Remember when games rewarded you with more game content by actually playing them? Pepperidge Farms remembers

It seems like you DO understand why gachas are popular. They are gambling.

I can butt in on this a little bit. The problem with statements like this is that they treat “gacha” (the monetisation and unit recruitment system) as a genre when gacha games are too varied to be locked under this single umbrella (at least for a conversation like this). To name a few, you have games like:

• Arknights (tower defence)
• Azur Lane (bullet-hell kinda sorta)
• Bang Dream (rhythm game)
• Genshin Impact (action-adventure)
• Girls’ Frontline (tactical autobattler)
• Persona 5X (JRPG, just gacha Persona)

All of them play differently, offer different challenges and the impact of their gacha systems can be all over the place. Sometimes there are limited character pulls which have serious effect on gameplay (most of the modern titles), other times characters are super easy to obtain and improve as most of the monetisation comes from character costumes etc (Girls’ Frontline, Azur Lane for example).
Besides that, many of them have engaging stories, which combined with offering lots of content and being able to play them for free makes the whole thing even more appealing.

Not that the aspect of “oh cool, I unlocked new character” doesn’t play any role or that there’s nothing predatory about most of the games using this mechanic, it’s just that “gacha” mechanics aren’t always the sole or main factor keeping people playing.

TL;DR: They are just free games that can, but aren’t always, predatory with a specific gameplay mechanic. Often offer enough value for free players to have fun with them.

For the ones I play, the actual gameplay is the appeal; and I accept the gacha only if it’s reasonably permissive to free players.

The genre definitely has a recurring issue with power scaling, to get people to roll for the newest gooner bait, and when that becomes too apparent, it kills my interest. That’s the other thing: You have to prepare your sanity for the inevitable day you’ll stop playing that game and sacrifice hours of “character progress” to find something else fun. Heck, could just be another gacha that’s bending over backwards to cater to new players.

I’ll be honest, the repetitive loops had enough of a variety that it caught me by the balls back in 2006. Felt like your effort would eventually pay off in a couple of days, which was infinitely faster than anything out of Korea by then - those grindfests were already fine tuned to hell to suck as much time as possible

I want to downvote you but that means it’s a good answer. Remember to sort by controversial

I used to play, noting there are a few different play styles for the game. I liked building, and spent most of my time doing as such. Then once done with the build, Id have idea of who would live there, and then make them and move them in. Play the people in live mode for some time, a short time, and move on to the next build. Sometimes id have a favorite character, and Id play them for a longer while.

Its just fun, its an escape of my own situation, and ive always loved architecture and design. Some folks like making big families, there are generational challanges you can do, I only ever got to third gen though, but some folks will go for a long time. My goals were always build my own structure and peoples for evert lot on every map. But theres so many different ways to play.

Endless creativity! Can do pretty much anything you want, and the modding community is what makes the game extra fun, there are just no limits to what people can add to the game. Great fun with friends.

I play a lot of games with parry mechanics, and E33 was much stricter than most. It even made it impossible for me to play the game over a TV network link because the tiny delay made parries unreliable.

I found the timing really difficult too, so I found a mod that slightly increases the dodge/parry window (something like 0.2s to 0.3s for parries) and suddenly I could reliable dodge and parry most attacks. Still requires precise timing, but now it’s a precise timing I can actually hit.

I’m generally fine with microtransactions replacing some grind, just because I’ve finally reached a point in my life where I don’t want to dedicate 20 hours a week to a game for months. It mostly boils down to whether the game is wasting players’ lives to drive money from them. SOME games make the grind fun and worth playing, and thus I don’t really care. If the game’s fun isn’t locked behind a gate that requires significant time investment, then you’re not really harming players by having a grind. If the game isn’t fun in the meantime, and the cost is too much (and basically anything more than a dollar or two is), then I can go find another game.

IMO, that method is valid, but it is HIGHLY dependent on the gameplay loop and the game company.

Take Warframe for example, one of the grindiest games in existence:

1. The game is mainly PvE (and the PVP stuff has near to no impact on the raw skill needed), so someone buying their way to power doesn’t feel so bad.

2. The ingame premium currency (Platinum) is fully tradable by all players. Getting extras of stuff is also common. Grinds often reach the ‘unfun’ level. So EVERYONE is encouraged to skip grind once it gets too much.

TLDR: Microtransactions are encouraged and available for free for ALL players, once you’ve reached your grind tolerance level.

*coughs ORS", so much gatekeeper and fans defending such a grindy game. why drag the rs3 into it too, complained enough to get rid of MTX, in a fit rs decided to eliminate almost every single thing that gives some afkable skilling, because they got mad they lost 10% revenue from removing the entire mtx systems. funny ORS players got mad recently because, no surprise they RAISED prices again for membership, what did you expect if you suddenly lost 10% of your revenue. with no extra benefits for rs3 members now, people dint see the worth it maintaining one anymore. they couldve just eliminate all the xp boosting instead, which was the main problem form the MTX.

Any game where just grinding is the main thing you do

Fuckin’ a, I had to share that with !anarchychess@sopuli.xyz

What the hell are you on about, they added a new piece just last month.

UMM ACKSHUALLY the queen was added in the 15th century, replacing the weaker vizier.

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but what is the blue square for?”