One thing about gacha that I think gets overlooked by critics, (perhaps because they have the good sense not to play the games in the first place) is, rather than monetary investment, how much time investment, sometimes even moreso than monetary investment, these games drain from users.
Essentially every gacha has a steep resource cost for utilizing its characters, requiring hours of grinding in repetitive content that adds little to no value for the player. Furthermore, most have "dailies" requiring a login every day. This combines to create a system in which most players log in every day, to spend too much time on content that does not actually satisfy them
Now obviously this whole thing is part of the gacha virtual casino system, keep them coming back and invested so they're more willing to spend money eventually. It all does come down to money in the end. But it is a little weird to me that even those criticizing the game design of gacha don't often focus in on this. Because 1) as a game design element this is atrocious but also 2) Many gacha fans brag about being "f2p," and know that they personally can control their spending habits (even as the genre preys on those who can't), but they ignore how they might have protected their wallet but found several days of time disappearing. It's something worth warning about, I think.
i uh. wound up writing a lot oops. just to say it from the getgo- im not trying to argue or disagree, i just wanted to add to the convo but kinda wound up rambling
i think about when i was an avid/active khux player (pain) and i remember spending so much time on it and just being so unhappy for large portions of it and yeah this.
after khux, i avoided gachas like the plague (i still picked up one here and there to try to play casually but pretty quickly found that i wasnt at the point where i could so i stopped that) for the longest time. ive been playing honkai star rail and i think its overall been a positive experience for me. i do log in for dailies but they take me usually 5-10 minutes and most of that is just me slapping on a mission to run on auto and every now and then hit run again until im out of energy. and i usually do them on my phone so i can very passively do them (which for me and my adhd is a boon- being able to multitask and all). i spend the most time on doing the actual content drops which i find genuinely fun or on trying to beat endgame content which the puzzle of trying to figure out the right team combo to clear the stage is always fun for me.
the thing i hated that took more time was a weekly thing and the past two weeks i havent done it because my life is kinda shit rn and im like nope i dont wanna do SU so im not (which pains the resource poor part of me but im proud of myself for being able to go no sir we are not doing that). and the update from this week fixed the time consumption issue of that weekly thing (which im honestly still so stoked ab, its so easy- its literally just like any other mission).
i do casually play fire emblem heroes but i can absolutely see that i sometimes spend too much time on it where im just not having a good time because im just grinding for resources to do more pulls- thankfully im usually lazy enough that i dont often do this and just stick to the free pulls
i know i really derailed from the original content of the post, i just really wanted to talk about this in a space where i can be better understood. my friends are either gacha gremlins or anti-gacha so i cant really have this type of convo with them. im just really proud of myself with how ive been with honk and idk this post made me do a think. helped me realize that my current rut with the game is because of aforementioned shitty life situation and not because im burnt out on it
