How Gacha Games Keep You Playing

"One does not play gacha games. Gacha games play you." I'm someone that's deeply fascinated with gacha games. There's a reason I review them, and why I started out this channel covering one in particular. Today, I want to cover the stuff I never had the chance to say, and give a brief heads up about the games that we all enjoy. Hopefully with the lessons I explain in this video, you can better prepare yourself when trying out these games.

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Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
0:50 – Setting expectations
4:13 – Timegating progression
6:01 – Grind/content updates
8:00 – Monetization tactics
13:08 – System 1 and 2
14:41 – F.O.M.O
15:54 – Sunk-cost fallacy
17:35 – Habit formation
19:32 – A way out
21:10 – Closing words

Music used:

Outro music:

References:

Sys 1 and 2 Article:

ToF Club Footage:

ToF Concert Footage:

FNV slot machine footage:

Shenmue Gachapon machine footage:

#gacha #gachagame

v1.0

[Cats]

It's not the "wait a minute, why am I doing this" question that makes me stop playing games. It's more like, "am I actually having fun?"

[BlazeLibra]

Events that dont come back is definitely one of my biggest gripes with gacha games. I'm glad something like Star Rail actually makes most of their major events permanent

[RockanoYT]

You forgot the part where the game runs out of content and the players do pvp among themselves on a certain website

[Rose]

"Wait a minute, why am I doing this?' hits me hard, I don't even enjoy some of the game anymore, thanks for this video, and I'll definitely do the don't login challenge, really appreciate you man

[Emerald-kun]

the best way to play gacha games is to not own a credit card

[MxMaxyImpress]

One simple answer for me is with their characters that keeps appear to serve your addiction to them, one day you like that character, then another one come to replace it

[LucyKosaki]

I have a friend, who plays multiple gacha games, but he isn't really phased by any of those retention tactics. He usually logs in when there is a new update, plays the new story, tries new game mode updates, does some exploration, tries current events while trying to get one of the current banner characters with the free resources he get through that. Then after a week or so when he experienced most of the new content in game A he moves on to one of the other games if there is a new update or collab event or anything in game B and completely stops playing game A for a month or two until there is something new and exciting, even if it means missing out on alot of daily resources and some minor events. Sometimes when he doesnt feel like it, he also just doesnt play gacha and instead plays something like elden ring or persona 5 instead. Of course his gacha accounts will never be stacked with gacha characters or equip, but he values his time and doesn't see the point in playing if there's nothing interesting. He also never spends on gacha currency, not even the 5 dollar month packs, but he does consider spending if there is a low cost direct purchase pack, for example an outfit for 5 dollars flat or a 5 star selection box for 5 dollars.
Sometimes I envy him.

[shrimp.thursday]

I quit genshin a couple of months ago, and that first day of missing dailies was really difficult. After about a week I've never felt so relieved before. It was so nice to not log on. Although, I still can't fully let it go (thanks to some characters, hell look at my profile picture) and I thought about returning for natlan but man even the thought of logging on genshin is really overwhelming where I'm at right now

[davidmatheus]

The thing about gacha games that kills the good vibe, is the fact that they control your time.

Imagine that you go out and you remember "oh shit, I forgot today is sunday, I have events and weeklys to finish", that sucks.

Gaming is an escape from the responsibilities/challenges of the real world, not another chore.

That's my reason to pause this unending cicle, that impedes me to have time for games that I can pay and have a full story from day one, not going around on events waiting for things to make any sense, and dead updates+ having loads of story quests/missions after a break.

[baka_monogatari]

If you think HI3 has too many currencies now, this is actually a streamlined version. It took years for them to implement. You should have seen it before lmao.

[byeguyssry]

I'd like to add a few more notes.

Personally, I don't care much for pity, but I think soft pity is pretty devious. For those who do not know of its existence, they feel like they're getting lucky and therefore makes them want to continue playing (sunk cost fallacy: "Oh I got so lucky in this game, never hitting pity once, all my luck is wasted if I quit"). For those who do know of it, it can be a bait. Say there's 10 minutes left on a banner and you're already in soft pity. Would you buy more premium currency to try to get the character? Say you buy the monthly pass and get 2 pulls upfront. You use those 2 pulls and still don't get the character. You're even deeper into soft pity. Surely now you must get it if you just get 2 more pulls (Gambler's Fallacy). So you buy another two more pulls and still don't get it. Now (Sunk Cost Fallacy) it would be a waste if you don't spend more money to get it.

(I'd also like to note, some casinos do have a kind of pity; it's just that, of course, unlike gacha games where you could technically say "I value this character at $2000 so I don't mind spending $2000 to guarantee it", obviously no one is gonna say "I value this thousand dollar payout at $2000, so I don't mind spending $2000 to guarantee it". Casinos are controlled to usually rigged to ensure that the house doesn't get too unlucky, nor too lucky, and make sure that someone wins big every so often so as to entice the winner to continue gambling without realizing he's spent $2000 on that thousand dollar payout)

For "Beginner Packs", most games also do this so that, once you purchase just one thing, you usually won't have to re-enter your credit card details again, which is a lot of time that can be spent deciding if you really want that thing. It also breaks people away from the "F2P" mindset since they've already spent, which breaks down any inhibitions about spending. Also, I'd like to note Project Neural Cloud's Beginner Pack, because it's pretty unique. For 99c (ah, good ol' $0.99 pricing that's everywhere), you get the character Angela, one pull, as well as a "Monthly Supply Voucher Discount Coupon" that lasts for 60 days. This reduces the price of the Monthly Pass from $4.99 to $3.99. And, yes, you can purchase Monthly Passes even when you already have one. I have no idea how effective this actually is; because you're incentivized to buy the Monthly Pass, but at the same time you probably won't buy the Beginner Pack without also buying the Monthly Pass, making it essentially a $5 investment, which is not what beginner packs are meant to do.

FOMO in gacha games is pretty funny. They run a balancing act of trying to make sure that new players don't feel any FOMO for old stuff (or they might quit knowing that they can't get said old stuff), but only for the new stuff.

Also, there are some games that don't really care about you logging in every day, just enough days each week. Tower of Fantasy is an example, as you only get Standard Pulls from doing dailies so you mainly care about the weeklies (though, they are time-gated so you do have to log in multiple days each week). Honkai Impact is another example. You can log in only twice each week and still get 87% as much pulls (though, more likely you're logging in thrice each week to get another important currency, which would net you 91.5% as much pulls. These calculations assume there are no events, so realistically, the percentage of pulls you get is higher), provided you do your weeklies. These still drive players to log in as much as possible, but has the benefit of not driving away players who are unable to log in every day.


Also also, as a Honkai Impact player, mandatory What do you mean there are too many currencies in HI3? There are only Crystals, B-Chips, Asterites, AE Imaginons, Rusted Insignia, Ancient Willpower, Ancient Legacy, Time Structures, Ether Fuel, Ranger Creds, School Inspector Emblems, Weapon Resonance, Stigmata Resonance, Work Points Cards, Witch Orbs, Pure Witch Orbs, Pure ELF Orbs, Stardust Shards and Coins. Back in MY day, we had stuff like Mithril too, you know. Tsk tsk tsk, young people these days, unable to handle only 19 currencies.
(Okay but for real though, I never had a problem figuring out what currency does what)

[prismapsychosis]

"The wait a minute... why am I doing this" feeling you described at 19:42 is EXACTLY how I quit genshin.

[thegamerfe]

The whole "why am I doing this?" hits really hard specifically with Genshin, I just log in, start doing my commissions then go "I'm just going to do brain dead farming for months to reach the 5 star pity only for me to have to repeat it again cause I lost the 50/50 or, I get the character then I'll literally have no content to use them in other than brain dead abyss" and I just log out. Idk why I haven't uninstalled the game yet but I probably will in a few days.

[originalrealzer]

Ironically genshin's fomo was so bad that I quit the game and I am not affected by fomo anymore. If I don't feel like playing a game I can just not play it until I feel like it again whether it is for a day, a week or even months.

[hipunpun]

Thank you for this video
I struggle with gacha addiction, playing 6 gacha games daily is a massive time sink

I really needed this wake up call, this video hit me like a splash of cold water to the face.

[lucifermorningstar]

“Have fun out there!" I realized that the day I was doing my dailies for the umpteenth time. I logged out to do my job, only to take a break and log in again... I couldn't resist the urge to get my next shiny 5 stars (I was at 70 pityish). SO, I opened interactive map and went on complete autopilot mode, running around the map for primos.

Half an hour later, something came over me. Perhaps it was stress that piled up or some sort of anxiety, I had no idea what happened. I just stopped in motion and stared at the scene. Something finally hit me.

"Am I having fun?" I whispered in my head. "Is logging in daily, doing the same boring quest, and the same shit over and over fun?"

No, it wasn't. I was just chasing the highs I had when I first played genshin. Some of the most fun I ever had in games was early genshin exploration. But now... now everything had become a chore in-game.


I alt f4'd and quit gaming for a month. The game to bring me back was a little gem of a game my friend recommended to me. What Remains of Edith Finch. It got me hooked into single player games with good stories.


Like you said Gacha games fun are fun, and can definitely provide your time's worth. But NEVER EVER continue playing a game if you feel like it isn't fun anymore.

[covidsama]

As someone who's broken free of the gambling addiction of gachas, the fomo is absolutely the worst part. Luckily I still genuinely enjoy Genshin despite its downsides, Limbus Company has basically no fomo at all unless you count event rewards, and I haven't played WuWa long enough for fomo to even start but I'm still having fun with it regardless. One of the reasons I quit Destiny 2 was because of the fact that literally all seasonal content leaves the moment a new expansion comes out, but even worse is that I need to pay $100 just to keep access to my dailies

[arumicyak]

Thank you for this video. Now, I don't feel bad to the games that I've quitted just because I spent time, money, and effort on it. At the end of the day, I've already had fun.

[atomictoaster]

I hate it when i try to uninstall gacha in pc like genshin or wuwa, they put character with sad or crying face with text bubble like "are you leaving?"

As someone who experience the feel of being left, it kinda hurt me mentally and i just hate it

[princessochka]

You actually only scratched the surface. If you research gacha gamedesign and currency economy deeper, you d realise that every single gamedisign decision they made was intentional and has a purpose, especially bad ones (for example, artifact grinding in Genshin is tedious for a reason; and there is a reason why Genshin lacks end-game too). If you delve deep enough, youll find out that gacha is actually a donation sifting mechanism that only cares about player influx being higher than outflux, and where "game" part exists solely to start this machine ON (as a "hook") by getting people inside the sifting process. It is quite admirable how genius gachas are, considering how cheap they are to produce/maintain (gachas recoup their cost within months, and get 100-1000% profits when most businesses in the world work for 15-20%). Seriously, gachas should be heavily regulated/monitored by international laws or banned.