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The Dark Downsides of Gacha Mobile Games and Gaming as a Service
It’s not a big surprise that anime fans tend to play Japanese mobile games that has a gacha element. In some cases, you probably saved a lot of free in game premium currency to roll for your favorite character. Others probably spent a lot of money in order to get the character they want in the game.
However, not everything is forever, especially […]
#analysis #aniplexUsa #gachaGames #mobileGaming #opinion #personalExperiences #predatoryVideoGameMonetization #VideoGames
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@chikorita157 Great summary of all the issues with gacha. I probably fall into the dolphin category on most of the ones I engage with. It’s usually the same story for me in each one, I get sucked in by the characters but eventually burn out and fall off once I’m not able to “keep up” with events and banners.
I think there’s a certain appeal to the live service part for me in that these characters I get attached to continue to have new stories and I can revisit them every so often and see something new. I’m OK spending a bit on most of the ones I’m into to support the game if I’m enjoying it and keep these characters and world “alive” in a sense.
That kind of emotional investment is exactly what these companies count on (prey on to varying degrees) though and like you said you don’t own anything and they could blip away at a moments notice. Let alone the gambling aspect of how much you may have put in to get those things in the first place.
I do understand the appeal as live services games with new content and such. At a time, I did play quite a few gacha games, but some of them has since shut down. While I only do some dailies every day at the bare minimum, I don’t have the time as I used to since having to return to the office to keep up with all these games.
Either way, it sucks for the people who invested time and money into a gacha game, to have it shut down and loose everything. Not to mention, the gacha and lootboxes are quite a bit exploitative to the point of gambling, and some are willing to go into financial ruin just for a character.