How Gacha Games Keep You Playing

One does not simply play gacha games gacha games play you I'm sure a lot of people have heard about the predatory practices of these games limited time events or characters fear missing out obscure pricing and so on but how true is that well today allow me a psych major to chime in which is by the way one of the most useless degrees in college ever but at least I get to make this video I'm going to show you all these psychological tactics I can think of in which gacha games employ to retain and keep you playing at this point I've reviewed several gotch games and I've even started out this channel going over one in particular hopefully at the end of this video you will understand the many nuances of these predatory game practices and know how to take precautions to not get yourself trapped in the hands of these developers my name is psyche let's get started first let's establish some Expectations by its core gacha games and by extension life service games have two primary goals in mind to have players play the game for as long as possible and spend as much money as possible but this makes sense if you think about it as part of the player base you would want your game's popularity to grow and want to keep the developers within good financial status so that they can continue to make meaningful updates to the game you enjoy I am also one to believe that the monetization and retention techniques don't have to be abusively implemented one expectation I do have which I understand some people may have critiques about is endgame optimization in aacha game this this is handled by one of two ways the first is by making endgame upgrades very grindy taking up resources that may take a while to obtain this approach guarantees progression albeit very slowly at a time you know that farming every little bit of resources gets you closer to that final upgrade and that is progression on your account the light is at the end of the tunnel you just have to get there the second approach is by implementing an RNG gearing system this will be your artifacts in genin by making end game progression chance-based players won't know how close they are to their desired late game build since anything can happen with any given artifact the advantage with this system is that you could get lucky and instantly be able to get a viable piece of gear on your first try but the disadvantage as you may have guessed is that you could farm for weeks or even months and not get what you want making progression in All or Nothing scenario I do expect either of these systems to be in place for any given gacha game the question is how well is it implement mented I try these games because some of them are pretty fascinating I think for whatever reason gacha games are home to some of the best storytelling the gameplay Loops are simple and unlike traditional Life Services it's quite easy to jump into and play considering most are mobile games and require relatively little maintenance so for a bit of disclaimer I tend to be a bit more skeptical when it comes to playing and reviewing gacha games but that doesn't mean that gacha games can't be fun in my early YouTube days I played Indie rogo which was a far cry from the content I cover today in case you're wondering why my gacha reviews always seem to be in the seven or 8 out of 10 mark this is because having gacha mechanics in a game in my opinion is already predatory in nature no matter how good the story sound design or lore are a gacha game cannot receive a 10 out of 10 rating it just feels rather disgraceful to compare to something like Elden ring or bcap 3 now don't get me wrong I find gacha games to be fun and interesting but the vast majority of the time the maximum I will grade A gacha game will be an 8 out of 10 which already means that I think it's very good the reason I don't bring up these commonly used tactics in reviews is that we become desensitized to them since every gotcha game is doing it I know it's there I know the nature of life service games must have some measures of play retention in place and I know these games need consistent funding to continue its development but I also believe that there are ways to monetize and retain players as well and ways that are not so well I find myself having more fun in these games if you know what they're trying to do do and now I'm going to explain exactly what those predatory systems are and how you can better take care of yourself as a player even if there's no clear solution to combating some of these practices I think just knowing what they're doing can help you see things more clearly let's start with how gacha games tend to time gate your progression have you ever wondered what kind of activity in the game gets you the most amount of XP or progression points while taking the least amount of time to do well let's take withering waves as a recent example following the footsteps of its popular predecessor you'll notice that the two actions that will grant the most amount of XP on a routine basis are daily quests which GES a whopping 2,000 and spending wave plates which is in the hundreds Mark for each dungeon run while story and side quests can grant you quite a big amount sometimes they cannot be repeated now you could explore the open world solving puzzles and opening chests for meager amounts of XP like an absolute plebeian or you can just spend around 10 minutes of your day doing dailies and spending your wave plates to get over easily 3,000 XP right then and there pretty sweet deal this trend is not exclusive to withering waves as a lot of other games I've played also do the same where spending the time replenishable resource tends to Grant the most XP and what do you know you can get more of these resources using real money if you look up any guides on how to progress faster a pattern for most scotcha games is to tell you to log in every day do your dailies spend your resin we plate AP whatever it is and repeat from a Time efficiency standpoint this makes perfect sense but you can probably see the implications of having daily missions as your main source of progression they're dailies meaning it would require you to log in every day even if it's just for short bursts at a time add in some level requirements for quests and other types of character progression and you have a system to encourage daily logins in order for Meaningful progress to be made this goes into habit formation which is a point I'll bring up later but for now let's take a look at and another retention technique life service games need a steady stream of new content to keep newer and existing players engaged they can do this in one of two ways the first is by actually making frequent and substantial content updates within a reasonable time frame you can say whatever you want about ginin but their team has been Stellar with content schedules and new events you're constantly engaged with events or miname modes and the time to completion feels fair and reasonable the second option on the other hand is by simply increasing the grind or the amount of time needed to get to the late game or the completion State such as what fgo has done over the past year or so by introducing append and servant coin upgrades as well as making events 3 weeks instead of two in order to artificially increase the grind without actually providing significant new content it doesn't take a genius to figure out the latter is much easier to do than the former the battle pass is also a popularized retention technique but luckily in the gachas I've seen the typically don't take long to do which should be the case anyways most missions can be done by naturally doing your events or dailies compared to some life service games out there the time to completion is way shorter now I generally don't have a problem with these types of progression the short Daily Grind allows someone to realistically enjoy the game extremely casually on the side this is a trend for the games I've reviewed but for the main things I look for is how natural or how easy it is to progress a common trend is by complicating progression by introducing a large and diluted pool of currencies and resources to keep track of some games still do have a lot of currencies but they're usually grouped up in a list were only used when you perform certain actions I'll show an example of this done pretty atrociously I'm currently playing honai impact the third and this game has some of the most convoluted currency systems I've seen in a gacha game different modes take different tickets to enter shops have so many currencies that you don't know how much it actually costs and hardly any of it is explained to new players next up are monetization tactics the most obvious one is the obfuscation of the cost per gacha summon as you know most polls in got games use their dedicated currency but the amount used per poll is often not an even number there genins classic 160 I've seen 130 180 200 280 300 and so on of course each step that the player will have to convert real money to gacha currency hides the actual amount of money spent so you lose track of how much your shiny waifu or hosb actually cost if the amount per summon was for example 100 gems and then I asked you quick how many gems for seven PS oh 700 easy but if it was 60 gems per pole and I ask you the same suddenly you have to do one more calculation you got to use your head a little bit it doesn't help that the majority of gacha currency packs are listed in off amounts not in even purchases that equate to to a certain amount of pulse so in the human cognitive processes we use our brains in one of two ways there's system one which is the fast automatic process and system two which is the slower more deliberate way of thinking if I asked you what's two plus two well unless your name is O'Brien you would have thought of four immediately you didn't need to think about that if I showed you a box of donuts and I said hey pick one you got 5 Seconds to decide then you might pick your favorite one such as the chocolate one or the plain one or the sprinkle one you don't necessarily need a reason to pick a donut when you do these actions you're using the system one way of thinking automating these processes are helpful in everyday life of course if we gave a thought to every single action we did it would be very inefficient on the other hand certain decisions you make in life such as which college to go to which job offer to accept we would often have to sit down weigh the pros and cons and really think about it this is system 2 at work a general rule of thumb we hate using system 2 because we actually have to use our heads this is especially seen in present days where social media sites like Tik Tok and Twitter promote a constant stream of stimulation to keep you hooked don't think just consume mindless consumerism is a topic that would probably take way longer to dive into and a topic that's not necessarily related to this video nor do I have the knowledge to go over it but this is a problem that's very prevalent in the present day this is exact ly something that gacha game's cousin casinos try to exploit by off youting the cost of the gambling currency you lose track of how much you actually spend and if you don't get what you want especially if you're in the Heat of the Moment you're not thinking okay so I need to spend this much money to guarantee the item I want instead you're thinking I want this and I need to spend more money to get it how much I don't know and I don't care but I need to spend money until I get it the best way I can mitigate this is by calculating roughly around how much gacha currency I need in order to guarantee the results you want remember casinos and by extension gacha games don't want you to think it is to their advantage for you to mindlessly consume and spend money until you get what you want the one trump card you have as a gacha player is the pity system this is in my opinion the main differentiator between classifying gacha games as gambling or not you can't pity a jackpot on a slot machine but you can guarantee your 2D waifu here for example in genin I generally try to save enough to fully reach pity to guarantee one copy of my desired character when I pulled for chloride I had around 27,000 Primo gems if you do some rough calculations a round of pity is around 80 poles so multiply by the 160 Primo gems per pole that's around 12,800 but in case I lose the 50/50 times that by two and I get around 25,000 in this scenario I am guaranteed to get at least one copy of chloride meaning I can't get enticed by my impulsive behavior to spend money because it will never reach that point for the record if a gacha game does not have a Pity system and believe me there still are these days then the section where I review monetization will instantly get a failing grade I generally judge the game by the generosity of the gacha currency given and the rates that a player can realistically obtain new items as a casual another subtle practice is the use of a free daily pack found in the cash shop whenever you log in every day there will be a red notification button next to the shop which you can go in and claim your daily free goodies now the idea for this one is that when you're in an environment where you're expected to buy things you're more likely to spend money of course in a virtual environment this can be a bit different but the idea is the same path to Nowhere actually does something pretty sneaky here where they put the free pack on the right side of the cash shop so you have to scroll through all the paid stuff in order to see it not only that one can easily defend this by saying well at least it's better than nothing you're still getting a bit of free extra goodies every day so you should still be grateful for it you see we're defending predatory practices one step at a time now here's something dangerous that some live service games might try on you remember system 1 and two well let's go back to that college application example if you were offered to be accepted into two different colleges you will likely have to research the backgrounds and suitability of your choice since it is a pretty big choice in one's life but let's change the scenario a little bit what if you are given two offers same as before but both colleges send you an urgent email if you don't accept the offer in 5 minutes then both offers will be rescinded uh-oh now we're running into a problem you need to decide now you can't rely on searching things up or really thinking about your choice in this scenario you're forced to use the system one method of thinking when this decision really should have required system 2 you have to go by your gut instinct let's relate this into a game if a gacha game gives you a flash sale deal where you can spend quite a lot of money for some in-game resources but you don't actually know how valuable those resources are or they're worth the money at all but uh-oh it's actually a limited time offer and it's going away in Just 2 minutes well now you have to make an impulsive and instinctive decision to buy it or not buy it when we're under stress we often don't have the luxury to think things through and this is exactly what is being exploited now this technique is nothing new in gaming but used quite often by pushy salesmen nudging you to sign a contract I don't see this tactic being used very often in gacha games but this is something I want to bring up the next up is fomo you've likely heard of this term before it SS for fear of missing out limited time events Cosmetics characters you name it if you don't snag them now they might not come back for a long time if ever even ideally when I judge these games a players should not feel left out or behind progression if they join late or are thinking of taking a break this is the reason I have a fomo section in my reviews I cannot in good faith support practices of having experiences or rewards locked behind Tim limited events that don't come back especially if that event contains important lore implications or very desirable items this is one of my biggest gripes with a lot of these games it is very predatory in nature and I really hope this isn't common practice when people see the success of genin when they do this the effects of fomo elements should be apparent they force you to monitor the game constantly to ensure no Rewards or events are missed you might not necessarily enjoy playing the game but rather it will make you feel pretty bad if you missed out on something important it's completely to the game's discretion if they want to rerun any Pass events or make pass content permanently available some do it well and some not so well now something I want to bring up is that despite all these measures getting someone to start an additional life service game is actually a very hard sell your time is limited everyone likely has existing responsibilities such as school or work currently you might play one or more gotta games but how would you feel about adding one more to the pile this year alone we had withering waves launch triple Z and AER prilia coming later the question is are you going to start playing any of these games and are you even going to give them a shot if you have no plans to start a new one or even try it what's stopping you and how will any of them Market itself so that you would at least give them a try and conversely how badly would any of the games you're currently playing mess up to make you not want to play it anymore in the post Information Age where live service games have reached full saturation every shiny new title around the block is vying for your attention players today have a lot of choices of what games they want to engage with the major difference between your traditional life service games and gacha games is that gacha games are considered way more casual and does not require a large time sync versus something like Call of Duty It's Not Unusual for one to advertise itself as a side game one you can manage on your daily commute or morning routine and be done with in like 5 minutes the traditional gotta game today have very short daily mission routines it's way less stressful to manage if you add 5 minutes to your daily schedule but even with such low maintenance when you have to juggle and micromanage so many games you'll have to make a choice which ones to Contin and which ones do you drop due to a lot of these subtle practices with retention and monetization the choice can be quite difficult a subtle way to induce fomo is through the 30-day Supply system which is now present in a lot of gacha games from a cost efficient perspective it makes perfect sense for low Spenders to gain a lot of value with very little fees but there's just one problem as you may have guessed if you don't log in for a day this can make you lose out on those precious rewards the same for battle pass systems too this idea ties to something called the sunk cost fallacy and the natural human tendency to avoid losses AKA loss aversion I mean you've already committed so much time and money into something it will be a shame to stop this is a very strong motivator to retain players but I do have a way to combat this the sunca fallacy is exactly that a fallacy the main misconception here is that it doesn't matter what you do you're not getting back the money you spent for a real life example it's like if you bought a ticket to a concert but right before the event your friends invite you to go clubbing you know that going clubbing with friends will be fun but since you had already spent money on the concert ticket you're more inclined to try that out instead even if you may not enjoy it as much after all it will be a shame not to go but this is just it no matter what choice you pick here the money spent on the ticket is gone the rational Choice here will be to go clubbing instead since you know that your time will be better spent unlike money that one can always make back your time is invaluable in most life service games there is a starter pack that lets you spend a small amount of money for a big boost this can be as little as $1 and is typically considered as your entry ticket since once you justify spending even that mincu amount you're now invested in sunk cost and it's way easier for you to justify spending a bit more even if at the present time you don't enjoy the game too much but since you know that you have invested money into it you're more inclined to play it further after all it will be a shame to stop have you ever logged into a game you play every morning did your dies and wondered wait a minute why am I doing this what would happen if I just didn't log in for the day when these retention systems are in place it can almost make it feel like it has become part of your routine without thinking about it this is habit building and it is designed that way by Nature here's my challenge to you for tomorrow just don't log in to any of the gotcha games you play easy right well maybe at first but try to think to yourself what would you miss out if you didn't log in and how bad would you feel about it if you've been playing a game for long it can be increasingly hard to quit because you're in so deep in terms of time and money invested it will be such a waste to stop now but let me suggest something that may change your perspective on this imagine the total amount of money you spent on a game as the total cost of a ticket used to go see a live show maybe you spend nothing maybe you spend a couple hundred 200 1,000 and maybe even more on the other hand the total amount of time you spend playing the game is the duration of the live show itself the show may have gone on for a week a month a year maybe even more it may have been a very expensive ticket and it may have been a long show but even the best of shows must come to an end you got your money and time's worth now that the show is over it's time to go home you're leaving the theater feeling satisfied and content that you've seen such a good performance this is how I could imagine how letting go of a game could look like you never wasted any money or time it was all worth it at the end and you're ready to move on there's a reason I say thank you for watching and as always have fun with the game as always have fun with the game thank you for watching as always and remember have fun out there I think with the growing nature of life service games we often no longer play them because it's fun but because we will feel left out if we didn't with all these predatory practices I think often we forget why we play games in the first place and it's to have fun it's as simple as that which means if you're not having fun with a game and are playing for fomo sunk cost or just gambling Tendencies just stop playing I am demanding you to stop playing games that you don't find fun hopefully with the lessons here today I was able to better prepare you for any future games you may pick up and playing them more cautiously to not fall into any of traps after all gacha games can be fun but just never lose sight of why you play them thank you for watching and as always have fun out there [Music]

Channel: Pseychie

Views: 81,995

Keywords: gacha, gacha game, gacha review

Id: JNtf7_Vr6N4

Length: 22min 23sec (1343 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 20 2024