Gacha Game Hate Thread

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Golfing on the Moon 1971 said:
Granblue Fantasy implemented pity in 2016 and most of the JP gacha industry followed suit. What Genshin did was implement 50/50 to try to obfuscate crunching the costs, since a single character could anywhere from $2 to $475 to pull.
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Do Gacha Games have any form of duplicate protection, like how Hearthstone has with their card packs? Or do they not include it just to make people spend more money, even with pity timers? Also, Hearthstone didn't have duplicate protection on launch, implemented it only for Legendary cards in 2017, then extended it to all rarities in 2020, and then implemented it in reverse in 2022 where if you get a higher quality card (Signature/Diamond/Golden) of a card you already own, you can then re-roll the lower quality card into a random one from the same set/rarity/quality that you don't already own.
 
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Thiletonomics said:
Do Gacha Games have any form of duplicate protection, like how Hearthstone has with their card packs? Or do they not include it just to make people spend more money, even with pity timers?
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Usually characters are not removed from the pool after you get them once. If you get them again and you already have the character, then you usually get a stat stick item to equip or a consumable that can only be used for that character you already have to empower them a bit. And maybe you get some consolation currency that you can spend in a shop.

A lot of gacha games are designed around you pulling for dupes. In Granblue Fantasy if you want to participate in the meta, then you are incentivized to pull for Grand Percival or Grand Zeta and get their accompanying sword or spear multiple times becaue you get a big power boost if you have multiple equipped in your weapon grid. In the Chinese Genshin-likes, pulling dupes unlocks extra talents on the character. In HSR and WuWa, the first 1 to 3 dupe talents are often desirable if you want your character to be able to participate in the endgame for a year or two. So you have to budget your pull income not just for pulling new characters but for pulling dupes too. Genshin and Endfield dupes tend to be very weak and not really worthwhile.
 
Thiletonomics said:
Do Gacha Games have any form of duplicate protection, like how Hearthstone has with their card packs? Or do they not include it just to make people spend more money, even with pity timers? Also, Hearthstone didn't have duplicate protection on launch, implemented it only for Legendary cards in 2017, then extended it to all rarities in 2020, and then implemented it in reverse in 2022 where if you get a higher quality card (Signature/Diamond/Golden) of a card you already own, you can then re-roll the lower quality card into a random one from the same set/rarity/quality that you don't already own.
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In modern (post-Genshin) gachas:
1. “Pools” where multiple characters share the same rate-up chance aren’t really a thing anymore, you’re rolling for a single character with boosted (rate-up) odds of appearing.
2. Pretty much every new character release is a limited-time banner, you’re never going to get their dupe by accident while rolling for someone else

Modern gacha games have ironically gravitated toward a system somewhat similar to buying characters outright - it’s just that the ticket price is ridiculously high (usually around 2-3 months of F2P savings, or $200-300 of purchased currency) and you’re gambling for the chance to get a discount.
 
With the numerous Gachas that EoS, and some don't even last a year before shutting down, have any those of those Gachas that shut down actually gave players refunds?

Compare that to the numerous Concordverse-games that have failed recently, those games actually offered refunds. And even games that didn't get shut down in only a month still managed to give refunds. Examples include:
  • The namesake Concord, which died in only 2 weeks and refunded everyone that purchased the game.
  • While Highguard died in about 2 months and originally didn't offer refunds, they quietly refunded PS5 and Xbox players of money spent on microtransactions later on.
  • THE CUBE, SAVE US, which would have been how Highguard would have turned out had the game not been advertised by Geoff Keighley at The Game Awards, refunded people's microtransactions purchases when the game shut down.
  • Ubisoft gave refunds when they announced XDefiant's shut down.
  • Quantic Dream's forced live service game (presumably by higher up NetEase) Spellcasters Chronicles offered refunds, but required players to specifically request for them.
  • Riot Games gave refunds after they announced that 2XKO will no longer be getting updated after this year.
Do Japanese gaming laws allow companies to get away with not issuing refunds? Or these Western companies give refunds to ensure they don't make money on those failed games to ensure they can be used for tax write-offs, or in the case of Riot Games, for good will?
 
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Thiletonomics said:
Do Japanese gaming laws allow companies to get away with not issuing refunds? Or these Western companies give refunds to ensure they don't make money on those failed games to ensure they can be used for tax write-offs, or in the case of Riot Games, for good will?
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I don't believe issuing refunds is even legally required in the first place for gacha games, since you're essentially paying for a service and not a good. Large companies and large developer studios issue refunds for a tax write-off, but also to protect from the reputational damage that comes with taking money away from someone without giving them the service they paid for. As people, we don't remember all the times things went well for us, but we remember that one time where we got screwed over and take it to the grave. That poses a pretty bug risk for these developers. Gacha games on the other hand don't have to worry about this issue since they're usually made by a team of roughly 50 people, with artists and programmers hired via work contracts (what Microsoft tried to do with Halo Infinite), and if the game ends up EOS-ing, they just jumble up the team and give it a new name and most people are none the wiser.

Slightly related to this but it made me think of the fact so much of the content I paid for in Destiny 2 that is now unavailable became a pain point for the playerbase, but Bungie has announced it will bring most of it back. If they do manage to bring it back in a playable state, it might unironically bring the game back in development or at least greenlight a sequel.
 
Gacha games EOS'ing is the biggest "No Refunds" moment ever to exist, it would make Bernie Sanders green with envy if he found out.
 
Gar For Archer said:
2. Pretty much every new character release is a limited-time banner, you’re never going to get their dupe by accident while rolling for someone else
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This is the part that's really terrible. There's no "ooh what did I get" moment when you get the fancy animation for a pull that has the top possible rank just because of this. Instead it's dread that it might not be what you're rolling for, as there's no sense of a consolation prize.
 
X Prime said:
This is the part that's really terrible. There's no "ooh what did I get" moment when you get the fancy animation for a pull that has the top possible rank just because of this. Instead it's dread that it might not be what you're rolling for, as there's no sense of a consolation prize.
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I thank the big tiddy ww2 loving autist chinks every day I don't have to deal with it. Raid shadow legends left me with ptsd.

I just roll for non paid currency and buy the universal dupe from the free to play shop.

A marvel of tiddy skin economics.
 
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