#you don't have to defend them. gacha games don't need you to defend them it's okay

[doyouknowthischaracter]

Y'all act like you're automatically better than gacha game players and I need y'all to let go of your stupid fucking superiority complex. Yeah these games have problems, so fucking what. They're not unique in them, they're not the first games to have these problems, and the fanbases aren't uniquely annoying. I'm tired of hearing the bitching of you fuckers. "Choosing peace and love" my ass, then don't publish these asks shitting on the games.

.... I promise it's not that serious. I promise. I didn't want to put you guys on blast when you told me to die etc. in the tags because a submitter made a mistake about a character's source material and I didn't know enough about it to catch and correct it, but that coupled with this kind of reaction? Not a good look for you. You're not exactly beating the "uniquely annoying fanbase" allegations. (Which, btw, is something YOU came up with. Nobody else here claimed that.)

Anyway, I'm not mad. I just think this is funny. But I won't be answering any more asks about gacha games or whatever for now because I don't want this to turn into a whole thing.

Happy first dyktc mini drama to all those who celebrate!! ✨

[cluescorner]

As somebody who plays or has played both of these games...yeah this is accurate. 

Also: CRK players have a “not like other gacha games” complex because the character designs are cute cookies instead of sexy anime women and the pity system is better than most gacha games, even if the gameplay and progression systems are WORSE than the average gacha game

arknights players have a "not like other gacha games" complex because arknights has cool UI and a neat story with probably the most forgiving whale tears mechanic in the gacha market currently + it's ~edgy and gritty~ so it's easier to convince yourself that the story is deep

genshin players have a "not like other gacha games" complex because a significant portion of the western playerbase has never gotten suckered by a gacha game before and can neither accept that they've been had by predatory anime pngs (something they used to openly look down on) nor admit that they've specifically been had by one of the most predatory companies in the gacha market currently

[cerastes]

With the exception of Arknights what are your thoughts on gacha games?

I don't feel like I need to exclude Arknights from the statement, I can criticize things even if I like them.

In general, I don't like that their widely accepted and even defended business model is "Capitalize on FOMO, exploit gambling addictions, create dependent users". I also think that the use of the "game as a service" model, and one that needs to keep pumping content forever and can't risk to alienate the player, severely limits what can be done with the medium in terms of creativity, because you can't kill off playable characters nilly willy (I actually think Epic Seven was cooking with this, Epic Seven will kill off playable characters and remove them from the plot if it feels like it, or at least used to back when I played, don't know nowadays), relationships and dynamics with characters tend to be limited because otherwise your audience can feel like you are cucking them, and I wish I was kidding but just look at the absolute dumpster fire of a drama going on as we speak (22nd of January, 2024) in Girls' Frontline 2 over in China over one of the characters having interactions with a male NPC, and you can't ever bring a true sense of finality to any given arc because everything ends up having to be foreshadowing, set-up, build-up and so on and on and on. In many cases, you also have a mold cast of Must Have tropes in your playable cast: The Maid, The Idol, The One That Worships The Ground You Walk On, The Underage And Underclothed One, The Underage (But We Treat This One As A Precious Child!) One, Foxgirl, The Cold And Highly Analytical One (But Actually, Loves You), Chuuni, etc, so it feels like in every game I kinda already know at least a third of the cast minimum already and I'm kind of primed to not really want to know them, even though there's subversions I end up liking sometimes (Fenny from Snowbreak is an example of an Idol-type I ended up loving despite not liking Idol-types).

On the other hand, even with these negatives in mind, having a game that periodically updates and adds content, and that you can discreetly play pretty much everywhere on the go due to smartphones being their main 'console', games that foster community and something to talk about with your friends that also play and that will always have something new every couple of weeks, as well as inspire fanart, fanworks, analysis, and commentary, and that tend to be more risque and interesting with their designs is honestly good to have. I personally enjoy the community aspect of gacha games, I consider it one of the two most important aspects for me, because I know I can come here, for example, and see people talking about the story, the characters, the music, the gameplay, and more, every day, and the other important thing to me is how discreet they are, since I can just play a few maps or stages in my phone real fast midst a social situation at work, and then hop back in with a renewed social battery or when a topic I like comes up.

I fully get when people showcase their disdain for gacha, yeah, but if we really want to be nitpicky, the majority of the game industry is kind of a cesspool of toxicity, which is not to say "stop bashing gacha" and instead say "bash the whole thing if you're going to be bashing it anyway" (and we should! Game devs and other personnel in the industry have been crying for better conditions for years now!). Either way, if someone decides to sit at the gambling den, it becomes their responsibility. I want there to be more safeguards for people with actual addictions and to protect them, but with this in mind, if anyone still decides to sit at the den, it's assumed they are going to take responsibility for their actions and financial decisions.

So all in all, yeah, predatory games that suffer in quality due to their own trappings, but also good sources of community, inspiration, and effective at being discreet games you can play anywhere and that get periodic updates (this isn't necessarily exclusive to gacha but it is an aspect of them that bears mentioning, which I point out since no doubt people will want to point out there's good non-gacha smartphone game options out there)

[raelyn-dreams]

Hi hi!! Did you read the valkyrie climax event? What are your thoughts on it? Do you think it was a good development for Valkyrie as a unit (and for shumika)? 🤔

Hi!!! It's lovely to see you again :)

So originally this post started off with a Le temps des fleurs analysis...that got so long that rather than subject everyone to a five page post, I've decided I'll post separately in the future lol.

But yes, I have read through Raison D'etre! To be honest, I don't think this post will be able to sum up all my thoughts, but I'll try to hit the important parts!

I feel that first I need to define what, to me, makes a good climax event. A good climax event, by my personal definition, ties up loose threads of the current storyline, addresses built-up conflicts with good pacing and in-character reactions, and resolves the current story thread of the unit while still allowing many more narratives to be weaved in the future. So far, of the other units we've gotten climax events of (fine, Crazy:B, Ra*bits, Double Face, and as of recently, 2wink), I think this has all been done fairly well - a couple character slip-ups, a few pacing issues here and there, a shoved-in conflict or two - but ultimately, they did their job, and I came away feeling fairly satisfied by their current conclusions.

I think I also need to state that I do not expect, nor frankly want, all of the character's issues and relationships to come away squeaky clean and unproblematic. I'm always for development of course (Neverland's garbage talk made me sob over how far Shu and Mika have come), but ultimately, this game is about a bunch of screwed-up kids in an exploitative industry, and how they navigate it while facing their own personal issues. Like other gacha games, from otomes like Obey Me to fellow joseimukes like Twisted Wonderland, the end goal is not to make the characters perfect, or even relatively good people. It's to weave a satisfying narrative, something that hooks and engages people. And while I will be the first to say the Enstars writing is not always "good" and can be riddled with problems, I still see a lot of potential in it and ultimately enjoy it, which is why I'm writing this.

I'm happy to say that Valkyrie did not break the pattern of satisfying climax events for me, and in fact, has come away as my favorite of them thus far. I readily admit that bias does in fact play a factor in my enjoyment - as it did with 2wink's and I'm sure it will when Alkaloid's drops - but I truly did feel that Valkyrie's climax event was incredibly satisfying for both of them.

So, onto the story!

Some of my favorite bits:

Shu defending Nazuna's autonomy was so asdfghjkl 😭 GODDAMN that hit me right in the feels! I liked that despite Nazuna being part of the event, the writing didn't try to dredge up ex-valk issues, and instead used Nazuna as a person close to them in order to forward their development, rather than as an angst tool, if that makes sense? He also seems to be doing a lot better since Ra*bits climax (poor man finally caught a break), so good for him! Also, Mika gaining weight! He is finally eating properly 🥺 I'm so proud.

Ok, so adding onto the above, initially the Kuro-Nazuna crossdressing subplot made me wary since I was afraid enstars was backtracking into some of its more...iffy writing choices (*stares at Poltergeist*). However, after reading the story through, I can safely say that the way it ties back into the theme was good, and ultimately, neither Kuro nor Nazuna exhibited any behavior that impacted my enjoyment of the story (+ this thread addressing issues people had with Kuro here, because my dude was getting attacked when this dropped).

Instead of "haha man in a dress", it showed a good progression of attitudes with old vs new era and Japan vs West that I felt was explored pretty thoughtfully, and the way Shu and Mika honored that by having such gnc stage costumes was very lovely! Kuro and Nazuna's good reactions to it also showed how much more open-minded they were as compared to Shu's grandfathers era, and also showed a reflection of enstars own writing changes between ! and !! era (ex. Koga and Subaru dropping their slur usage towards Arashi, Kaoru being more thoughtful towards Adonis's background, etc). I'm not trying to be a suck-up to the writers, since there is some stuff they've written that is...less than lovely. However, I don't think this situation was one of them, and overall, it tied back into Shu's journey well.

One scene I really want to talk about is the foie gras conversation because that was just!!! so!!! It's a very small scene in the grand scheme of things, but I thought it showed their development really well (Raelyn get new phrases challenge lol), so I wanted to mention it here! Mika wants to try foie gras, and Shu is like "why. it's gross and inhumane and there are so many better foods" which is totally fair (foie gras is often inhumanely created). However, Mika doesn't automatically apologize and back down like he would in the past, stating that he knows, but he still finds it interesting. Shu also does not shut Mika down; he states that maybe at another time, though he sticks to his own boundaries of not having it himself.

What I really like about this scene on Shu's end (and his relationship with Mika as a whole) is that he does not regress into treating Mika like he did Nazuna; he does not try to insist that Mika is perfect and should not soil himself with such indelicacies, nor does he put him on a pedestal and automatically throw out his own opinions for Mika (essentially, treating him as Mika treated him). Shu truly treats him as an equal here, by stating his own opinion and having an open and meaningful conversation with Mika, getting his view on it without completely sacrificing his own thoughts. Mika, in turn, does not treat Shu's words as gospel, nor does he feel the need to plead his case; the conversation is entirely casual, a mere exchange between partners, but its so important because its one of the first times they've demonstrated that they've made it to this point. The whole thing is wrapped very nicely in a bow by Shu creating something with a similar taste and texture to foie gras to give Mika a similar experience, without having to cook the actual thing - its a great compromise both are satisfied with, and gives us a look into how their current art and performances are being created.

(Translations below by mika_enstars)

Shu's whole-hearted acceptance of Mika also comes back into play during the grave-robbing aftermath, which is something I have a lot of thoughts on, so I'll save it for a separate post.

Getting into what blew every enstars fan's mind, time to discuss the very queer themes of Raison D'etre. This shocked me when the translations first came out - I think the closest we've EVER gotten to this amount of explicit rep was Beasts and Pretty Mission, and even those can be argued for different interpretations, though I feel their text is pretty clear. Lots of queer fans (including me) gravitate to Valkyrie, and enstars as a whole tbh, for good reason - lots of their story aspects can be considered queer, from Shu's feminine interests and subsequent bullying, Nazuna feeling "trapped" by ex-Valk's expectations, and Mika's alt interests and unwavering devotion.

The doll plot was confusing as hell lol, but I get why it was done in such a convoluted manner, since it was supposed to be left up to interpretation, and force Shu and Mika to come to their own conclusions. Shu's grandfather deliberately set it up in such a way that Shu would be forced to weave the story he wants, and in doing so, accept the parts of himself he had hidden away - a fairly thin parallel to his grandfather's queer youth.

However, the difference here is that Shu does not plan on hiding, he does not plan on bundling away his feelings in a neat little box (or journal, in this case), and leaving them behind. In Antique Legend, we see that Shu's grandfather clearly tried to conform to what was expected of him, and impart those same values onto Shu - though Shu never fully stuck to those principles in favor of forging his own path, which I think his grandfather was secretly proud of him for.

(Antique Legend: Dumps of Dreams, Ep 8)

Shu internally monologues about how different his grandfather's time and the current one he lives in are, and how things are evolving in such a way that he can stand on stage without the ridicule his grandfather may have faced. This, along with the ending of "Let's live together happily, Kagehira" as an ode to his grandfather's dreams, really does read like a love story to me, especially the part right before where Mika compares the love Shu's grandmother has for his grandfather as the same love Shu has for him - which Shu doesn't deny.

A couple other things to wrap up:

I found it so interesting how Mika and Shu had different takes on his grandfather's life, and trying to unravel the truth was both fun and a chore and a half for me lol. All in all, the audience isn't meant to know fully, but I think Mika's theory might hold a bit more water (Shu's grandfather being gnc and dating the landlady), since he had extra info and is bffs with Naru, giving him a bit more insight. However, I can definitely see why Shu went with his theory of "grandpa had many different male lovers in his youth", as not only is it the one that does not imply cheating, but it is a closer representation of how Shu feels, and I think that's what grandpa was trying to get at.

The use of "boku" and "ore" was also pretty good storytelling imo, and adds an extra layer of projection, since Shu uses "boku" while Mika uses "ore" in day-to-day life. "Boku" is also seen as politer and more formal, while "ore" is more casual and was at one point seen as crass, which reflected their story roles well!

The fact that Shu's grandfather just??? Fakes his death on a regular basis is???? So???? I can't even asdfghjkl. Kuro being like "yeah, I comforted him the first 5 times, but then I got kinda sick of it" is so funny too. I wonder if any of the rich enstars kids are gonna do this in the future, my money's on Eichi (for profit), Ritsu (for fun), or Hiyori (for drama) personally.

I know I said I wouldn't talk about it here, but the grave-robbing aftermath where Shu describes Mika as a fairy during their first meeting, as a contrast to how he had always described him as a ghost? That got me so good, especially since it's something so idealistic being used when Mika is currently cold and covered in dirt. It's just such wholehearted acceptance of his partner, it's so beautiful.

Anyways, I think I'll end it here, but again, thank you so much for the ask and patience Dia!!!

(Edit: accidentally included RYUSEITAI with the climax units, it's fixed now)

[icharchivist]

hey!! sorry if this is a tough question to answer (pls ignore it in that case), but if I really really loved relink's world, specially the characters and their stories found in the fate episodes, do you think it's a good idea to check out the mobage? or would it be better to watch the anime instead?

thank you in advance, I hope you've been doing well!

Aaah heyy <33

First of all, welcome in Granblue Fantasy! i'm so glad you enjoyed Relink as much as you did <33333 Granblue is a very special game for me and Relink really was a wonderful adaptation of it all, and i'm so thrilled that new people can get to discover Granblue thanks to it!

As for me, i've never watched the anime and i have been playing the mobage since 2019, still going strong now 💪 so as you can imagine, i would recommand the mobage more personally.

it depends however if you are comfortable with Visual Novels, since the main game is pretty much a Visual Novel with Turn-by-turn RPG mechanisms!

The anime has two seasons and cover the very begining of the main story, before doing its own thing, taking inspiration from the game but not straight up adapting it. I'd say, it's a good experience if you want to discover a bit more about the world. That said you'll only see in it the characters from the Main Plot of Relink (MC, Lyria, Vyrn, Katalina, Rackam, Eugen, Rosetta, Io, i call them the Core Crew personally), and it won't go as in deep into them as the mobage does. I think Zeta makes a small appearance in the anime, possibly Ferry too? but that will be about it.

but if you want to really know the characters, do feel free to play the Mobage.

it's actually a browser game that is optimized for chronium browsers. You can play it here:

(on the homepage you'll be able to switch to English and tadaa. after the prologue they'll ask you to bind your account, i recommand you make a Mobage account to connect to Granblue. The wiki can give you a step by step way to do it)

Most of the stories of the game are easily available as you progress through the main story. you don't need to get really deep into the gameplay (unless you want to) to really access to most of the story.

There are stories that are locked in Fate Episodes, which comes from units you get from Gacha most of the time. Those can give you a pretty good glance into granblue in general.

The Main Story Quest (MSQ) will introduce you to the Core Crew and will give you free units of them all. It's in the MSQ that you'll also meet Ferry, from the extended character list.

Once you progress into the MSQ, you'll unlock the Side Stories. those are basically parallels story of when the crew stops on others islands, not related to their search for Estalucia. It's in this tab that you will meet the rest of the cast.

For example, to meet Lancelot, Vane, Siegfried and Percival, you need to read up to chapter 16 of the Main Story, and the story "Defender's Oath" will unlock This was their first appearances. They have a lot of stories since they have a guaranted story event every year. In doubt if you want to find some reading list, the wiki is your friend, or you can also ask me, i'm happy to help!

For information, the side stories first start out as limited event stories. There is one new one every months on the mobage. Once the event is over, it will disappear from the game, unless you read through it (or skipped it) so it was saved in Lyria's journal for you to come back to whenever you want; Eventually, it will get a rerun (there's usually a rerun once a month or once every two months), and then down the line it will get added to the side stories.

so it means that there are some stories you won't find in the side story tab.

THAT SAID.

If all of this is complicated on its own, or you don't want to play the game but still read on the story, or if you don't want to get invested in the gacha to get the fate episodes: know that about all of the content of the game is available on youtube, and the script of each of them is also available on the wiki.

The game may be a little confusing to know what to read.

The wiki can help, but it's also confusing when you don't know what to look for.

at any rate, know that my inbox is always opened if you have questions, if you want to look for tips, for stories to read, for links, anything you may want. I'm always happy to help.

I think you can always watch the anime and it'll give you a little clearer of an idea of what those characters are, but if you want to KNOW them, the mobage is totally the way.

As a little warning, the writing improved a lot during the decade the game ran, and early content tends to be a little more simplistic or shorter. So if you don't get grabbed in right away, do consider that the further you'll go, the better the stories.

The valentine's day campain will be ongoing soon, so if you want to give vday chocolates to Katalina or Rackam or Rosetta, you can start the game and discover that for yourself ;D

The 10th anniversary event will also be underway in a couple of weeks, which will normally come with free pulls and rewards, which makes it a good season to start the game to get some footing, if you feel like it.

Hope it helps a little, i'm opened for any clarification!

and once again i'm so happy Relink made you this invested into this world <3333

Take care!

[cringefailfagcat]

i shall tell you more abt arknights <3

so ! you got all these funky lil like. kemonomimi (and some that are just full-on furries at this point ksdghds. hung my woof woof) so thats fun <3 anyway. the story involves you, a 14 year old (yes. amiya is 14.), and a cast of very funky lil dudes (gn) all going thru a world that seems to be kinda like. for lack of a better term. apocalyptic? like. cities literally have to walk around otherwise they get merk'd by giant natural disasters. also there's these funky rocks that make people get sick and slowly die (my favorite character, eyjafjalla, is partially deaf/blind due to being more infected than most operators bc she didn't seek treatment for a long time </3) so its kinda like a disease more than anything bc even if you come in contact with the funky rocks you aren't guaranteed to be infected

anyway! the game plays as a tower defense game, you have multiple classes of operators (tanks, healers, rangers, casters, guards, people who can slow enemies, people who have a short redeploy time you can just throw them around the map all willy-nilly, etc.) also don't let the name 'guard' confuse you those are guys that are basically just Stronk Melee Dudes (some do arts (the magic) damage tho) and the tanks are called defenders...... it confuses me sometimes i must admit also. gacha system. rip. arknights is a lil Mean in terms of currency so u definitely wanna save if u can. pull on the beginner banner twice tho once you start it'll help ya immensely <3

anyway ! there's like. a fuckton of characters. some of them are kinda niche, some of them took the meta and exploded it (eyjafjalla eyjalter and exusiai im looking at you), and a lot are just general all-rounders <3

anyway stan eyjafjalla the only sheepie you'll need (if you ever get her she's a 6* and i just got lucky </3)

ooooohh that sounds cool I'll download it and give a spin tmrw methinks o7 idk how long I'll survive on it but sounds good fun hehe :3

[loopingpyre]

"I'm not defending Micro transactions"

Proceeds to defend microtransactions and claim people are lying 🤥

Crazy how I have to tap what OP said.

>Fast travel is two dollars (false)

Fast travel cannot be bought and it isn't dlc. There's an item that will ever-so-slightly expand the existing portcrystal options, but the game is designed around not using fast travel.

That's how dragon's dogma is.

>'they'll spend those two dollars over and over again'

on what? All of these purchases are one-time only.

>no new game allowed

You can clear your save file to start again (there's a bug currently meaning you need to disable cloud saves too)

>'these games are built around these transactions'

These capcom games have not been. Gacha games and f2p titles have been, or titles with certain season pass releases. But not these. These are one-time purchases tacked on top of a fully developed game.

It's almost like my claims of people are lying, are true.

This wouldn't have happened without the microtransactions, and they shouldn't be in the game in the first place.

But you don't need to lie about them in order to prove a point.

Be serious.

[liveknights]

TR-1 and First Introductions

First things first, we need a medic

So the game gives a tutorial on how medics work, and gives us a free medic.

Sadcat Jessica is here to teach us how medics work

Here's how they work.

You put them on ranged tiles, like snipers

But they heal teammates instead of hurting enemies. You now know how medics work.

Enjoy your free Hibiscus. We're now free to collect login rewards, first-time playing rewards, all kinds of stuff like that

Orundum is currency for rolling on the gacha. don't spend money on it.

These are tickets we can spend in the store to get level-up materials without needing to farm them from stages. Handy for new players, until you have the stages good for that.

1 free 5 star, from a limited selection list. we'll pick later.

1 free 5-star from a much more open selection list. we'll pick later.

There's also an ongoing event, that we will not be participating in, but we will do the free pulls on it daily, and the free 10-pull later.

I will be compelled to introduce literally every character we get, so that's getting put off for a little bit. We will do the free daily right now though, so it isn't lost.

4 star Arts Guard, Mousse. Things like "Arts Guard" aren't important right now, I need to introduce everyone else first.

First up. Our Daughter Amiya

She is a Caster, as you can see by the wand symbol on the bottom left. This means she is put on a ranged tile and deals Arts (magic) damage to enemies. the Core Caster on the right tells you what Branch of Caster she is, this one means she is a standard bread-and-butter caster. Does arts damage to enemies, costs a medium amount of Deployment Points to put on the field, has skills that make her do more damage. Nothing fancy (for now), but nothing weird or negative. Because she's a 5 star, we'll be able to promote her later, to level her up higher, and unlock more skills. Normally only 6 stars have 3 skills, but our daughter is an exception because she's a very good girl

Next up, Noir Corne

The shield on the bottom left means Noir Corne is a Defender. Not dealing high damage, but having very high health and defense, nearly double Amiya's. The Protector branch can block up to 3 enemies at once, and like the Core Caster branch is for casters, is mostly designed to be "Exactly what you want from a defender". Because he's only 2 star, he has no skills.

Rangers is a Sniper, with the Marksman Branch identifying him as specializing in Anti-Air. Marksmen will prioritize flying units, over ground units, whenever they can. You also wouldn't know it, but he is a *very* old man. If he was in his prime, he'd likely be one of the best snipers in the game.

Yato is a Vanguard, meaning she is very cheap to deploy, making her suited for right when a mission begins. Normally, you gain roughly a deployment point a second, during a mission, but Vanguards (almost) always have ways to help you generate more. The Pioneer branch blocks 2 enemies, and usually has skills that generate extra DP, but Yato being a 2 star lacks such a thing.

We will be leveling all the 1, 2, and 3 stars, without exception, but that will come later.

Cuora, like Noir Corne, is a protector defender, and thus fills the same job of holding back crowds of enemies, while your casters and snipers kill them. She has slightly better stats however, being a 4 star, and she also has a Skill, raising her defense even higher for a time. As a downside however, she costs 17 points to deploy, instead of NC's 14. In most stages, this won't matter, but if you ever have a stage where you are very tight on deployment points, and you can't field operators fast enough, it's worth remembering that the lower star units are cheaper, and often are enough to get the job done.

Last up for now is Hibiscus

Hibiscus is a Medic class, with the branch Medic. She medics your units, and her skill lets her medic harder. Narratively she'll be more important when we talk about more of her team.

------------------------------

it took me so long to make this, the day rolled over, and that means we get another free pull from the event banner.

We'll be seeing this one a lot.

[yisanged]

we have to do this big project in english which is to make a creative piece like a painting or song or something like that that showcases elements of existentialism. it's a bit of a weird project but i don't have time to think too hard about it it's worth a lot of points and it's due pretty soon considering the scale of it plus the ten billion other assignments she gives us every week. i think i might just draw meursault limbus fanart lol. while i'm still in a limby mindset for my seminar extra cred essay. we need to obviously display 3 out of 8 elements of existentialism we talked about it in class and just the basic ego image of meursault in his cell solidly covers 6 of them. all 8 of you twist and stretch a little. even the book he's from the stranger by camus was entirely about existentialism. dude is the existentialist poster boy. now i just have to figure out how to defend "fanart of a video game where characters that are heavy references to notable pieces of literature but there's also turn-based fighting and gacha" to my english teacher. also gregor based off metamorphosis is in limbus and we're reading metamorphosis right now it's the entire reason we're talking about existentialism. so that's kind of awkward that i'm not doing him. but it's ok

[valtharr]

Tumblr won't let me reblog the original post, so here:

Donkey Kong was - in its original form - a game that required you to pay 25 cents (which, in 2023 money, is closer to 75 cents) whenever you needed to use a continue.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending gachas and loot boxes here, I just think it's incredibly reductive and "rose-tinted glasses"-y to pretend like video games don't have shit like it baked into their DNA. At least when you die in a mobile game and get told "either wait an hour, watch an ad, or give us money", you're given a choice. Arcade games were often deliberately designed to be hard as balls, just so people would sink more money into them (which probably eventually led to a lot of sunk-cost-fallacy vicious cycles a la "I already spent so much on this, I can't stop playing now!"). When home consoles became the norm, because they were more convenient and lent themselves better to new game types, like RPGs and adventure games, arcades pretty much died out, and yes, so did these business practices, but only because they didn't have the technological means to get more money from the player after the initial purchase.

Again, not saying these modern business practices are good, just pointing that it's a bit hypocritical to criticize them while praising the "good old days", when a lot of early classics - Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man - were literally designed not to be products you paid for once and then owned, but essentially services you had to keep paying for whenever you wanted to play them.

[ragequitezekielrants]

Gacha Games: Gambling for idiots (with extra anime tiddies)

Alright, let’s talk about the modern plague infesting the gaming world—gacha games. Or as I like to call them: Digital slot machines for people too dumb to realize they’re being ripped off. Seriously, if you’ve ever spent real money trying to pull for that rare 5-star anime waifu, congratulations—you’ve officially made worse life decisions than someone who pre-ordered Cyberpunk 2077 on last-gen consoles.

Gacha games are the perfect scam, really. They prey on two of the weakest human traits: impatience and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out, for you lucky souls who haven’t been indoctrinated by this nonsense yet). They dangle flashy, limited-time characters or weapons in front of your face like you’re some kind of Pavlovian dog, and then they laugh all the way to the bank while you keep pouring in money, chasing that one ultra-rare drop that’s about as likely to show up as a balanced EA game.

And don't even try to defend it by saying, "Oh, but you don't have to spend money, Ezekiel! You can totally play for free!" Yeah, you can play for free if you enjoy grinding for weeks just to get the bare minimum while your friend who dropped a hundred bucks on the game flexes their overpowered team like they’re some kind of gacha god. Meanwhile, you’re stuck with that one useless character you keep pulling over and over again. How many dupes of the same trash unit do you need before you realize the game is trolling you harder than Dark Souls on a speedrun?

But let’s not forget what really drives these games: anime tiddies. Oh, come on, don’t act shocked. You know it, I know it, the devs sure as hell know it. Most gacha games are just thinly veiled excuses to get you to spend money on digital collectibles that look like rejected concept art from a cheap anime studio. The entire business model revolves around waifus and husbandos, all carefully designed to appeal to your weird, niche fetishes. Oh, you like cat girls? Here, spend $50 trying to get the one in a maid outfit. Into buff dudes with brooding backstories? Don’t worry, they’ve got you covered. And if that doesn’t work, they’ll just throw in some limited-time crossover event with a popular anime or video game, and suddenly, everyone’s back to dumping their wallets because, heaven forbid, you miss out on that one special character.

And the gameplay? Don’t make me laugh. These games are nothing more than glorified number simulators. Tap, tap, tap. Watch some pretty lights flash across the screen while your over-leveled, overpaid-for characters demolish enemies. Rinse and repeat. Oh, but don’t forget to "upgrade" your characters by spending another week grinding out materials that drop at a rate slower than molasses in January. It’s the same lazy design across every gacha game, just dressed up in different skins.

Genshin Impact, Fate/Grand Order, Arknights, Fire Emblem Heroes—it doesn’t matter which one you pick. They’re all the same flavor of wallet-draining, time-wasting garbage. And don’t even get me started on the event-based time limits. "But Ezekiel, if I don’t log in every day, I’ll miss out on the event rewards!" Yeah, that’s the whole point. They’ve tricked you into treating it like a job you don’t even get paid for. Except instead of getting money, you’re bleeding it away on pixelated nonsense.

And let’s talk about how these companies prey on the weakest among us. They know exactly what they’re doing, pushing their predatory tactics on people with addictive personalities. And the worst part? People defend this! “Oh, but they’re providing free content!” Yeah, and I’m providing free entertainment every time I rant about this nonsense, but you don’t see me charging for it.

And the best part is when people finally wake up and realize they’ve dumped a small fortune into these games. You’ve spent hundreds—maybe thousands—of dollars on what exactly? A bunch of PNGs and digital items that you don’t own, can’t keep, and will be irrelevant the second the game dies or the devs decide to pull the plug. And when that happens, your “investment” vanishes into the digital void. Poof. Gone. But hey, at least you got that limited-time swimsuit version of your favorite anime girl, right?

So, to all of you out there still chasing the next banner in your favorite gacha game, let me leave you with this bit of advice: Delete the app, go outside, and do literally anything else with your time and money. I promise you, the fresh air and sunlight will do wonders. Or don’t. Keep throwing your paycheck into the RNG void. The rest of us will be over here laughing while you pull your 23rd dupe of a useless 3-star character.

Until next time, stop playing bad games. And seriously, stop letting predatory monetization schemes ruin your life.

– Ezekiel

[circood]

Alright, I'm going to get my thoughts on gachas and specifically their monetization systems off in one long post. This is really just a way to organize my own thoughts on the matter.

In short, I think that if you have a gambling problem then gacha games are bad and you should stay away from them. If you don't then I don't think they're worse than any other f2p model.

To me any gacha with a transparent pity system is essentially just offering their characters outright for the price it takes to guarantee them. So if you need 180 rolls to 100% guarantee a character, then they cost 180 rolls and maybe there's a slight chance they'll cost less.

Of course, many people object to having any gameplay features be locked behind what is essentially gambling. And I do think it's bad, but I don't think it's THAT worse than most other f2p models. Assuming again you aren't predisposed to gambling problems. And even then, cosmetic gambling like TF2 crates are just as exploitative of gambling addiction as gachas. Just because they don't affect gameplay doesn't mean they don't prey on people.

But back to my point, live service games need to keep people playing and spending to maintain and update the game, and so inherently they need to design their game in a way that encourages this. Many MMOs literally lock you away from your character when you stop paying, and they're designed with a lot of grinding to drag out your play time. Even MMO stories require constant new areas and big events to keep people coming back, which makes telling a concise story almost impossible.

I think a lot of "gacha problems" are just "live service problems" that people look past when it comes to MMOs and other constantly updated games.

And of course, all of this assumes that the gachas I'm talking about DO NOT require meta teams to play through most of the content. This isn't a problem for most popular gachas (certainly not Mihoyo games), but any game that has you hit a wall until you spend money is absolute trash.

Honestly, as much as people see gachas as a supremely greedy genre, they are one of the few types of games that you can play completely free and still enjoy almost all of the content. I don't know, I guess I just don't care about having access to every character when I play a game. I don't try to unlock every character in LoL or Warframe, and hell even in pokemon I usually stick with a team of 6. Getting a new character every 2 months or so from the free currency in gachas just doesn't feel to me like that much of a gameplay impact. Especially when the only difficult content in the game that arguably needs meta builds is like a 10 minute fight every month that rewards you with a single roll and has no impact on story like Genshin lmao

Ultimately even after defending gachas for so long I still prefer real games that you pay once for and own forever, but I don't think you can really compare games that are meant to keep updating forever to games that are meant to be a self-contained experience. What each type of game is going for is just too different.

Anyway this was just disorganized stream of consciousness spewing thoughts before I go to bed

Sorry

[kakyoinryoko]

Not defending mihoyo, its just that its funny that youre saying this when i could also be saying that zhongli, xiao, raiden, kazuha, venti and more are also all grieving over the loss of one or more friends. Putting women with different personalities all under "overworked" trope is also mysoginistic when the fault lies in mhy just not writting characters very well in general. or are you going to tell me all of the quests outside of the archon ones + shenhes are interesting at all

i am sure this is just bait, i really am, but on the off chance this isn't in bad faith and something i've said has genuinely just upset you, i'll try and explain the difference in a little more detail because i'm feeling nice and because maybe at the very least it'll help someone else. and i like talking. and media analysis. thankyou.

the game does not have good character writing. i will not contest this. the biggest downfall of every single character in this game is that by nature of it being a gacha, the point of all of them is to get in, generate as much profit as possible, and get out. as a result, everyone is underdeveloped. some characters get a bit more highlighting than others, some story quests are longer or more well written than others, et cetera, but at the end of the day no one is ever going to get the time they need because that's just not how a gacha game is ever going to work. so yes, you likely do get a lot of the same tropes showing up over and over again.

the difference between a trope simply being overused (such as "person whose friend(s) died") and a trope being overused in a way that is misogynistic (such as "woman barely has a life outside of her job") is that one is just overused, while the other is almost exclusively overused in a way that specifically targets women. there's probably an argument to be made for there being a few men who refuse to do anything outside of work until you show them how (xiao absolutely comes to mind, though any other men resembling that don't really need your help to that degree), and plenty of the women who suffer from it are still good characters on the whole and otherwise not very similar, but when the basis for so many of the women, in particular, is that they are married to their jobs and have trouble seeing their value outside of them or making time for anything else or what have you, especially when YOU have to be the big hero who swoops in and shows them how to kick back and have fun or whatever, that's a problem.

there are plenty of characters that are poorly written for reasons that aren't necessarily rooted in misogyny. like, yanfei doesn't really have a lot going on outside of being a lawyer, but i can't very well highlight that as particularly bad when gorou doesn't really have a lot going on outside of being a general. i still like both of them, but i'm not going to argue that they're brilliantly written just because i think their personalities are fun. that's sort of a similar problem to the one i brought up, but it feels different to me because it's not so much highlighted as being a detriment to them personally, and in some cases, to the others around them. it does not rely on the player being there to rescue them from themselves.

[teaveetamer]

My overall problem with yet another qol feature being added to the pass is that its designed to do it with the intent to make f2p and low spending players feel like they are missing out and that paying players have access to a better, more rewarding version - which they do. There are already people on the sub defending Intsys doing this by trying to spin it like people are angry they arent getting things for free, which is a very disingenuous take. Players have every right to be angry that 1/3

the qol changes they have asked for end up out of reach behind a predatory buisness model. FEH is pretty much splitting into two completely different games and which version you get is based on wether or not you want to buy the pass or not. Almost everything on the pass up until now was the type of changes that netted you some rarer rewards and made the game less grindy. And while you can still grind and get dragonflowers without the pass, summoning has always been based on rng 2/3

until this change that will allow a paying player to get up to twelve limited and hard to get units a year from mythic and legendary banners alone as long as they have at least 160 orbs compared to a f2p player who in comparison has no guarantee to pull their desired unit no matter how many orbs they save up. I understand that Intsys is a company but this is so far the only perk where players will be directly locked out of something really desirable because they arent paying. 3/3

I don't really want to go through this point by point like when I have my Reddit Assholesona on but I kind of feel like I have to or I will diverge into one heck of a tangent.

My overall problem with yet another qol feature being added to the pass

This isn't just a "qol" feature like autostart and rewind turn. Those are nice features to have, but they don't fundamentally change the game in some way. Adding sparks to legendary banners will fundamentally change how the game works in some way, which I detailed in my reblog of Ezra's post. Either they need to offset the lost money from banners, creating new banners or adding more units or giving you worse rates or giving out less free orbs to entice you to buy orbs or something, or they need to offset the lost money from banners by forcing you to pay for the privilege. If you think this a simple QoL change then I don't know what to say, other than you don't quite seem to understand the business model of a gacha if you think adding free sparks for everyone wouldn't rock this game's financial economy to its core.

its designed to do it with the intent to make f2p and low spending players feel like they are missing out and that paying players have access to a better, more rewarding version - which they do

You're just stating the fundamental business model of Gacha here. Yes, paying players get more than free to play players. That has been the business model of this game since the very beginning, it will be until it's death, and it will be for all gacha until the inevitable heat death of the universe or until an entity that actually cares about consumers regulates it. I'm not sure why you were expecting them to diverge from this now. If you want to play a game where F2P players and paying players can be on equal footing you are playing about the worst type of game for that.

There are already people on the sub defending Intsys doing this by trying to spin it like people are angry they arent getting things for free, which is a very disingenuous take.

That's exactly what you're angry about, though? They never promised you would get this feature for free. That was an expectation built up in the heads of the fanbase.

Players have every right to be angry that the qol changes they have asked for end up out of reach behind a predatory buisness model.

You're playing a gacha. It is inherently a predatory business model bent on exploiting the gambling addictions of young adults and children. I don't know why anyone was expecting any different when it was never promised to us.

FEH is pretty much splitting into two completely different games and which version you get is based on wether or not you want to buy the pass or not.

This game has always been two different games depending on how much money you are willing to spend on it. The truth is, even if the spark was added it would do very little to level the playing field. Why? Because you aren't going to acquire enough F2P orbs in order to fully utilize it on every single banner. The truth is, F2P players would acquire a handful of good new units a year, whereas whales will just have an easier time stomping you into the ground.

"So what!" you may say "that's more than we were getting before!" but the problem is, if F2P and the minnows and dolphins and whales start getting too equal, IS will need to do something else to un-equalize the playing field. Because that's how Gacha works. Be that decreased value on the sparkable banners, new banners that are better and unsparkable, lower rates on banners to encourage orb buying, or fewer F2P orbs to ensure F2P players can't catch up without spending money.

Almost everything on the pass up until now was the type of changes that netted you some rarer rewards and made the game less grindy.

And it wasn't worth the ten dollars it cost as it was. People have been complaining about that since it came out: it wasn't a good enough value to be worth the money. Truth is there's nothing they could add to make it worth the money without seriously pissing someone off. Better F2P players than the whales, because the people who don't spend money on the game don't fund the game.

And while you can still grind and get dragonflowers without the pass, summoning has always been based on rng

There's always been an RNG component, but if you have enough orbs the RNG is barely relevant. Enough pulls and you will eventually get what you wanted, and if you can buy pulls you can buy your way out of RNG. Which again, has always benefited people willing to spend money on the game as is the typical Gacha model.

until this change that will allow a paying player to get up to twelve limited and hard to get units a year from mythic and legendary banners alone as long as they have at least 160 orbs compared to a f2p player who in comparison has no guarantee to pull their desired unit no matter how many orbs they save up.

Like I said before, there have always been ways to buy your way out of RNG. This is just much cheaper and significantly more consistent. You can literally buy sparks on a seasonal and a Legendary banner for less than the cost of a single pull's worth the orbs. It's $13 to buy 20 orbs. It's $10 to buy essentially two really good units, assuming you have the orbs saved up.

I understand that Intsys is a company but this is so far the only perk where players will be directly locked out of something really desirable because they arent paying.

Frankly, that's just how this kind of thing works.

I hate to say it, but IS is only interested in you so long as you are paying them for their game or you could potentially be converted into paying them for their game or you make the game more fun for the people who are paying for it. A certain amount of F2P players are necessary, but never expect them to do more than the bare minimum or slightly more than the bare minimum to keep you.

I dunno if you've heard this one before, but "If you aren't paying for the product, then you aren't the customer, you are the product." Google is free because they sell your information to advertisers. The advertisers are Google's customers, you are Google's product. FEH is free because you aren't their customer, you're what they sell to whales as entertainment. Or they use your existence to sell their product to investors. Don't make the mistake of believing they care about you beyond what you can do for the people who actually pay them to keep the lights on, because they will choose money over you every single time.

[vanaglori-ah]

Pass the happy! When you receive this list 5 things that make you happy and send this to 10 of the last people in your notifications 😙✨

aslmdfkfdg thanks so much fuji!! so here are 5 things that make me happy.

01. films / tv - i absolutely LOVE films to the point that it's my major. and i love watching them. i love watching new ones, bad ones, great ones. yesterday i saw bullet train and the amount of serotonin i got from watching? AMAZING! i came out of the theater so much happier than when i went in lol found my new antidepressant

02. video games - but particularly, rpgs, visual novels, gacha, and tactical based games. some of my favorites are litg (obviously), twisted wonderland, fire emblem, spider-man ps4, and genshin impact.

03. mystery boxes / smiskis - they're a waste of money but i absolutely love collecting little trinkets and toys! i have spent a lot of money on smiskis in particular (they look like this). they are absolutely the CUTEST and they glow in the dark too!! i love putting them around my bed and they just hang out there.

04. color coding - whether it's my notes or organizing my classes into certain colors in my planners. i have so much fun color coding! plus it looks better visually to me and it becomes an easy system to figure out which assignment or reading is for which class.

05. ocs - i love ocs and i particularly love making them!! i have so many and i always make an oc for a particular media i am currently into. my most recent one is my oc for the boys because the boys writers don't know how to write asian characters so i need to make an actually good asian character to make up for it. :') don't get me wrong, i love karen fukuhara and her character kimiko. but i can go on a whole rant about why kimiko is still problematic after her development and why people need to stop defending the writers and using excuses to shield them from criticism with how they handle kimiko (before and now).