When most Englishmen, or Westerners in general, are talking about the Balkans, they usually imagine small country-states not unlike North Korea – no access to technology, culture stuck in the 80s, people are poor and miserable, no food, etc. While Slovakia technically isn’t part of the Balkans, I do believe that the scene where the American students visit Bratislava from the 2004 film “Eurotrip” is a pretty great representation of what Westerners believe the Balkans are like. I mean, it’s not really that hard to imagine – many Balkan countries used to be Soviet states before the Soviet Union went the way of the dodo, and we all know that communism wasn’t exactly friendly to new technology or foreign influences. Still, that was over 20 years ago, and today the Balkans are about as technologically advanced as the rest of the world. They’ve caught up pretty well, and in some ways they’ve actually surpassed the West. For example, the monthly fee for an Internet connection in Bulgaria is WAY cheaper than it is in England – like, there’s not even a comparison! When my wife and I are living in Bulgaria, we pay about £5-6 a month for 100 Mbit unlimited Internet, which would cost a LOT more in the UK.

But the most interesting aspects I’d love to explore are, of course, cultural rather than technological. And let me tell you, the way people play videogames on the Balkans is pretty different from the way they do it in the West! In the West, there’s typically three kinds of gamers. The first kinds are what are commonly referred to as the hardcores. They own several videogame consoles (PS4, Xbox One, etc), as well as a powerful computer, and play a wide variety of videogames across many different genres. Then there’s the dedicated fanbases, which mostly play just one game or franchise. In America, a very common stereotype is the gamer who plays nothing but “Call of Duty” and “Madden” every year. And then there’s the casual gamer, the people who don’t really identify as gamers, but like to play things like “Candy Crush Saga” or “Threes” on their phones every once in a while. In the West, casual gamers and hardcore gamers have an almost 50/50 split. There’s almost no in-between, and the dedicated fans who only play 1 or 2 franchises very often transition into being hardcores pretty quickly. That’s because, in the West, during the 80s and 90s videogames were a really big part of the culture, and thus many grew up with them and developed a healthy interest in them. If you’ve been playing games all your childhood, chances are you’ll continue as an adult, too. Meanwhile, many people who haven’t played games as a child are able to discover them very easily through their mobile phones, thus becoming casual gamers.

However, on the Balkans, the videogame market wasn’t nearly as popular in the 80s and 90s, because as I already mentioned the Soviet Union wasn’t too fond of foreign inventions. As a matter of fact, most – if not all – Balkan countries NEVER got official releases of videogame systems such as the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Mega Drive, and instead people who wanted to play those games had to rely on illegal copycats that began circulating in the mid-90s. Throughout the 2000s, as access to the Internet began spreading, more and more people discovered gaming and gradually turned into hardcores, and during the 2010s many began experimenting with casual gaming as well. But both numbers absolutely dwindle when compared to the amount of dedicated gamers on the Balkans. And the gamers who only play one or two games here don’t play things such as “Call of Duty” or “Madden” – they focus on cheap (or even free) multiplayer-only titles such as “DotA 2”, “League of Legends” and “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive”. The solution for that is simple – they’re social experiences, and a fun way to connect with other people. Many don’t really consider them as games. In the eyes of most dedicated gamers, a night spent in a PC club playing “League of Legends” with good friends is just like a night spent partying, or hanging out. It’s a fascinating cultural difference.

Of course, we can’t really talk about games without mentioning online gambling. The thing is, many Balkan countries don’t really have their own online casinos – the most they have are online betting and poker sites, and some countries don’t even have that. Instead, if citizens of the Balkan nations want to play online casino games, they often need to resort to visiting the foreign best casino sites here, looking for ones that accept non-native players. I believe that the lack of local online casinos is the reason why gambling in general isn’t as popular around here as it is in the UK. Another fascinating cultural difference!