Have you added this yet? I Forgot Tbh (talk) 04:44, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Local" is Lua, not Löve.

The current version of the article contains the following excerpt:

"Balatro was programmed in Lua with the Löve game framework. LocalThunk's pseudonym derives from Löve's way of declaring variables, "Local", and a common variable name in his partner's projects, "Thunk"."

This lists a source to an interview by the GQ magazine, which contains the following excerpt:

"Where does the pseudonym come from?

A few years ago my partner was learning this statistical language called R, and she was asking me about variable names. She said, ‘Hey, how do you name your variables?’ I have a computer science degree and I started oversharing. She interrupted me and was like, ‘I like to call my variables Thunk.’ And I thought that was just the funniest thing. The language I wrote the game in is called Löve, and the way you declare a variable in Löve is with the word ‘Local’. So, LocalThunk. It’s in my code in some places as well."

Here, LocalThunk is seen deliberately oversimplifying a concept; "Löve" is not a programing language, its a framework for Lua. The "local" syntax is part of Lua, and is therefore also used in Löve, and it is responsible for declaring that a variable is local as opposed to a default global variable. LocalThunk did not explain this in the aforementioned interview because none of it mattered as for the reason behind the pseudonym, but I do believe this misconception should not also be mentioned in this article. My attempt to rectify this error was reverted, so rather than beginning an edit war, i figured it was more prudent to post it here and have the concept debated. I'm new to all this wiki thing. ThaNook (talk) 01:13, 18 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This is all original research, from the stance of where LocalThunk pulled the name. It may be 100% true that its really from Lua, but the sources don't represent it like that, so we should not be inserting our expertise to make this a different claim. Masem (t) 01:24, 18 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

GA review

Unsuccessful. Tarlby ^{(t) (c)} 16:36, 25 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

This review is transcluded from Talk:Balatro/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Lankyant (talk · contribs) 22:25, 23 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewer: Tarlby (talk · contribs) 16:35, 25 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Tarlby

I am quick-failing this as a drive-by nomination. @User:Lankyant is ranked 7th by authorship and has written less than 10% of the article without posting a notice on the talk page. Per WP:GAN/I#N1, I can immediately fail this. Tarlby ^{(t) (c)} 16:35, 25 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Headers

@Masem The rest of your removals are fair but it looks quite messy to me without headers, maybe we could replace Tarot and Spectral cards and Planet cards with just one Consumable cards header? actualcreature (talk) 13:55, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

When you only have one paragraph for each header, that's likely a good sign you don't need the headers (see MOS:OVERSECTION). We're already getting into too much detail on the gameplay section Masem (t) 14:15, 1 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]