By definition, it absolutely is, which is why I like gachas where you can earn pulls without spending way more then ones where you can't, or it's very hard to, since the only thing you're gambling, is your time instead of your money.
this. i dont think it will even do much sadly though, think about all of the kids who play CoD i also think they should be forced to have a gambling disclaimer in game or something
This would be a good start but it won't change much There are easy work arounds much like how kids play games that aren't supposed to be rated for their age
@@rKizCora_main I have a perfect example. I wanted to play GTA V with my friends when Middle/High School but my parents wouldn't let me cause of some of the stuff in the game even though neither if them actually played modern video games. Good parenting using the internet even though i really wanted to play with my friends. Though they did buy Halo Reach for me since they though it would be okay. Edit: While I think more regulations would be better for the industry, parents also have a responsibility to teach kids and educate themselves too since the school system does not necessarily teach everything kids need to know.
kinda surprised that there isn’t a small section dedicated to FGO because it’s kind of the final boss of gacha games because it does not have pity in any form, and in this year, they finally added a pity system into the game on japanese servers first, 7yrs after it was initially released there
I've spent thousands between JP and US FGO before quitting 5 years ago. I wasn't broke but 600.00 after 30 minutes and don't even get the limited servant multiple times really screws you up. Found it unhealthy I had to quit. I haven't touched gacha's until Genshin came out and friends had to talk me into that. In the end I would still be playing FGO if it had a pity system. Mihoyo really helped out and I'm glad other mobages are picking it up and also updating their game play to stay competitive.
What? FGO finally added a pity system??? AFTER ALL THESE YEARS?????? Edited: 330 rolls (900 SQ for 300 rolls + 30 free bonus rolls) are required for the pity, and don't carry over between each banner. That game never changes lol
Devs don't care, HOW their game is bringing in the money, as long as their wage is paid. They also don't profit from more profit than is required to keep the next development alive.
Well it's intresting to think about how the players would be able to obtaine characters in gatcha games (in the good ones), in an other way if it was not a gatcha sistem at play. I like the idea that no player has the same seth of characters, so they have to figure out defrent formentions, and are able to get more characters.
And even if you get shafted, you can still win by re-evaluating your strategy on the fly and trying to find innovative ways to use you get. You might get the optimum build you know, discover something new or lose horribly. And you pay for the experience ONCE.
it's Gambling, no question about that, main question becomes "Is the Game good and F2P Friendly?" if yes, you will probably have a lot of fun with it even if you spend 0 Money. If not... Well, we all know where it goes.
I Always considered Gacha more as a monetization scheme and less as a game genre and yes, it's absolutely gambling. I don't really mind it as long as i can get "Paid" content for free at a reasonable timespan. The best examples i can think of are Arknights and Azur Lane. Great games that are so generous with their F2P players that you question why would you even need to pay anything. The main thing about the Gacha monetization scheme is that the game must be really good and F2P friendly so it can keep people interested in it, but also have some kind of incentive for whales to go all in like... Getting that limited ultra rare waifu or something.
this ^ Personally Im only willing to spend if im just short of a hard pity/spark even then sometimes I just skip since I know they either rerun or there will be new stuff that I will want in the future. Most of the time I save up for stuff that I stuff that I want and not something just because its meta. I don't like the whole Micro Transactions for cosmetics cause they usually seem overpriced to me though I occasionally will buy 1 if I believe its worth the price.
Except its not like a lottery system either, if gambling or the lottery worked in the same manner as gacha, it would mean that after a certain amount of transactions you would have a guaranteed result, which is not the case.
@@madsiesOW Call it denial if you want; I can explain why its not gambling and why calling it gambling is actually counterproductive, gacha games should be regulated based on their unethical predatory business model, not based on idiots missusing terms like "gambling" and spewing moronic takes like: "they advertise to children", this causes more harm than good and its why idiots that cannot get past this simple issue of semantics should never, ever be part of a legislative process. Whenever these companies are brought before a judge or congress (depending on the legal system) to defend their awful business practices all they have to do is reply to the idiotic accusations made by ignorant fools, and point out the very subtle yet significant differences between gambling and what they actually do, and unless this process takes place within a system that is already pro heavy restrictions, in a "free" and "fair" system it would never be shut down, precisely because the people making the initial complaint are fucking stupid. TLDR, gacha and gacha advertising should be regulated because their business model is fucking evil. but not because "iTsS gAmBLinnnG!" because it simply is not, and calling it so causes more harm than good when trying to address these concerns in a legal enviroment. Also, I will call you fucking lazy since (and I'm gonna go ahead and assume here...) you can't put forward any argument as to why gacha is gambling. Edit: Pussy
Tl;Dr monetization is one matter, actual game quality and enjoyment is another. One thing not quite touched upon in this video: a reason why people who *don't* chase after the dopamine rush of rare pulls (read: have a smidge of self-control) *still* play gacha games is that these can be genuinely fun games and you can see a lot of effort is put into them. For example, Arknights is a tower-defense strategy game with engaging levels and many different tactics and combinations to try out. There is a lot of care put into their writing and stories. The character designs are genuinely stylish and don't simply go for "awooga big booba." And the music they make for the game? Absolutely slaps. They even take the time to make EP's you won't even hear in-game and upload them to their UA-cam channel. For all that, I don't mind spending a reasonable amount every so often on gacha pulls to keep it all going.
another reason why gacha games are so popular (in asia at least) is because it heavily appeals to otakus, it can be played on your phone while taking the train/bus to work and you can usually get done with the most important daily/weekly stuff in 30 min/1 hour every day. its also really big in china because f2p games were basically the only games people could play due to trade restrictions on consoles or games, government restricting how long you can play games everyday helped it too perhaps.
@@DOGEELLL mf has eyes but cant read the comment. he said that while arknights has a gacha mechanic,the money used from the players goes into the chaacter designs and the music production for the players to enjoy. in the case of arknights,i saw many players completing the game only using low rarity units that u can get for free,and they still have fun while n ot paying a cent on the game. maybe try to research the games you see mentioned and then make a comment about it.
I LOVED Maplestory 🍁, but I never used the gatchapon, the whole idea of paying good money and most likely not getting what I wanted bothers me to my core. I'm careful with my money so the whole idea of gambling or lottery is not something I'm into. I ONCE spent $50 on Overwatch lootboxes and I will never do it again. Same thing with Apex, with how often I get absolute crap in a lootbox spending money rather than time on them seems stupid.
As a kid, I once bought a gachapon ticket in MapleStory and got some arrows. The same kind you can buy for super cheap in stores with less than one monster's worth of money. My character wasn't even an archer.
I remember MapleStory before it became a full-blown gacha game. It always had optional gacha elements, but it went completely off the rails as soon as they added percent equips and cubes. It became pay-to-win so quickly that it felt like my favorite game-and many other people’s favorite game-was completely stripped away. Combine that with constant class releases that vastly outplayed the adventurer classes, and it felt like a slap in the face to so many veteran players.
I won't deny the "high" I get when I pull a high rarity character from a gacha, but I think the key to enjoying gacha games is working with what you have and coming up with your own compositions or strategies to overcome the challenges of general game progression. Gacha games aren't for everyone though. They're better for people who have self-discipline, patience, and can make cost-effective decisions about whether to save or spend, whether it be for Meta, Waifu/Husbando, or both.
I don't like the idea of having to control yourself to be able to enjoy a game at a base level while also knowing you will inevitably not be able to experience it at its fullest because its whole system is designed around randomness that's rigged against you. It just feels gross to me, doubly so considering these pieces of software are constantly throwing more and more stuff at you in hopes that all of this sensory overload will at some point break you and you give in their predatory system. If you want to strategise... then just play a strategy game. One that actually wants you to engage with its systems and to get your brain working, not to turn it off out of deliberate tedium.
I am definitely not a big fan of Gacha games, but if there is ONE gacha game I would ever consider recommending, it's Arknights. The reason why Arknights is somewhat better than most Gachas out there is that it's relatively F2P, and you can basically play the entire game no problem without a single 6 star. They also have both hard and soft pitty, so the first 10 pulls in any banner give 100% at least one 5 star, and your already somewhat fair 6 star drop chance just goes up. Also, they have no equipment that could drop from pulls, so you are guarantied at least a 3 star operator from every pull (which ironically makes 1 stars very hard to get), and their gacha is only the way to get the newest of operators, as most a bit older operators are obtainable through recruitment, a system where you can choose multiple tags and the time you want to wait (1-9 hours) and depending on those get a certain operator with the chosen tags. If some are contradicting (like defender ranged or something) or with bad luck, they might not have the chosen tag, but if you get a top operator tag, and put in 9 hours, you are sure to get a 6 star. But honestly, what makes it better than most gacha games is that gacha isn't the main part of the game. Some 6 stars can be worse than 3 stars in some scenarios, strategy is the most important part about the game, being a tower defence. Also, the game has actually a pretty good story and world building, unlike most games of it's genre. Every operator has a story to tell, and the story mode itself is important, and even every event adds new information about characters and the world. There are also a lot of welfare operators (so basically free operators, usually 5 stars, rarely 6 stars, that are tied to that specific event and are unlocked once you finish a certain stage [mission, so basically what the gameplay is about] of the event), basically one every two events, and free skins and premium currency. Unlike other games of the gacha genre, it isn't just a cash cow, but an actually challenging and fun game with a gacha mechanic, like it should be.
i had a f2p gacha game addiction phase where i download every gacha games i could find and play it for a week or or 2 without paying money. at the end i played about 70 games and the only one that stick are FGO, Genshin, and Hatsune miku colorful stage (which is only here just for the sole reason i like vocaloid songs). oddly enough i just started spending on genshin after 2 years or so of playing but i havent put a single dime on FGO even when i played it for 4 years straight and that game does not have a pity system.
Pokémon is the OG gacha game, you go to certain areas (gacha machine), roll your dice and randomly encounters a ‘character’ that you want, and depending on the ball you use there is a chance you might not able to get what you wanted, so you either have to trade with your friend, or spend more time and in-game money to play the slot. Games like Pokémon is like you buying the entire gacha machine, but still have to play by the rules to get its content. ‘Free’ gacha games is just the casino, where you pay to play and you might not get anything, even after paying the same if not more money than the actual cost of the machine itself. When everything is ‘Free’, you are the product.
Yes the odds of getting rewards in lootboxes have to be public, but as far as I know there hasn't really been a noticeable difference in the amount of money players spent
Whales will spend their whale amounts of money, yes, but the difference should be sizeable for the little spenders and onlookers/newcomers. Even if they don't make up a big difference in the whole amount, whales still need us small fish in the ocean to feel powerful, and companies need us too to stay relevant longer.
@@powguma yep gacha game needs both. Small amount of whales to keep em alive and majority of small fish to keep whales engaged. Most of gacha players def F2P or small spender. But if there are no f2p, barely whale gonna play too, coz no ppl to flex on and no f2p means game will really have small playerbase.
Much like how warnings on cigarettes and alcohol don't stop their use. It's all just legal bullshit where they are free of liability because "Hey, we warned you."
@@strippinheat If it was just to free themselves from liability I doubt we would've gotten the law for showing the odds in games considering that there was no liability there in the first place. Truth is, it's not the law's place to stop anyone from spending money in a video game. The best it can do is stop predatory practices and/or give the people enough information they can make an informed decision.
Something on the controversial flipside of gacha monetization systems is how it's allowed countless small indie developers to make the games they wanted to and have a huge breakout hit, given the approachability of their usually free-to-play nature. Pretty much all the large chinese gacha games today stem from small indie developers. miHoYo, Yostar, Hypergryph, Sunborn, they all started as starry eyed college student nerds making games for fun. Now all of them are on top of their own world.
@@Dante45p And killing other markets like weeb games who now has to compete with monoliths that can just outspam them in the waifu category. All while dealing with Sony basically leaving them to die and telling them they can't sell their games using cheap fanservice gimmicks and a muted and broken fanbase over the issue if weeb games will come out intact with all of it's fanservice. An example will be some ecchi anime/manga adapation getting only 200-500ish fanart over the span of a couple of years while one FOTM character can get about 5000 artwork by herself. So if that is the price of salvation then I don't want it. Props to them being starry eyed college nerds who did what they loved and making a mint though, says better about them than our generation of broken coomers who can't make a single game and instead rant online about lost glorious days of the past
To me i always look at gacha game like a strategic distribution of your resources I rarely spend money, only pull when there is a great chance i get it and always look out for good f2p options
Sounds a lot like rationalization to me. I don’t think it’s very “stategic” to spend money rolling for digital items that get you nothing irl. A better distribution of resources would be to spend your money on full, finished games that actually give you all the content on purchase.
If a game is free to play, and the game is still fully playable with a gacha mechanic and not predatory then I dont think its truly bad, but if the game heavily relies on such a system I do think the game should be shunned. Paid games are especially awful when this type of system is in it. I would love to see gacha and lootboxes gone from games but thats never gonna happen, the market is just too big and too many people willing to blow their money.
There's always been a very hard "east vs west" mentality on gambling cultures; I mean, just look how even outside of gachapon how many jrpgs feature straight gambling mini-games as a major way to farm gold or really just the "bonus area" for mini-games (Dragon Quest, Pokemon, Final Fantasy's Golden Saucer ect...). I think it's also just kinda plainly been a hard red flag over here considering how any vague relations to gambling are given hard looks. But I think it's at least unholistic, if not somewhat disingenuous if not kinda...inconsiderate if we don't at least compare other mobile monetization models (eg the Candy crush time/stamina gating and just straight paying to progress in other casual games like Farmville). At the very least, with Gacha being always in the spotlight, it's rather more suspicious then that with how hungry the game industry was for money that the Western Monetization despite raking in both big bucks from Candy Crush sales and Flappy Bird infamy kinda...hasn't actually re-invested back in itself. There's also the major development counter point of the fact that the rest of the game is """""free"""" tho debates on freemium to pay to gamble to win (more importantly in games with Pvp, pay to stay on top of the meta). Genshin Impact has pretty much given all the death glares for how much money can be dropped...it at least gives you a full complementary team to play a game that's like at least 3/5ths the size of BotW for no down payment. It's like the really understated, if not outright invisible cost (or lack there of) that for all the news and headlines of the 2 or 3 completely screwed over Gacha whale addicts that funnel down thousands in a lost cause...that's actually paying for basically the rest of the game for the rest of the "minnows" or even those that play for free. At best I can really play devil's advocate and there are still blatant fundamental design choices that funnel back and forth to how the Gacha system interacts. Even if you weren't actually paying real money, if you've ever played a virtual based card game, you'd know the pains of never having the one piece your deck needs and whether you make due with what you have or grind hard to perfect your baby. (Actually this is probably even more apt a comparison since Magic Arena you can grind for wild cards...eventually, like once after a full week...or just buy packs...but not most singles). Ultimately it's worth throwing out there just how much a power difference to necessity to enjoying a game (yes even if the waifu collecting is the whole appeal) it is for just rolling the slots, Arknights probably still the posterchild for "most apologetic and merciful gacha system so far", or Another Eden which can just hand you a full 40 hr mobile rpg from the Chrono Trigger og devs that you can just sit back and play with the standard party, no rolling necessary (maybe post game and second arc tho, but also it's indefinite event system does wonders).
You talked about Fire Emblem Heroes.... This is truly a excellent video, never thought you'll get "Want a strategy gacha game" the subject is entierly reviewed, this was really pleasant to watch :D
One funny interaction with gacha that I have is with F/GO. been playing it for a few years and haven't spent a single cent on it. The rates are horrible and you would think that it will entice me into spending, but no. Between the fact that its expensive af, actually f2p friendly(seriously),and just the whole process being so impractical it just pushes me away from spending. You either have to go big or don't even think about it. it basically gatekeeps its own microtransactions lol.
I think its only gambling if it is possible to re-sell the items, but it should be regulated either way as it obscures the true cost of purchases, publishing the numbers isnt enough imho, people are overloaded with choices and numbers in the information age, we need to cool it with throwing dozens of statistics at people and expecting them to be able to parse it and make rational choices.
...In my opinion, the difference between "gambling" and "lottery" is functionally semantic -- people who spend money on these games do so with very little guarantee of any worthwhile return. Whether that return is the same currency or access to digital product is irrelevant; that money is spending all the same, and there's no limit to how deep a hole they can dig. As such, and at the _very_ least even regardless, there need to be regulations on gachas focused on protecting people from predatory practices in them.
There's few channels I'll watch every single video from beginning to end. This is one of them. I would like to award you with the highest honor I can bestow: The notification bell
Here is my take on Gacha Games as there are reasons why this business model in Game seems to work very well in the Gaming market nowadays, is how they are implemented into the games itself. I could also say there are a very huge difference between the model Asia's Gacha system and western's loot box system as their differences can be quite obvious as little as it may be. When it comes to Gacha Games, the model is simply enough; they make a Free-to-play game, add in the Gacha system, and at least have percentage shown for how you would get the character, even with the Pity system. As for the Western Lootbox system, even if you make the game free, it is about the model and percentage of how the item you would get for the game. For some reason, I'm more OK with the Gacha model better than the Lootbox model with more reasons I could think off. Also, let me give you the reason why that Gacha games are more successfull that Lootbox. In my view, Lootbox you only get mostly coating and skins on either your character, your weapons, and more. As for the Gacha, you straight up role for a character, an item or a weapon that you will use in the Game. And lastly, Gacha games is dominant with Anime-like design as it has more appeal to the anime community.
One of my takes on Gacha's is a key problem with the mindset for it, as evident from the line "At Gacha drawing, players will lose when they fail to get an item they desire." Whilst I can understand wanting a specific item, I always thought the appeal of a random obtainable was like in a Pokémon Nuzlocke, Roguelite, or Trading Card Game, where the fun is seeing what you can make work with what you get randomly. The endless desire for something specific rather ruins the potential appeal. As for whether Gacha is gambling, well it certainly seems to have had a similar effect and regulations to keep it in-line with laws on gambling would make sense. Yet funny enough, it never felt that way in the form of Gachapon's... I suppose I can just see more appeal in being rewarded with something physical rather than digital.
Its 100% gambling, BUT unlike loot boxes you can gamble for free with some games including a pity system and constant events that rewards from small amounts to large amounts of pulls so all you really are gambling is your time, spending money is OPTIONAL and is not required (in some games it is, although those are generally terrible ones). In general most gacha games are generally F2P friendly and spending large amounts of cash for an item or waifu/husbando is optional as they can still be obtained F2P wise.
Mihoyo really elevate or redefine gacha to the next level, and im glad something like Elden Ring exist and Ubisoft NFT accident happen so that unhinge exec will consider their game more carefully or probably not. Monetization isnt something u should prioritize it should be a tool to make ur progress easier not more (yes i oppose paid DLC stuff)
How does genshin redefine gacha tho? Like it has one of the worst gacha system in any gacha game but if you're talking about the quality of the game that is true, but I hope this won't be an influence to other developers
@@saxophones1041 Im a day one player after playing this for 1,5 year i could say it was nothing compared to other gacha because some of them are pityless u only hope to get SSR by just relying on pure luck (also keep in mind soft pity in genshin are 10-30 pulls any veteran know this and it will reset EACH banner thats why someone get 5* on 40-60 before the pity that is 70 pulls), Mihoyo even further decided to give pity to weapon banner after a lot lot lot of drama is going on which even validate the gacha in Genshin is not as ruthless as people say and still clearing hard content even though im a pure F2P i have zero investment into this game not even a penny. The quality of the game is what we are agreeing on so i would take that as a W to us gacha gamers
@@syarifht5929 I'm also a day 1 player, while it's true that a lot of gacha still doesn't have a pity system genshin still isn't the best on how they implemented it in my opinion also the sparking/pity system in the weapon banner is nice but it's still mostly for whales and u mentioned that pity reset everytime a banner change, but for what I know genshin pity system will carry if you don't get a 5 star the only things that reset is the fate points for the weapon banner
@@saxophones1041 Im by no means saying Genshin gacha system is the best amongst all gacha game, u get it wrong i was saying it wasnt the worst like everybody said, and about reset pity each banner u can go search for a reference on Streamer i've been researching this for quite sometime my lucky pulls are around 10 Guarantee, 10 Guarantee, 30 Loss, i think i got Tartag somewhere around 50 pulls not 70. I never made up my claim u can go watch some streamers and find the truth urself
Had been a slave to gachas for 14 years, have been sober for 5 months it is the best feeling to finally kick it. I suggest anyone does the deed and quit it if they still play these games.
Well um my best gacha game i encounrer is final fantasy record keeper its on mobile. All characters and spells are in game the only gacha is weapon. You dont need specific weapon to finish the game
I've been a Fire Emblem Heroes player since its launch day and I think it is a really friendly for been a gacha game. It has some questionable things like a subscription pass, but they over they time have updated the gacha system with good features like: 1) Move old 5 stars characters to a special category, and if you pull one it won't break your rate 2) If you do 40 pulls, you can choose one the 5 stars focus characters of the banner. I don't know if these features are in other gacha games because FEH is my first gacha and I haven't play another one but I feel that this one is really friendly with its gacha system.
those have been in other games, some examples are FGO who done your first point, while Dragalia Lost done the second one on top of only ever needing 1 copy of a character to instead of needing copies to make them stronger. That system is left to the dragons which are really just equipment for the character.
Played Brawl Stars for a little while but dipped when I realized how bad the gacha aspects were late game despite it being pretty F2P friendly overall. Now they have removed the gacha element entirely and I'm so surprised and very excited to play again! It's sad to see so many younger players upset they removed literal gambling from the game. It's like they have no other reference for what F2P games can be without loot boxes.
All these gachas have one thing in common: instilling FOMO. If they get you with the FOMO, that's all they need to get you hooked. Just a trap to make you slave away your time and eventually, your money
Its simple if you have to pay 40-60bucks for a single pull on a gacha of a free gane. That game is made to milk ur wallet. Since you can buy a full/complete game with that ammout, you would need to be dement at the very least to invest more than that in a free game, where there are new gachas every month that will outdoo your new units in a blink of an eye.
I have always considered Gacha as gambling, or well, slot machines. That said, there are ways to enjoy them responsibly much like gambling. I'm a working adult, so I do have a good enough money sense to be aware of my own expenses. I also make myself aware of the hooks and tricks games use for players to shell out money so I don't get blindsided. When games have pity systems, always expect to reach said pity when you are pulling for a desired character / weapon / item and plan accordingly. Don't be hooked with the mindset of "maybe my waifu will come out on my next pull, and another, and another". That's dangerous as you tend to swipe more if you don't plan properly.
I don't like the gacha mechanic, and fight against their inclusion in western games, but I do enjoy several games that _have_ gacha mechanics, such as Genshin Impact. It';s just a fantastic game by any reasonable measure. I just avoid _spending_ in the game to get better gacha odds. I only spend a few bucks a month based on enjoying the content they produce and will never up my spending just to get some character I really want.
My number one method to play gacha game (or loot box) is simply: Am I really gonna pay money just for some stupid PNG files? Besides, most gacha games keep doing the stupid as sh*t bright screen animation when opening them. I believe it is a way to trigger people's dopamine, but to me, it burns my eye and fries my brain cell so I just skip them entirely or close my eye when opening them. Checkmate corporation
I once got into a game called Sinoalice, also that Tectone guy he makes good content and I learned the game through his tutorials as he teaches how to optimize a F2P approach to these gacha games but he's also honest about his status as a "whale" player and that $500 gets you nothing clip sums it up well, but yeah I poured several hours playing the game getting the items and characters I wanted and I was in a solid guild and mostly everyone was F2P too, but it was a matter of time we hit the ranks with a lot of whale guilds and it we were stuck, because our growth ratio was way slower compared to those who purchased rolls all the time, and even though we liked the game, we were not in the mindset of pouring real money for PNGs, (guess that's why I never falled for NFTs) but also these mobile gacha games are like mostly RPG like and there's not that much player input during gameplay so no matter how much we trained in the end if our equipment was of a lower level, the enemies will be making the bigger numbers we were destined to lose so there's that too, and in the end I quitted yet I remember the game fondly for the time I was playing it.
My only concern with regulations is that it could inspire people who know very little about video games to make big changes in the game industry, and not always for the better. There was a time when people were so hung up on video game violence that they wanted to ban video games all together. I'd rather the game industry just grow how it wants and have consumers be responsible for spending their money wisely. Additionally we could use school programs to educate children on the dangers of gacha games and other online hazards so that more people go into adulthood knowing better.
That’s the thing. Responsibility is a dying light, and so is accountability. People have grown soft and weak. The only thing that can change this is a major global event.
Lol schools teaching anything valuable. I agree 80% of the people in power don't even know what Gachas are so I don't want them making decisions. But these games prey on addiction that's something a free market can't adjust to.
As a person who had spent $3490 total on mobile games (FGO, Dagalia Lost, and Touhou Lost Word), I do agree that it is a form of gambling like slots. It becomes unhealthy when the spending becomes to much for a person when they spend more than they can truly afford. In my case, I have not spend those $3500 in a short time, it was over a year and I keep an excel sheet tracking every spending with a description on where and who for the big spending just be aware when to just save instead of spend. I even try to plan my spending ahead of time by putting money to the side just so I can spend on the stupid and not financially smart purchases like gachas or anime figures. As long as you are aware on what you spent and its money you already planned on the side to be used on your stupid actions, I don't see an issue with spending it on gachas, but in turn when you spend without checking yourself, do not even bother spending on them.
interesting Ive never heard of someone enjoying the individuality of experiences when playing gacha games. The grind and min-maxing that get copy and pasted overshadow that I guess... dont forget to do your dailies, that air balloon wont escort itself :D
as a gacha player f2p, i felt that gacha is gambling even tho im f2p and grind the hell out of the game its still a gamble. But in some case is optional, because you dont really need the character from the gacha. But sometimes the game make that character so op that you need it, i think i like what umamusume does, they have this limit card system where you can only spend amount of dollar for one month and also gave that pity system so its kind of fair. But in the end gacha is still gacha so yea its still gambling
Only gacha games I've played and spent money were survey sites that offered money hoping you would play and get addicted and I just quit after whatever level is easy to get of whatever challenge. Takes awhile but I just do it on free time and have profitted 10x+ what I've spent just because I'd only buy a few things to speed it up .I'm 29 and never bought a scratch off or gambled at a casino or online and never will. I don't get it. I know someone who actually "invests" in scratch off lotto tickets and has spent half his check before on them and got utilities cut off. I'm talking been buying them for 2-3 decades and know many in my family who buy them weekly.
Loved to see Arknights getting some representation in this video. The developers and publishers of Arknights do an excellent job and are very generous comparatively. It's not necessarily the most generous but you could make a case that if you adjust for the quality of content/gameplay that it is 1 of, if not the most, generous gacha game. I feel like you missed a significantly important point in that the Gacha model allows some of the players to get a $100 Million dollar development game (such as Genshin Impact) completely for free and still get to acquire some of the rare and exclusive characters as well (though obviously not as many of them). Debatably, you could argue that the F2P players are "spending" their time but it's literally a game, and a good one at that. So if they're getting rewarded for playing a game how is that spending time? More likely than not they're able to counteract other stressful elements in their life (i.e. work) through this leisure time as well. Though I will grant that the wrong personality can get stressed out (or at least accrue some stress) from the Gacha system as well.
Well f2ps can burnout, so if the content in game were slurped by players they'll get bored. Thats why in order to save up in game currwncy of pull you must log in everyday just like total job instead play a game
@@genus5987 exactly burn out is real. Mind you some of the most generous f2p gacha hero collector is Cookie run kingdom. Easily grind to collect all units bar the limited crossovers sonic and tails, and that one kingdom only cookie
As a life long player of competitive card games, I have always compared the loot box mechanic to the card pack mechanic. Obvious to me now, that its all just gacha and has its forms everywhere.
Lottery is not gambling, just because the end result is "different"? Lmao, that's the definition of gambling, it`s not about the result, it's about the risk, and at the end of the day, both strategies are gamble. Both are addictive, both have misleading odds and both can destroy your bank account if you're not careful. Gacha just "normalized" the market on the last decade, bringing microtransactions along the way, which sucks. It can be enjoyed without spending (depending on the game, ofc), but like pointed out by the end of the video, as long as a few whales support it, the system will go on.
Gambling has several different definitions in different context (law, games, ethics, psychology, region, etc.) According to Oxford and Cambridge, gambling involves official currencies and "betting" is for other stakes On the other hand, Merriam-Webster and Britannica use gambling as a generic term There's value in being more specific when discussing the subject. While financial consequences are the same and it should be grouped together, a gacha system will always be a trade. Which gambling and betting are not
@@RamzaBeoulves Sure, though often betting is also considered gambling. It's really a semantic argument rather than a practical one. From a practical point of view they're the same. You put up some form of goods of value for a chance to get a return on investment with little to no influence on the outcome. Even playing blackjack or poker with friends and playing for nothing but pokerchips is still gambling as those pokerchips would dictate a winner thus have some value and thus be gambling, gambling with no monetary stakes but still gambling.
@@relo999 Oh absolutely, in most contexts I use gambling to describe all of these Where I see the distinction being relevant is specifically its integration into games Since the worst possible "roll" still grants the user a reward, it COULD be designed in ways that most wouldn't see as predatory or unethical Which (I think) classic gambling and betting can't achieve as the winners' gains are [always?] funded by the losers' loss Tho I could be entirely wrong
@@RamzaBeoulves gambling doesn't require gains at a losers cost, though that is common for obvious reasons. A simple example of it not being the case is surprise lotteries that use entry tickets as lottery tickets. Or another would be a prize pool is set up by a third party. Simply gaining a reward regardless would still be gambling as far as I can see, as most outcomes are not remotely worth the investment. Would a slot machine that would give you always a 5 cent pity win when one lever pull would cost you a dollar not be gambling? To me it certainly is. And this is basically the setup lootboxes/gacha games use, high chance that you don't get your money's worth out of it per roll low chance to get a worthwhile ROI per roll and on average your ROI is lower than the value you put in. And yes, games can implement them to not be predatory and/or unethical. However that's basically impossible the moment you request real world money, or in-game currency bought with real world money, for a chance. Loads of games have implemented them in a non-predatory way, pokemon being a obvious example with breeding for competitive pokemon or shiny pokemon as the only investment is time while you aren't content for other players. (which is another issue as the FTP players are functioning as "to dunk on" content for paying players, thus time investment isn't really free in multiplayer games that create "free" rolls. It's akin to Subway telling people you'll get a free sandwich if you walk with a Subway shirt all week, is it really a free sandwich if you're a walking advertisement all week?) Granted it's all on a scale, pokemon being the obvious "yea no issue at all", skins from lootboxes being "ehh, that's questionable" and multiplayer gacha games with game play effecting content "yea, deffo unethical".
Another aspect that I believe should be pointed out is that actual gambling (with table games and such) is outlawed in Japan, which is why gacha games and Pachinko are so popular there. On my part, I feel that gacha games are fine as long as you avoid the most prevalent traps (FOMO, impulsive spending of resources, etc.) and plan what you want to do in the long run.
It’s sad that the players in the Netherlands and Belgium gets more limited game options… but fu** if those countries don’t rock for protecting their citizens 🤘🥰
Brawlstars is easily the most predatory gatcha game I’ve ever seen. They literally just offered a sale of gems that had 3 offers. All the offers gave the same amount of gems at different prices. It’s like the whole small, medium, large bait at movie theaters that squeeze you for money, except they were all literally the exact same price. The average age of a player is around 14 years old…
brawl have the lot box system but not the much of "most predatory" you as player (let say f2p) can save enough gems to unlock the brawl pass (the best value )and do some daily quest who dont take allot of time yes if you spend mony you gonna have faster account progres but it's still playbal even if you f2p clash royal/cans however....
Gambling should be legalized for adults world-wide, then add Gacha gaming into gambling. I have no problem with banning this stuff for children, but adults should be allowed to decide for themselves how they want to spend their money.
While I have many issues with the game, one thing I love about FE Heroes is the 5star percentage rates. The maps are short to clear, and the amount of orbs you need to summon are small and very easy to get. I am usually able to get at least one of the five stars I want from a certain banner, with only a few hours of gameplay.
I used to play Genshin Impact,I mainly played for Lisa I don't play Gacha Games anymore because well I don't want to spend money on it.(best waifu in Genshin Impact in my opinion)
I don’t even play Genshin, and I still think Lisa is shit. Why have a sadistic bioelectric librarian when you can have a cryokinetic goat-woman who is so fucking thick that her ass has canonically *KILLED SOMEONE?*
Gacha is WORSE than gambling. At least with gambling, you’re expected to win some money back. With gacha, you’re losing 100% of your bet for nothing meaningful in return.
@@genus5987there's a catch Arcade games like tekken use input reading ai or auto block especially tekken 2 and tekken 7, tekken 6, specifically made to extract money from the player, even qudan one of the best tekken players struggling for an hour against akuma in the ps4 version. Also please go to Japanese arcade centre, you will still have to gacha for cards for some games like rhythm game Kancolle game Fgo And others.
I was initially object to gacha games, but I warmed up to it after seeing how it funds quality games. We had the last decade watching low-quality mobile games outperforming console/PC games by far. It needs no explanation that good games need years of development and marketing to succeed, but the only source of income was selling packages. I feared the era of good games was over, but these games eventually found ways to monetize, such as tournament viewership, cosmetics, and subscription models, and I think gacha is just one of them. As long as they share the success rates publically and don't force players to do it, it should be fine. Speaking of which, Korea just passed a law forcing companies to publically announce the gacha rates. Companies heavily rebelled against this because they were secretly changing the rates on the fly, but the players rose up to defend this law.
I wonder if there's a study that compares people who spend a lot on gatcha vs actual casinos and which is more dangerous. Like are the whales who spend thousands on a mihoyo game or FGO also spending on slots or blackjack?
Gacha isn't gambling. Gambling is about playing for increased financial stability. Gacha games, (at least the best examples) are about receiving a random boost to your arsenal, and encouraging improvisation on your adventure.
@@LoliconSamalik Gambling isn't exclusively for money. People are still spending copious amounts of money for a chance to win worthless PNGs and items. Just because they're not spending money to win money doesn't automatically make it ok. It's not about whether or not gacha is gambling. What is important is the negative implications of gacha systems on consumers
@@yorha.a2 the difference between gambling in a gacha game and gambling in a casino is that you know that once u put money in a gacha game that money is already gone and u won’t get money in return. That’s probably one of the reasons why it’s illegal to sell accounts
Gacha is not gambling 😅 and people should stop trying to say “it is gambling hence it is BAAAD 🤡”. There is no direct way of re-monetizong good luck in gacha, I really don’t see why people are so confused about it, but anyways: Even if it WAS gambling, people should be entitled to their own money and self control or lack there of it. Governments should never try to paternalize on the matter, it is not a government responsibility; personal finance is a personal matter. If that sounds ridiculously obvious, that’s because it is.
Gacha is usually really horrible P2W (or pay to waifu for Genshin). There can be very rare instances where they are implemented well and are fair. Case and point, Dissidia Opera Omnia. Tons of free resources and GL server has the foresight of seeing all banners in advance on JP side. It is possible to get everything you want with a bit of planning. Personally, I have every single weapon on the banners currently available. All content complete, spent $6 over 4 years. Have more currency than I can use.
F2P-friendly gachas are not that rare, I have a handful of them in my mind atm. Usually those are the ones build with "pay to skin" in mind. That's where the real gacha lies.
I may not have spent money i have sure spent a whole year of my life (that i will never get back) saving up for a hyped waifu that's coming out in a couple of months. 100% Gambling.
Conversely, there was a time where I was so disinterested in lootboxes that I had a couple hundred of them that I didn't bother opening until a friend nagged me into doing it. Cosmetics don't motivate me as much as gameplay and lore mechanics.
@@unsaltedmixednuts8036 which is why i cringe every time I see someone throw away their $$ at those lootboxes in OW. The 0 IQ is real with those guys. God, I worry about their life in general if they can make such a stupid decision.
I treat gacha games like every other games: is the content worth the money I'm paying for in terms of entertainment? So a game like Genshin Impact, which is free to play as in you don't pay any upfront price/subscription to be able to play it, is just amazing value to me. You can play it and drop it whenever it's not fun anymore, your time spent is rewarded in the entertainment, and you don't lose any money invested in it. Of course you're not going to have any 5 star weapons or C6 5 star characters or every 5 star character, but you have fun with what you get from free pulls. And personally I find the game fun enough I actually sink 5$ every month for Welkins because the amount of stuff I get, and thus the fun, is worth the price
Was really into DBZ Dokkan Battle. There was one character featured I really wanted. Dropped $100 trying to get it. Didn’t get it. Uninstalled and never went back. Highway robbery.
My take on Gacha game. Its my choice to play or not to play them. And for the most part I love most of them. Ive played around 18 in the last year and only spent money on 2 cause of collabs. Outside that regardless how much I want a unit if have enough self control to keep being f2p.
I'd say that most "bad" gacha games fall into a few categories. The most obvious one is the AFKRPG category. If you see a game being advertised as such, RUN! The second one is the idle game category. Obvious for impatient people. The third one is the MMORPG category. Grind for 9500 hours while everyone else is blowing $2500/d or more to stay at the top! Of course, there are many more game genres out there, but the AFKRPG category is THE WORST OF THEM ALL. In fact, if you see a free2play game that advertises itself as an RPG, it's MOST LIKELY an AFKRPG. DO NOT PLAY THEM. YOU WILL LOSE ALL SELF CONTROL OR QUIT IN AN HOUR.
It's gambling, but without the monetary return. I remember as a kid I used to go nuts for Yu-Gi-Oh cards and packs. Now, years later, I have a bunch of cards I don't play with anymore. It was never the having, it was the getting, and it's the same with these games, but the price is too damn high. It's literally higher than some can afford.
Except in real gachas you get something every time. Maybe not the one you wanted, but something generally of equal value. In gacha games, not only is the item you get not even real (costs 0 dollars to make more copies of the item), you also don't even get the item. Imagine a gacha where, for 1 dollar, you could spin the wheel for a guaranteed 4star and a 20% chance of a 5star. That would, perhaps, be more similar to a real machine. But no. Digital gachas are filled with literal trash. Most of the time you get nothing. Straight up nothing. Inconceivable for a real gacha machine to drop a single tictac or something, 90% of the time. Dropping the thing you actually want, which by the way has $0,- real world value, only 0.5% of the time. Costing you on average 200 dollars to get ONE. But for gacha video games, this is the standard.
I typically use smart budgeting when playing gacha. Games like Pocket Camp and FeH have a less than $10 monthly which is fine for me. I tether my expectations accordingly, I don't follow tiers, I just go for content/favorite characters, and if I don't get it within a budgeted lot, I just simply don't go past. I typically also only pay for games I really like. Didn't care for guardian tales so I never paid for gacha, and eventually dropped it because I didn't get too into it. But FeH I when my gems run dry, if they do which is rare as I accrue gems easily. But I also REALLY like Fire Emblem so I'm okay with giving them 20 bucks here and there. Most I ever dropped in one session was 50 for FEH lol
there another kind of this game that makes you hope to get something with an extremely low chance, but you'll still do it anyway no matter how long it took or how many investment you have to put in, but it's free(-ish) mmo or rpg with drop chance for their items
Drop Chance doesn't require money at all though. Drop Chance is just randomness but if it doesn't drop there's no feeling to pay for it unless your desperate
@@illford well if i understand what this comment is trying to say is that you are gambling your time instead of money Probably doesnt make sense but if we really breaking it down to definitions then gambling your position by taking an uneven or disadvantaged fight in a BR or FPS game is gambling too. At some point trying to break down and read deeply into definitions is ridiculous.
I like gatcha games on android but I hate gambling being associated with them as a monetization method. Gambling refers to playing a game of chance by paying a certain amount of money as a participation fee for a chance to win anything from a common prize that is worth nothing to something ultra rare that is worth a lot to the winner. Obviously most Android f2p games don't outright expect players to pay upfront to roll the dice on getting whatever it is the game uses gatcha mechanics on (item, armor or character). But they do use a limited token currency to control the experience. Some games lock these tokens away entirely behind pay walls, while others give you maybe one token per day as reward for daily participation. Still others try a bit of both (alchemy star because I play the game and have seen them implement purchase only tokens twice so far). While they are not barring players from getting the tokens to chance at getting a rare or legendary character the drop rate for rare and legendary items after the honeymoon (1st 2 months after launch) period is reduced to drastically that players who started playing the game at launch experience severe withdrawal symptoms as they notice the lowered frequency of drops more clearly then late participant (I know because I experienced it while playing alchemy star). It is a marketing strategy involving psychological coercion to force player into tapping into that urge to pay money to get more tokens and get the euphoria of winning the legendary characters. I really don't like this monetization tactic as it causes unnecessary stress to the participant and can psychologically destabilize a completely normal person by drawing out their compulsion to gamble and financially ruin themselves. Gatcha games on android need to stop doing that. If they expect people to pay money no matter what they should just switch to paid gaming model so there is no pretenses between the publisher and consumer who are prepared to pay on what degree of monetization to expect. Those gatcha games that still insist on f2p model, should dial back on exclusivity of paid merchandise that is to say if a games main focus is waifu collection then keep the drop rate fair (not 2% but 20%), reduce the number of tokens that need to be used before mercy system kicks in to an amount that is fair enough (based on the games token income rate and event period length) to happen during the period of the event rather then 5 events later. And most importantly only put customizing items like outfit change or character appearance change or upgrade items that players can alternatively get by daily grinding behind pay walls instead of putting specific waifus or stories (including side stories) that are part of the games core gameplay features behind pay walls. Although I used alchemy star as an example, I have to add that AS is probably far less offensive in respect to forcing players into using real money compared to many high end gatcha games on android. I actually play AS because although recently they have experimented with purchase only gatcha tokens and side stories locked behind pay walls, they are still a lot less coercive as players can freely acquire practically all upgrade material simply by playing the game daily and using the gatcha tokens they get daily. If players happen to get duplicate characters they are simply converted to upgrade material or currency tokens to purchase items from one of 5 in game token stores. I have misgivings about their gatcha drop rate and lack of mercy system, I think it is still a lot less aggressive in its monetization practice compared to others...for now at least.
Do you consider gacha games as gambling?
By definition, it absolutely is, which is why I like gachas where you can earn pulls without spending way more then ones where you can't, or it's very hard to, since the only thing you're gambling, is your time instead of your money.
Yes.
Nope I think people can play many gachas as F2P like genshin and arknights and have fun
yep
It is quite literally gambling either with your time with in game currency or real money to in game currency
I think gacha games should be given a rating that matches the legal gambling age in their respective countries they release it in.
this.
i dont think it will even do much sadly though, think about all of the kids who play CoD
i also think they should be forced to have a gambling disclaimer in game or something
I would definitely be in favour of age ratings to stop children getting access to them at the very least, and harsher restrictions ideally
This would be a good start but it won't change much
There are easy work arounds much like how kids play games that aren't supposed to be rated for their age
@@Ha1o31
^
this. You can’t stop them unless you do good parenting on them. Much like how the world works.
@@rKizCora_main I have a perfect example. I wanted to play GTA V with my friends when Middle/High School but my parents wouldn't let me cause of some of the stuff in the game even though neither if them actually played modern video games. Good parenting using the internet even though i really wanted to play with my friends. Though they did buy Halo Reach for me since they though it would be okay.
Edit: While I think more regulations would be better for the industry, parents also have a responsibility to teach kids and educate themselves too since the school system does not necessarily teach everything kids need to know.
Video Game Companies: "It's not gambling, it's surprise mechanics."
Trading Card Game Companies: *whistling and slowly walking away
I wouldn't be against having every card listed on each pack
kinda surprised that there isn’t a small section dedicated to FGO because it’s kind of the final boss of gacha games because it does not have pity in any form, and in this year, they finally added a pity system into the game on japanese servers first, 7yrs after it was initially released there
What
I've spent thousands between JP and US FGO before quitting 5 years ago. I wasn't broke but 600.00 after 30 minutes and don't even get the limited servant multiple times really screws you up. Found it unhealthy I had to quit. I haven't touched gacha's until Genshin came out and friends had to talk me into that.
In the end I would still be playing FGO if it had a pity system. Mihoyo really helped out and I'm glad other mobages are picking it up and also updating their game play to stay competitive.
What?
FGO finally added a pity system???
AFTER ALL THESE YEARS??????
Edited: 330 rolls (900 SQ for 300 rolls + 30 free bonus rolls) are required for the pity, and don't carry over between each banner.
That game never changes lol
@@TanegiHoneydew yes, and NA is gonna get it in 2024
@@TanegiHoneydew brutal as always.
I'd like to clarify that gacha and loot boxes are usually imposed or pushed by publishers, not developers
Devs don't care, HOW their game is bringing in the money, as long as their wage is paid.
They also don't profit from more profit than is required to keep the next development alive.
This is why I like roguelikes. You can get shafted by RNG but at least your wallet doesn't suffer.
This. More dopamine rush per dollar than any gacha game could offer
It's why roboquest is my favorite rougelike shooter.
Well it's intresting to think about how the players would be able to obtaine characters in gatcha games (in the good ones), in an other way if it was not a gatcha sistem at play. I like the idea that no player has the same seth of characters, so they have to figure out defrent formentions, and are able to get more characters.
And even if you get shafted, you can still win by re-evaluating your strategy on the fly and trying to find innovative ways to use you get. You might get the optimum build you know, discover something new or lose horribly. And you pay for the experience ONCE.
It's 100% gambling, as are lootboxes.
Clearly sound like a guy who never played gatcha game f2p.
@@DeadlyDuel you are just gambling your time for rolls instead of cash
it's Gambling, no question about that, main question becomes "Is the Game good and F2P Friendly?" if yes, you will probably have a lot of fun with it even if you spend 0 Money. If not... Well, we all know where it goes.
@@DeadlyDuel still gambling, coming from a rank 57 on genshin
@@sparki9085 and? the items or characters you obtain via gacha cannot be converted to real money so you cant say it's gambling
I Always considered Gacha more as a monetization scheme and less as a game genre and yes, it's absolutely gambling.
I don't really mind it as long as i can get "Paid" content for free at a reasonable timespan.
The best examples i can think of are Arknights and Azur Lane. Great games that are so generous with their F2P players that you question why would you even need to pay anything.
The main thing about the Gacha monetization scheme is that the game must be really good and F2P friendly so it can keep people interested in it, but also have some kind of incentive for whales to go all in like... Getting that limited ultra rare waifu or something.
this ^
Personally Im only willing to spend if im just short of a hard pity/spark even then sometimes I just skip since I know they either rerun or there will be new stuff that I will want in the future. Most of the time I save up for stuff that I stuff that I want and not something just because its meta.
I don't like the whole Micro Transactions for cosmetics cause they usually seem overpriced to me though I occasionally will buy 1 if I believe its worth the price.
Another game that follow this example i can think of is Guardian Tales.
This
Well, see, the entire game is designed around the monetization, so it'd be misguided to think there can be huge overlap in monetization and genre.
@@mega17 Personally? I see that as a red flag. When a game revolves around its monetization.
I've always assumed the name came from the words "Got You" -> "Got Ya" -> "Gotcha" -> "Gacha"
Same that's what I always thought
I didn’t even know it was spelled Gacha lol I thought people were just saying Gotcha weird
I've always thought it was a pun of both the meaning they gave on the video and the one you said.
interesting how an onomatopoeia in the east was turned into a homophone in the west. I knew gacha's origins but I still liked saying gotcha
Thats the origin story that non weebs would think of lol congrats
"its more like a lotery system" yes those are regulated the same as gambling here. guess thats why gacha is banned here in many games.
Except its not like a lottery system either, if gambling or the lottery worked in the same manner as gacha, it would mean that after a certain amount of transactions you would have a guaranteed result, which is not the case.
Gacha should be regulated in all countries.
@@Dannymon true
@@Dannymon psst it already is, the USA is just fucking lagging behind
@@Kaimax61 Not here in denmark
hearing maplestory ost makes me cry immediately please keep using them in your videos
The freakin nostalgia hits hard ;-;
Its 100% gambling, even if you consider it more as lottery system it would still be gambling.
It's not gambling and it is also not like a lottery system.
@@brerrrrrp95 someone is in denial
@@madsiesOW nah someone is just lazy and don't want to think for themselves.
@@madsiesOW Call it denial if you want; I can explain why its not gambling and why calling it gambling is actually counterproductive, gacha games should be regulated based on their unethical predatory business model, not based on idiots missusing terms like "gambling" and spewing moronic takes like: "they advertise to children", this causes more harm than good and its why idiots that cannot get past this simple issue of semantics should never, ever be part of a legislative process.
Whenever these companies are brought before a judge or congress (depending on the legal system) to defend their awful business practices all they have to do is reply to the idiotic accusations made by ignorant fools, and point out the very subtle yet significant differences between gambling and what they actually do, and unless this process takes place within a system that is already pro heavy restrictions, in a "free" and "fair" system it would never be shut down, precisely because the people making the initial complaint are fucking stupid.
TLDR, gacha and gacha advertising should be regulated because their business model is fucking evil. but not because "iTsS gAmBLinnnG!" because it simply is not, and calling it so causes more harm than good when trying to address these concerns in a legal enviroment.
Also, I will call you fucking lazy since (and I'm gonna go ahead and assume here...) you can't put forward any argument as to why gacha is gambling.
Edit: Pussy
Our life is already like a gamble, we just didn't notice it
Tl;Dr monetization is one matter, actual game quality and enjoyment is another.
One thing not quite touched upon in this video: a reason why people who *don't* chase after the dopamine rush of rare pulls (read: have a smidge of self-control) *still* play gacha games is that these can be genuinely fun games and you can see a lot of effort is put into them.
For example, Arknights is a tower-defense strategy game with engaging levels and many different tactics and combinations to try out. There is a lot of care put into their writing and stories. The character designs are genuinely stylish and don't simply go for "awooga big booba." And the music they make for the game? Absolutely slaps. They even take the time to make EP's you won't even hear in-game and upload them to their UA-cam channel. For all that, I don't mind spending a reasonable amount every so often on gacha pulls to keep it all going.
another reason why gacha games are so popular (in asia at least) is because it heavily appeals to otakus, it can be played on your phone while taking the train/bus to work and you can usually get done with the most important daily/weekly stuff in 30 min/1 hour every day. its also really big in china because f2p games were basically the only games people could play due to trade restrictions on consoles or games, government restricting how long you can play games everyday helped it too perhaps.
>imply gambling is strategy
>think gambling is gaming
Ok get tf out of here lol
Casino gambling will never be gaming and tower defense sucks
@@yvindvego9404its just addictive for gambling addicts with absolute garbage taste in gaming and no standards😂
@@DOGEELLL mf has eyes but cant read the comment.
he said that while arknights has a gacha mechanic,the money used from the players goes into the chaacter designs and the music production for the players to enjoy.
in the case of arknights,i saw many players completing the game only using low rarity units that u can get for free,and they still have fun while n ot paying a cent on the game.
maybe try to research the games you see mentioned and then make a comment about it.
I LOVED Maplestory 🍁, but I never used the gatchapon, the whole idea of paying good money and most likely not getting what I wanted bothers me to my core. I'm careful with my money so the whole idea of gambling or lottery is not something I'm into. I ONCE spent $50 on Overwatch lootboxes and I will never do it again. Same thing with Apex, with how often I get absolute crap in a lootbox spending money rather than time on them seems stupid.
As a kid, I once bought a gachapon ticket in MapleStory and got some arrows. The same kind you can buy for super cheap in stores with less than one monster's worth of money. My character wasn't even an archer.
@@Someoneman-Doot hahaha, should have bought a pet.
Never spent a dime on gacha games or loot boxes or anything, seems so pointless to me
"For YOU" 😂 Now move on lol
3:38 You know you are a Genshin Player when you recognize Yae Miko and Eula just from the shadows.
I remember MapleStory before it became a full-blown gacha game. It always had optional gacha elements, but it went completely off the rails as soon as they added percent equips and cubes.
It became pay-to-win so quickly that it felt like my favorite game-and many other people’s favorite game-was completely stripped away.
Combine that with constant class releases that vastly outplayed the adventurer classes, and it felt like a slap in the face to so many veteran players.
I won't deny the "high" I get when I pull a high rarity character from a gacha, but I think the key to enjoying gacha games is working with what you have and coming up with your own compositions or strategies to overcome the challenges of general game progression. Gacha games aren't for everyone though. They're better for people who have self-discipline, patience, and can make cost-effective decisions about whether to save or spend, whether it be for Meta, Waifu/Husbando, or both.
THe key here is limit and only spend on what u want
I think once you start referring pixels to waifu and husbando you really need to stop playing that game. It has destroyed your perception of reality.
I don't like the idea of having to control yourself to be able to enjoy a game at a base level while also knowing you will inevitably not be able to experience it at its fullest because its whole system is designed around randomness that's rigged against you. It just feels gross to me, doubly so considering these pieces of software are constantly throwing more and more stuff at you in hopes that all of this sensory overload will at some point break you and you give in their predatory system.
If you want to strategise... then just play a strategy game. One that actually wants you to engage with its systems and to get your brain working, not to turn it off out of deliberate tedium.
Traps also , thats how i learn about fgo and GI but have to play them.. maybe later.
man inhales copium before booting his favorite gacha game.
1:30 that soundtrack of Elsword brought back so many memories 🤣🤣
omg im not the only one who recognised that soundtrack, im so happy
While I don't enjoy gacha games, I sure had a lot of fun rolling gacha toys when I visited Japan.
Thats because is PHYSICAL PRODUCT you can do whatever you want from those toys. Just like kinderjoy at least has food inside
I am definitely not a big fan of Gacha games, but if there is ONE gacha game I would ever consider recommending, it's Arknights. The reason why Arknights is somewhat better than most Gachas out there is that it's relatively F2P, and you can basically play the entire game no problem without a single 6 star. They also have both hard and soft pitty, so the first 10 pulls in any banner give 100% at least one 5 star, and your already somewhat fair 6 star drop chance just goes up. Also, they have no equipment that could drop from pulls, so you are guarantied at least a 3 star operator from every pull (which ironically makes 1 stars very hard to get), and their gacha is only the way to get the newest of operators, as most a bit older operators are obtainable through recruitment, a system where you can choose multiple tags and the time you want to wait (1-9 hours) and depending on those get a certain operator with the chosen tags. If some are contradicting (like defender ranged or something) or with bad luck, they might not have the chosen tag, but if you get a top operator tag, and put in 9 hours, you are sure to get a 6 star.
But honestly, what makes it better than most gacha games is that gacha isn't the main part of the game. Some 6 stars can be worse than 3 stars in some scenarios, strategy is the most important part about the game, being a tower defence. Also, the game has actually a pretty good story and world building, unlike most games of it's genre. Every operator has a story to tell, and the story mode itself is important, and even every event adds new information about characters and the world. There are also a lot of welfare operators (so basically free operators, usually 5 stars, rarely 6 stars, that are tied to that specific event and are unlocked once you finish a certain stage [mission, so basically what the gameplay is about] of the event), basically one every two events, and free skins and premium currency. Unlike other games of the gacha genre, it isn't just a cash cow, but an actually challenging and fun game with a gacha mechanic, like it should be.
i had a f2p gacha game addiction phase where i download every gacha games i could find and play it for a week or or 2 without paying money. at the end i played about 70 games and the only one that stick are FGO, Genshin, and Hatsune miku colorful stage (which is only here just for the sole reason i like vocaloid songs). oddly enough i just started spending on genshin after 2 years or so of playing but i havent put a single dime on FGO even when i played it for 4 years straight and that game does not have a pity system.
Pokémon is the OG gacha game, you go to certain areas (gacha machine), roll your dice and randomly encounters a ‘character’ that you want, and depending on the ball you use there is a chance you might not able to get what you wanted, so you either have to trade with your friend, or spend more time and in-game money to play the slot.
Games like Pokémon is like you buying the entire gacha machine, but still have to play by the rules to get its content. ‘Free’ gacha games is just the casino, where you pay to play and you might not get anything, even after paying the same if not more money than the actual cost of the machine itself.
When everything is ‘Free’, you are the product.
Yes the odds of getting rewards in lootboxes have to be public, but as far as I know there hasn't really been a noticeable difference in the amount of money players spent
Whales will spend their whale amounts of money, yes, but the difference should be sizeable for the little spenders and onlookers/newcomers.
Even if they don't make up a big difference in the whole amount, whales still need us small fish in the ocean to feel powerful, and companies need us too to stay relevant longer.
@@powguma yep gacha game needs both. Small amount of whales to keep em alive and majority of small fish to keep whales engaged. Most of gacha players def F2P or small spender. But if there are no f2p, barely whale gonna play too, coz no ppl to flex on and no f2p means game will really have small playerbase.
Much like how warnings on cigarettes and alcohol don't stop their use. It's all just legal bullshit where they are free of liability because "Hey, we warned you."
@@strippinheat If it was just to free themselves from liability I doubt we would've gotten the law for showing the odds in games considering that there was no liability there in the first place.
Truth is, it's not the law's place to stop anyone from spending money in a video game. The best it can do is stop predatory practices and/or give the people enough information they can make an informed decision.
Something on the controversial flipside of gacha monetization systems is how it's allowed countless small indie developers to make the games they wanted to and have a huge breakout hit, given the approachability of their usually free-to-play nature. Pretty much all the large chinese gacha games today stem from small indie developers. miHoYo, Yostar, Hypergryph, Sunborn, they all started as starry eyed college student nerds making games for fun. Now all of them are on top of their own world.
yeah! China wouldn't be a rising power in the gaming industy without them
and kinda ended up saving the mobile gaming market
@@Dante45p And killing other markets like weeb games who now has to compete with monoliths that can just outspam them in the waifu category. All while dealing with Sony basically leaving them to die and telling them they can't sell their games using cheap fanservice gimmicks and a muted and broken fanbase over the issue if weeb games will come out intact with all of it's fanservice.
An example will be some ecchi anime/manga adapation getting only 200-500ish fanart over the span of a couple of years while one FOTM character can get about 5000 artwork by herself.
So if that is the price of salvation then I don't want it. Props to them being starry eyed college nerds who did what they loved and making a mint though, says better about them than our generation of broken coomers who can't make a single game and instead rant online about lost glorious days of the past
@@MrAsaqe I'm not reading all this
@@Dante45p Gacha from China "saved" mobile gaming but did it by cannibalizing other industries to do so.
@@MrAsaqe it was going to happen anyway
To me i always look at gacha game like a strategic distribution of your resources
I rarely spend money, only pull when there is a great chance i get it and always look out for good f2p options
Sounds a lot like rationalization to me. I don’t think it’s very “stategic” to spend money rolling for digital items that get you nothing irl. A better distribution of resources would be to spend your money on full, finished games that actually give you all the content on purchase.
Whatever makes your gambling addiction less painful lol
If a game is free to play, and the game is still fully playable with a gacha mechanic and not predatory then I dont think its truly bad, but if the game heavily relies on such a system I do think the game should be shunned. Paid games are especially awful when this type of system is in it.
I would love to see gacha and lootboxes gone from games but thats never gonna happen, the market is just too big and too many people willing to blow their money.
There's always been a very hard "east vs west" mentality on gambling cultures; I mean, just look how even outside of gachapon how many jrpgs feature straight gambling mini-games as a major way to farm gold or really just the "bonus area" for mini-games (Dragon Quest, Pokemon, Final Fantasy's Golden Saucer ect...). I think it's also just kinda plainly been a hard red flag over here considering how any vague relations to gambling are given hard looks.
But I think it's at least unholistic, if not somewhat disingenuous if not kinda...inconsiderate if we don't at least compare other mobile monetization models (eg the Candy crush time/stamina gating and just straight paying to progress in other casual games like Farmville). At the very least, with Gacha being always in the spotlight, it's rather more suspicious then that with how hungry the game industry was for money that the Western Monetization despite raking in both big bucks from Candy Crush sales and Flappy Bird infamy kinda...hasn't actually re-invested back in itself.
There's also the major development counter point of the fact that the rest of the game is """""free"""" tho debates on freemium to pay to gamble to win (more importantly in games with Pvp, pay to stay on top of the meta). Genshin Impact has pretty much given all the death glares for how much money can be dropped...it at least gives you a full complementary team to play a game that's like at least 3/5ths the size of BotW for no down payment. It's like the really understated, if not outright invisible cost (or lack there of) that for all the news and headlines of the 2 or 3 completely screwed over Gacha whale addicts that funnel down thousands in a lost cause...that's actually paying for basically the rest of the game for the rest of the "minnows" or even those that play for free.
At best I can really play devil's advocate and there are still blatant fundamental design choices that funnel back and forth to how the Gacha system interacts. Even if you weren't actually paying real money, if you've ever played a virtual based card game, you'd know the pains of never having the one piece your deck needs and whether you make due with what you have or grind hard to perfect your baby. (Actually this is probably even more apt a comparison since Magic Arena you can grind for wild cards...eventually, like once after a full week...or just buy packs...but not most singles).
Ultimately it's worth throwing out there just how much a power difference to necessity to enjoying a game (yes even if the waifu collecting is the whole appeal) it is for just rolling the slots, Arknights probably still the posterchild for "most apologetic and merciful gacha system so far", or Another Eden which can just hand you a full 40 hr mobile rpg from the Chrono Trigger og devs that you can just sit back and play with the standard party, no rolling necessary (maybe post game and second arc tho, but also it's indefinite event system does wonders).
*Opening 100s of lootboxes* "when do i get to the game?" "This IS the game!"
You talked about Fire Emblem Heroes....
This is truly a excellent video, never thought you'll get "Want a strategy gacha game" the subject is entierly reviewed, this was really pleasant to watch :D
Honestly cannot believe that a video about Gacha does not explicitly mention FGO.
because they're too lazy to do actual research.
true, it's one gacha hell burning with sqs thrown by unlucky masters like me
One funny interaction with gacha that I have is with F/GO. been playing it for a few years and haven't spent a single cent on it. The rates are horrible and you would think that it will entice me into spending, but no. Between the fact that its expensive af, actually f2p friendly(seriously),and just the whole process being so impractical it just pushes me away from spending. You either have to go big or don't even think about it. it basically gatekeeps its own microtransactions lol.
Bro? The FGO gacha is one of the most profitables ever
Have you seen how much the whales spend?
Yeah FGO has a horrendous pull system. Never spent any money on a mobile games and I'm glad I quit fgo. The gameplay was too monotonous for me.
I think its only gambling if it is possible to re-sell the items, but it should be regulated either way as it obscures the true cost of purchases, publishing the numbers isnt enough imho, people are overloaded with choices and numbers in the information age, we need to cool it with throwing dozens of statistics at people and expecting them to be able to parse it and make rational choices.
...In my opinion, the difference between "gambling" and "lottery" is functionally semantic -- people who spend money on these games do so with very little guarantee of any worthwhile return. Whether that return is the same currency or access to digital product is irrelevant; that money is spending all the same, and there's no limit to how deep a hole they can dig. As such, and at the _very_ least even regardless, there need to be regulations on gachas focused on protecting people from predatory practices in them.
I mean playing the lottery is considered gambling
@@fedorrussel3810 Well, heck; right. Even simpler than I made it out to be. :B
Lotteries are for 18+ because it's gambling
I thought Gacha = "Got Ya!" Exclaimed when you finally get the item you want 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I always thought it was more like...."got ya lmao!" from the producers of the game....always put me off from this garbage
There's few channels I'll watch every single video from beginning to end. This is one of them. I would like to award you with the highest honor I can bestow: The notification bell
Here is my take on Gacha Games as there are reasons why this business model in Game seems to work very well in the Gaming market nowadays, is how they are implemented into the games itself. I could also say there are a very huge difference between the model Asia's Gacha system and western's loot box system as their differences can be quite obvious as little as it may be.
When it comes to Gacha Games, the model is simply enough; they make a Free-to-play game, add in the Gacha system, and at least have percentage shown for how you would get the character, even with the Pity system. As for the Western Lootbox system, even if you make the game free, it is about the model and percentage of how the item you would get for the game. For some reason, I'm more OK with the Gacha model better than the Lootbox model with more reasons I could think off.
Also, let me give you the reason why that Gacha games are more successfull that Lootbox. In my view, Lootbox you only get mostly coating and skins on either your character, your weapons, and more. As for the Gacha, you straight up role for a character, an item or a weapon that you will use in the Game.
And lastly, Gacha games is dominant with Anime-like design as it has more appeal to the anime community.
Don't forget waifus and their attires, the very reason they get so much money
"Its not gambling, its a lottery" lotteries are a form of gambling
Yeah lol pretty sure children arent allowed to play lotteries... because it's gambling
One of my takes on Gacha's is a key problem with the mindset for it, as evident from the line "At Gacha drawing, players will lose when they fail to get an item they desire." Whilst I can understand wanting a specific item, I always thought the appeal of a random obtainable was like in a Pokémon Nuzlocke, Roguelite, or Trading Card Game, where the fun is seeing what you can make work with what you get randomly. The endless desire for something specific rather ruins the potential appeal.
As for whether Gacha is gambling, well it certainly seems to have had a similar effect and regulations to keep it in-line with laws on gambling would make sense. Yet funny enough, it never felt that way in the form of Gachapon's... I suppose I can just see more appeal in being rewarded with something physical rather than digital.
Its 100% gambling, BUT unlike loot boxes you can gamble for free with some games including a pity system and constant events that rewards from small amounts to large amounts of pulls so all you really are gambling is your time, spending money is OPTIONAL and is not required (in some games it is, although those are generally terrible ones). In general most gacha games are generally F2P friendly and spending large amounts of cash for an item or waifu/husbando is optional as they can still be obtained F2P wise.
No, most gacha games are not f2p friendly lol.
Mihoyo really elevate or redefine gacha to the next level, and im glad something like Elden Ring exist and Ubisoft NFT accident happen so that unhinge exec will consider their game more carefully or probably not. Monetization isnt something u should prioritize it should be a tool to make ur progress easier not more (yes i oppose paid DLC stuff)
How does genshin redefine gacha tho? Like it has one of the worst gacha system in any gacha game but if you're talking about the quality of the game that is true, but I hope this won't be an influence to other developers
@@saxophones1041 Im a day one player after playing this for 1,5 year i could say it was nothing compared to other gacha because some of them are pityless u only hope to get SSR by just relying on pure luck (also keep in mind soft pity in genshin are 10-30 pulls any veteran know this and it will reset EACH banner thats why someone get 5* on 40-60 before the pity that is 70 pulls), Mihoyo even further decided to give pity to weapon banner after a lot lot lot of drama is going on which even validate the gacha in Genshin is not as ruthless as people say and still clearing hard content even though im a pure F2P i have zero investment into this game not even a penny. The quality of the game is what we are agreeing on so i would take that as a W to us gacha gamers
@@syarifht5929 I'm also a day 1 player, while it's true that a lot of gacha still doesn't have a pity system genshin still isn't the best on how they implemented it in my opinion also the sparking/pity system in the weapon banner is nice but it's still mostly for whales and u mentioned that pity reset everytime a banner change, but for what I know genshin pity system will carry if you don't get a 5 star the only things that reset is the fate points for the weapon banner
@@saxophones1041 Im by no means saying Genshin gacha system is the best amongst all gacha game, u get it wrong i was saying it wasnt the worst like everybody said, and about reset pity each banner u can go search for a reference on Streamer i've been researching this for quite sometime my lucky pulls are around 10 Guarantee, 10 Guarantee, 30 Loss, i think i got Tartag somewhere around 50 pulls not 70. I never made up my claim u can go watch some streamers and find the truth urself
@@saxophones1041 It's definitely not one of the worst, I wouldn't say it's that bad either.
Had been a slave to gachas for 14 years, have been sober for 5 months it is the best feeling to finally kick it. I suggest anyone does the deed and quit it if they still play these games.
Well um my best gacha game i encounrer is final fantasy record keeper its on mobile. All characters and spells are in game the only gacha is weapon. You dont need specific weapon to finish the game
Just finally deleted mine, and yes. That's exactly what these games are making, slaves.
I've been a Fire Emblem Heroes player since its launch day and I think it is a really friendly for been a gacha game. It has some questionable things like a subscription pass, but they over they time have updated the gacha system with good features like:
1) Move old 5 stars characters to a special category, and if you pull one it won't break your rate
2) If you do 40 pulls, you can choose one the 5 stars focus characters of the banner.
I don't know if these features are in other gacha games because FEH is my first gacha and I haven't play another one but I feel that this one is really friendly with its gacha system.
those have been in other games, some examples are FGO who done your first point, while Dragalia Lost done the second one on top of only ever needing 1 copy of a character to instead of needing copies to make them stronger. That system is left to the dragons which are really just equipment for the character.
I llove that Epic 7 had been shown. Love that game. And im totally f2p and very high level player
Played Brawl Stars for a little while but dipped when I realized how bad the gacha aspects were late game despite it being pretty F2P friendly overall. Now they have removed the gacha element entirely and I'm so surprised and very excited to play again! It's sad to see so many younger players upset they removed literal gambling from the game. It's like they have no other reference for what F2P games can be without loot boxes.
Even plants vs zombies garden warfare 2 had a gacha system its so funny
All these gachas have one thing in common: instilling FOMO. If they get you with the FOMO, that's all they need to get you hooked. Just a trap to make you slave away your time and eventually, your money
If you fall for it and have a collector mindset that is then sure, obviously these games pray on these people with certain weaknesses
Its simple if you have to pay 40-60bucks for a single pull on a gacha of a free gane. That game is made to milk ur wallet.
Since you can buy a full/complete game with that ammout, you would need to be dement at the very least to invest more than that in a free game, where there are new gachas every month that will outdoo your new units in a blink of an eye.
if you have to pay 40-60 for single pull, then you don't have any responsibility with money in the first place.
@@Kaimax61 so designers setting a low rate is somehow the players' irresponsibility?
yes, because if you're so stupid to play a game where a SINGLE roll costs that much - thats on you, tbh. @@revimfadli4666
I have always considered Gacha as gambling, or well, slot machines. That said, there are ways to enjoy them responsibly much like gambling. I'm a working adult, so I do have a good enough money sense to be aware of my own expenses. I also make myself aware of the hooks and tricks games use for players to shell out money so I don't get blindsided.
When games have pity systems, always expect to reach said pity when you are pulling for a desired character / weapon / item and plan accordingly. Don't be hooked with the mindset of "maybe my waifu will come out on my next pull, and another, and another". That's dangerous as you tend to swipe more if you don't plan properly.
I don't like the gacha mechanic, and fight against their inclusion in western games, but I do enjoy several games that _have_ gacha mechanics, such as Genshin Impact. It';s just a fantastic game by any reasonable measure. I just avoid _spending_ in the game to get better gacha odds. I only spend a few bucks a month based on enjoying the content they produce and will never up my spending just to get some character I really want.
Ah yes I hecking love Jenshin
Smithy werbenjagermanjenshin
My number one method to play gacha game (or loot box) is simply: Am I really gonna pay money just for some stupid PNG files?
Besides, most gacha games keep doing the stupid as sh*t bright screen animation when opening them. I believe it is a way to trigger people's dopamine, but to me, it burns my eye and fries my brain cell so I just skip them entirely or close my eye when opening them. Checkmate corporation
Its the player's money, ultimately their choice to spend and gamble with it, pray for rngesus.
Oh wow I had no idea that people who own money can spend it on things, what a smart and thought provoking comment
I once got into a game called Sinoalice, also that Tectone guy he makes good content and I learned the game through his tutorials as he teaches how to optimize a F2P approach to these gacha games but he's also honest about his status as a "whale" player and that $500 gets you nothing clip sums it up well, but yeah I poured several hours playing the game getting the items and characters I wanted and I was in a solid guild and mostly everyone was F2P too, but it was a matter of time we hit the ranks with a lot of whale guilds and it we were stuck, because our growth ratio was way slower compared to those who purchased rolls all the time, and even though we liked the game, we were not in the mindset of pouring real money for PNGs, (guess that's why I never falled for NFTs) but also these mobile gacha games are like mostly RPG like and there's not that much player input during gameplay so no matter how much we trained in the end if our equipment was of a lower level, the enemies will be making the bigger numbers we were destined to lose so there's that too, and in the end I quitted yet I remember the game fondly for the time I was playing it.
bring back maple story 2 :/
My only concern with regulations is that it could inspire people who know very little about video games to make big changes in the game industry, and not always for the better.
There was a time when people were so hung up on video game violence that they wanted to ban video games all together. I'd rather the game industry just grow how it wants and have consumers be responsible for spending their money wisely. Additionally we could use school programs to educate children on the dangers of gacha games and other online hazards so that more people go into adulthood knowing better.
Indeed
That’s the thing. Responsibility is a dying light, and so is accountability. People have grown soft and weak. The only thing that can change this is a major global event.
@X d fair.
Lol schools teaching anything valuable. I agree 80% of the people in power don't even know what Gachas are so I don't want them making decisions. But these games prey on addiction that's something a free market can't adjust to.
I feel like children about gacha games may also inadvertently make them want to play it depending on wgis doing the teaching.
As a person who had spent $3490 total on mobile games (FGO, Dagalia Lost, and Touhou Lost Word), I do agree that it is a form of gambling like slots. It becomes unhealthy when the spending becomes to much for a person when they spend more than they can truly afford. In my case, I have not spend those $3500 in a short time, it was over a year and I keep an excel sheet tracking every spending with a description on where and who for the big spending just be aware when to just save instead of spend. I even try to plan my spending ahead of time by putting money to the side just so I can spend on the stupid and not financially smart purchases like gachas or anime figures.
As long as you are aware on what you spent and its money you already planned on the side to be used on your stupid actions, I don't see an issue with spending it on gachas, but in turn when you spend without checking yourself, do not even bother spending on them.
This is what a gambling addict says to justify their addiction...
@@SlimeBlueMS yes I'm not bright
i love gachas cause every player has a unique experience. No one has the same account and its really fun to share with people. but yes its gambling
interesting Ive never heard of someone enjoying the individuality of experiences when playing gacha games. The grind and min-maxing that get copy and pasted overshadow that I guess... dont forget to do your dailies, that air balloon wont escort itself :D
as a gacha player f2p, i felt that gacha is gambling even tho im f2p and grind the hell out of the game its still a gamble. But in some case is optional, because you dont really need the character from the gacha. But sometimes the game make that character so op that you need it, i think i like what umamusume does, they have this limit card system where you can only spend amount of dollar for one month and also gave that pity system so its kind of fair.
But in the end gacha is still gacha so yea its still gambling
Dude just play a real game...
Lottery IS gambling lol.
Only gacha games I've played and spent money were survey sites that offered money hoping you would play and get addicted and I just quit after whatever level is easy to get of whatever challenge. Takes awhile but I just do it on free time and have profitted 10x+ what I've spent just because I'd only buy a few things to speed it up .I'm 29 and never bought a scratch off or gambled at a casino or online and never will. I don't get it. I know someone who actually "invests" in scratch off lotto tickets and has spent half his check before on them and got utilities cut off. I'm talking been buying them for 2-3 decades and know many in my family who buy them weekly.
Loved to see Arknights getting some representation in this video. The developers and publishers of Arknights do an excellent job and are very generous comparatively. It's not necessarily the most generous but you could make a case that if you adjust for the quality of content/gameplay that it is 1 of, if not the most, generous gacha game.
I feel like you missed a significantly important point in that the Gacha model allows some of the players to get a $100 Million dollar development game (such as Genshin Impact) completely for free and still get to acquire some of the rare and exclusive characters as well (though obviously not as many of them).
Debatably, you could argue that the F2P players are "spending" their time but it's literally a game, and a good one at that. So if they're getting rewarded for playing a game how is that spending time? More likely than not they're able to counteract other stressful elements in their life (i.e. work) through this leisure time as well. Though I will grant that the wrong personality can get stressed out (or at least accrue some stress) from the Gacha system as well.
Well f2ps can burnout, so if the content in game were slurped by players they'll get bored. Thats why in order to save up in game currwncy of pull you must log in everyday just like total job instead play a game
@@genus5987 exactly burn out is real. Mind you some of the most generous f2p gacha hero collector is Cookie run kingdom. Easily grind to collect all units bar the limited crossovers sonic and tails, and that one kingdom only cookie
Playing the slots except the chance of winning any money is absolute 0
As a life long player of competitive card games, I have always compared the loot box mechanic to the card pack mechanic. Obvious to me now, that its all just gacha and has its forms everywhere.
Lottery is not gambling, just because the end result is "different"? Lmao, that's the definition of gambling, it`s not about the result, it's about the risk, and at the end of the day, both strategies are gamble. Both are addictive, both have misleading odds and both can destroy your bank account if you're not careful.
Gacha just "normalized" the market on the last decade, bringing microtransactions along the way, which sucks. It can be enjoyed without spending (depending on the game, ofc), but like pointed out by the end of the video, as long as a few whales support it, the system will go on.
Gambling has several different definitions in different context (law, games, ethics, psychology, region, etc.)
According to Oxford and Cambridge, gambling involves official currencies and "betting" is for other stakes
On the other hand, Merriam-Webster and Britannica use gambling as a generic term
There's value in being more specific when discussing the subject. While financial consequences are the same and it should be grouped together, a gacha system will always be a trade. Which gambling and betting are not
@@RamzaBeoulves Sure, though often betting is also considered gambling. It's really a semantic argument rather than a practical one. From a practical point of view they're the same. You put up some form of goods of value for a chance to get a return on investment with little to no influence on the outcome.
Even playing blackjack or poker with friends and playing for nothing but pokerchips is still gambling as those pokerchips would dictate a winner thus have some value and thus be gambling, gambling with no monetary stakes but still gambling.
Most games and a bunch of life has chance/luck/"RNG", if gambling is not defined carefully even starting a business is "gambling"
@@relo999 Oh absolutely, in most contexts I use gambling to describe all of these
Where I see the distinction being relevant is specifically its integration into games
Since the worst possible "roll" still grants the user a reward, it COULD be designed in ways that most wouldn't see as predatory or unethical
Which (I think) classic gambling and betting can't achieve as the winners' gains are [always?] funded by the losers' loss
Tho I could be entirely wrong
@@RamzaBeoulves gambling doesn't require gains at a losers cost, though that is common for obvious reasons. A simple example of it not being the case is surprise lotteries that use entry tickets as lottery tickets. Or another would be a prize pool is set up by a third party.
Simply gaining a reward regardless would still be gambling as far as I can see, as most outcomes are not remotely worth the investment. Would a slot machine that would give you always a 5 cent pity win when one lever pull would cost you a dollar not be gambling? To me it certainly is. And this is basically the setup lootboxes/gacha games use, high chance that you don't get your money's worth out of it per roll low chance to get a worthwhile ROI per roll and on average your ROI is lower than the value you put in.
And yes, games can implement them to not be predatory and/or unethical. However that's basically impossible the moment you request real world money, or in-game currency bought with real world money, for a chance. Loads of games have implemented them in a non-predatory way, pokemon being a obvious example with breeding for competitive pokemon or shiny pokemon as the only investment is time while you aren't content for other players. (which is another issue as the FTP players are functioning as "to dunk on" content for paying players, thus time investment isn't really free in multiplayer games that create "free" rolls. It's akin to Subway telling people you'll get a free sandwich if you walk with a Subway shirt all week, is it really a free sandwich if you're a walking advertisement all week?)
Granted it's all on a scale, pokemon being the obvious "yea no issue at all", skins from lootboxes being "ehh, that's questionable" and multiplayer gacha games with game play effecting content "yea, deffo unethical".
Another aspect that I believe should be pointed out is that actual gambling (with table games and such) is outlawed in Japan, which is why gacha games and Pachinko are so popular there.
On my part, I feel that gacha games are fine as long as you avoid the most prevalent traps (FOMO, impulsive spending of resources, etc.) and plan what you want to do in the long run.
The law was apparently lifted in recent years.
It’s sad that the players in the Netherlands and Belgium gets more limited game options… but fu** if those countries don’t rock for protecting their citizens 🤘🥰
Protected but locked out of all fun and risk in life 😂
Brawlstars is easily the most predatory gatcha game I’ve ever seen. They literally just offered a sale of gems that had 3 offers. All the offers gave the same amount of gems at different prices. It’s like the whole small, medium, large bait at movie theaters that squeeze you for money, except they were all literally the exact same price. The average age of a player is around 14 years old…
brawl have the lot box system but not the much of "most predatory" you as player (let say f2p) can save enough gems to unlock the brawl pass (the best value )and do some daily quest who dont take allot of time
yes if you spend mony
you gonna have faster account progres but it's still playbal even if you f2p
clash royal/cans however....
Gambling should be legalized for adults world-wide, then add Gacha gaming into gambling. I have no problem with banning this stuff for children, but adults should be allowed to decide for themselves how they want to spend their money.
Totally legal in my country we get gambling ads on TV.
While I have many issues with the game, one thing I love about FE Heroes is the 5star percentage rates. The maps are short to clear, and the amount of orbs you need to summon are small and very easy to get. I am usually able to get at least one of the five stars I want from a certain banner, with only a few hours of gameplay.
It got much better over the years, especially with more story quests. I remember the first year……. That was….interesting
Thanks for featuring one of my favorite operator, Earthspirit. 4:28
i think every single game offering gacha mechanics should be rated 18+ & far heavier regulated, with notices on how much money you have spent.
But the devs of gacha doesnt give a shit cause they want money
I used to play Genshin Impact,I mainly played for Lisa I don't play Gacha Games anymore because well I don't want to spend money on it.(best waifu in Genshin Impact in my opinion)
Genshin impact is literally very easy f2p.
Even your "waifu" is f2p only
@@traplegend5065 Agree, You can get away with no money in GI. Try FGO, and you fucked.
I don’t even play Genshin, and I still think Lisa is shit.
Why have a sadistic bioelectric librarian when you can have a cryokinetic goat-woman who is so fucking thick that her ass has canonically *KILLED SOMEONE?*
Genshin has no leader boards, no PvP.... it 's the most f2p friendly gacha game...
Gacha is WORSE than gambling. At least with gambling, you’re expected to win some money back. With gacha, you’re losing 100% of your bet for nothing meaningful in return.
It's definitely gambling, which is a shame since some of these games have interesting concepts and good art.
I prefer arcade era than this bullshit gambling shit
@@genus5987there's a catch
Arcade games like tekken use input reading ai or auto block especially tekken 2 and tekken 7, tekken 6, specifically made to extract money from the player, even qudan one of the best tekken players struggling for an hour against akuma in the ps4 version.
Also please go to Japanese arcade centre, you will still have to gacha for cards for some games like
rhythm game
Kancolle game
Fgo
And others.
I was initially object to gacha games, but I warmed up to it after seeing how it funds quality games.
We had the last decade watching low-quality mobile games outperforming console/PC games by far. It needs no explanation that good games need years of development and marketing to succeed, but the only source of income was selling packages.
I feared the era of good games was over, but these games eventually found ways to monetize, such as tournament viewership, cosmetics, and subscription models, and I think gacha is just one of them.
As long as they share the success rates publically and don't force players to do it, it should be fine.
Speaking of which, Korea just passed a law forcing companies to publically announce the gacha rates. Companies heavily rebelled against this because they were secretly changing the rates on the fly, but the players rose up to defend this law.
This is why lootbox and gacha won't ever dies off.
It works and it's actually the best way to make money now.
@@peacechan4500 Being profitable doesn't necessarily care about being moral.
@@peacechan4500 And every Asian Government needs money from Gacha genre
I wonder if there's a study that compares people who spend a lot on gatcha vs actual casinos and which is more dangerous. Like are the whales who spend thousands on a mihoyo game or FGO also spending on slots or blackjack?
Actual casinos require ID etc which gachas do not only your 💳 information 😂 so its pretty clear who is the winner
Gacha IS gambling. IMO we really need tougher regulation on the video game market.
They already have, The west is just too slow and lazy. Go check how japan regulates it.
Gacha isn't gambling.
Gambling is about playing for increased financial stability.
Gacha games, (at least the best examples) are about receiving a random boost to your arsenal, and encouraging improvisation on your adventure.
@@LoliconSamalik Gambling isn't exclusively for money. People are still spending copious amounts of money for a chance to win worthless PNGs and items. Just because they're not spending money to win money doesn't automatically make it ok.
It's not about whether or not gacha is gambling. What is important is the negative implications of gacha systems on consumers
@@yorha.a2 the difference between gambling in a gacha game and gambling in a casino is that you know that once u put money in a gacha game that money is already gone and u won’t get money in return. That’s probably one of the reasons why it’s illegal to sell accounts
Gacha is not gambling 😅 and people should stop trying to say “it is gambling hence it is BAAAD 🤡”. There is no direct way of re-monetizong good luck in gacha, I really don’t see why people are so confused about it, but anyways: Even if it WAS gambling, people should be entitled to their own money and self control or lack there of it. Governments should never try to paternalize on the matter, it is not a government responsibility; personal finance is a personal matter. If that sounds ridiculously obvious, that’s because it is.
Gacha is usually really horrible P2W (or pay to waifu for Genshin). There can be very rare instances where they are implemented well and are fair.
Case and point, Dissidia Opera Omnia. Tons of free resources and GL server has the foresight of seeing all banners in advance on JP side. It is possible to get everything you want with a bit of planning. Personally, I have every single weapon on the banners currently available. All content complete, spent $6 over 4 years. Have more currency than I can use.
F2P-friendly gachas are not that rare, I have a handful of them in my mind atm. Usually those are the ones build with "pay to skin" in mind. That's where the real gacha lies.
P2w gacha are mostly die in less than 2 years because no f2p players will survive, and the whales have no one to flex with.
Interesting how there's no mention of Magic Arena or Hearthstone, which are even worse forms of gambling as it's literally pay to win.
I may not have spent money i have sure spent a whole year of my life (that i will never get back) saving up for a hyped waifu that's coming out in a couple of months.
100% Gambling.
So time is gold ehh
Overwatch Loot Boxes still haunt me 👻
Conversely, there was a time where I was so disinterested in lootboxes that I had a couple hundred of them that I didn't bother opening until a friend nagged me into doing it. Cosmetics don't motivate me as much as gameplay and lore mechanics.
overwatch is a baby compared to most games nowadays, you get so much currency for free for any skin you want so fast
Overwatch is really kind tbh I always get to get all the new skin just by grinding sure sometimes if u get unlucky just get it next time
@@madsiesOW loot boxes are also only cosmetic so there’s no need to buy them anyways.
@@unsaltedmixednuts8036 which is why i cringe every time I see someone throw away their $$ at those lootboxes in OW. The 0 IQ is real with those guys. God, I worry about their life in general if they can make such a stupid decision.
I'm kind of surprised trading card games weren't mentioned.
I treat gacha games like every other games: is the content worth the money I'm paying for in terms of entertainment? So a game like Genshin Impact, which is free to play as in you don't pay any upfront price/subscription to be able to play it, is just amazing value to me. You can play it and drop it whenever it's not fun anymore, your time spent is rewarded in the entertainment, and you don't lose any money invested in it. Of course you're not going to have any 5 star weapons or C6 5 star characters or every 5 star character, but you have fun with what you get from free pulls. And personally I find the game fun enough I actually sink 5$ every month for Welkins because the amount of stuff I get, and thus the fun, is worth the price
I'm addicted. Been for 3.5 years. Aaaah.
Genshin in general is just cruel, the game mechanics are so complex and fun but i'll never spend any money on it.
I never spent money on it and I have 16 5* characters (not counting dupes). Worst game to be an example.
Was really into DBZ Dokkan Battle. There was one character featured I really wanted. Dropped $100 trying to get it. Didn’t get it. Uninstalled and never went back. Highway robbery.
oo nice Elsword music at 1:21 It makes me nostalgic!
My take on Gacha game. Its my choice to play or not to play them. And for the most part I love most of them. Ive played around 18 in the last year and only spent money on 2 cause of collabs. Outside that regardless how much I want a unit if have enough self control to keep being f2p.
I'd say that most "bad" gacha games fall into a few categories.
The most obvious one is the AFKRPG category. If you see a game being advertised as such, RUN!
The second one is the idle game category. Obvious for impatient people.
The third one is the MMORPG category. Grind for 9500 hours while everyone else is blowing $2500/d or more to stay at the top!
Of course, there are many more game genres out there, but the AFKRPG category is THE WORST OF THEM ALL.
In fact, if you see a free2play game that advertises itself as an RPG, it's MOST LIKELY an AFKRPG. DO NOT PLAY THEM. YOU WILL LOSE ALL SELF CONTROL OR QUIT IN AN HOUR.
Y’know playing without using a cent is possible, but... who am I kidding none of y’all can hold back.
The addition of birthday train for the outro has made me happier
It's gambling, but without the monetary return.
I remember as a kid I used to go nuts for Yu-Gi-Oh cards and packs. Now, years later, I have a bunch of cards I don't play with anymore. It was never the having, it was the getting, and it's the same with these games, but the price is too damn high. It's literally higher than some can afford.
Haha fax its the same goal
Except in real gachas you get something every time. Maybe not the one you wanted, but something generally of equal value.
In gacha games, not only is the item you get not even real (costs 0 dollars to make more copies of the item), you also don't even get the item.
Imagine a gacha where, for 1 dollar, you could spin the wheel for a guaranteed 4star and a 20% chance of a 5star. That would, perhaps, be more similar to a real machine.
But no. Digital gachas are filled with literal trash. Most of the time you get nothing. Straight up nothing.
Inconceivable for a real gacha machine to drop a single tictac or something, 90% of the time. Dropping the thing you actually want, which by the way has $0,- real world value, only 0.5% of the time. Costing you on average 200 dollars to get ONE.
But for gacha video games, this is the standard.
I typically use smart budgeting when playing gacha. Games like Pocket Camp and FeH have a less than $10 monthly which is fine for me. I tether my expectations accordingly, I don't follow tiers, I just go for content/favorite characters, and if I don't get it within a budgeted lot, I just simply don't go past. I typically also only pay for games I really like. Didn't care for guardian tales so I never paid for gacha, and eventually dropped it because I didn't get too into it. But FeH I when my gems run dry, if they do which is rare as I accrue gems easily. But I also REALLY like Fire Emblem so I'm okay with giving them 20 bucks here and there. Most I ever dropped in one session was 50 for FEH lol
In Australia, the Lotto is seen as gambling
there another kind of this game that makes you hope to get something with an extremely low chance, but you'll still do it anyway no matter how long it took or how many investment you have to put in, but it's free(-ish)
mmo or rpg with drop chance for their items
Drop Chance doesn't require money at all though. Drop Chance is just randomness but if it doesn't drop there's no feeling to pay for it unless your desperate
@@illford well if i understand what this comment is trying to say is that you are gambling your time instead of money
Probably doesnt make sense but if we really breaking it down to definitions then gambling your position by taking an uneven or disadvantaged fight in a BR or FPS game is gambling too. At some point trying to break down and read deeply into definitions is ridiculous.
@@illford yeah, that's why I said it's free(-ish), you just gotta grind and some game give you the option to skip that grind with money
FOMO CASINO WAIFUS PVP are a deadly combo
I like gatcha games on android but I hate gambling being associated with them as a monetization method. Gambling refers to playing a game of chance by paying a certain amount of money as a participation fee for a chance to win anything from a common prize that is worth nothing to something ultra rare that is worth a lot to the winner. Obviously most Android f2p games don't outright expect players to pay upfront to roll the dice on getting whatever it is the game uses gatcha mechanics on (item, armor or character). But they do use a limited token currency to control the experience. Some games lock these tokens away entirely behind pay walls, while others give you maybe one token per day as reward for daily participation. Still others try a bit of both (alchemy star because I play the game and have seen them implement purchase only tokens twice so far). While they are not barring players from getting the tokens to chance at getting a rare or legendary character the drop rate for rare and legendary items after the honeymoon (1st 2 months after launch) period is reduced to drastically that players who started playing the game at launch experience severe withdrawal symptoms as they notice the lowered frequency of drops more clearly then late participant (I know because I experienced it while playing alchemy star). It is a marketing strategy involving psychological coercion to force player into tapping into that urge to pay money to get more tokens and get the euphoria of winning the legendary characters. I really don't like this monetization tactic as it causes unnecessary stress to the participant and can psychologically destabilize a completely normal person by drawing out their compulsion to gamble and financially ruin themselves. Gatcha games on android need to stop doing that. If they expect people to pay money no matter what they should just switch to paid gaming model so there is no pretenses between the publisher and consumer who are prepared to pay on what degree of monetization to expect. Those gatcha games that still insist on f2p model, should dial back on exclusivity of paid merchandise that is to say if a games main focus is waifu collection then keep the drop rate fair (not 2% but 20%), reduce the number of tokens that need to be used before mercy system kicks in to an amount that is fair enough (based on the games token income rate and event period length) to happen during the period of the event rather then 5 events later. And most importantly only put customizing items like outfit change or character appearance change or upgrade items that players can alternatively get by daily grinding behind pay walls instead of putting specific waifus or stories (including side stories) that are part of the games core gameplay features behind pay walls.
Although I used alchemy star as an example, I have to add that AS is probably far less offensive in respect to forcing players into using real money compared to many high end gatcha games on android. I actually play AS because although recently they have experimented with purchase only gatcha tokens and side stories locked behind pay walls, they are still a lot less coercive as players can freely acquire practically all upgrade material simply by playing the game daily and using the gatcha tokens they get daily. If players happen to get duplicate characters they are simply converted to upgrade material or currency tokens to purchase items from one of 5 in game token stores. I have misgivings about their gatcha drop rate and lack of mercy system, I think it is still a lot less aggressive in its monetization practice compared to others...for now at least.
Gacha games are a waste of time. Play a real game