Shiggles comments on Anon is not satisfied

[–] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 year ago (11 children)

That feels an awful lot like saying opiates are fine just don’t get addicted. It’s easy to say when you aren’t susceptible, but clearly some people are and it’s not very productive to be dismissive of the primary way they make money.

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[–] NIB@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

A better comparison would be alcohol. Many people consume alcohol but very few people become alcoholics. Maybe it is genetic predisposition or environmental/mental factors that lead people to abusing it.

Similarly with gachas, millions of people play them as free to play, without ever spending money. A lot of people spend 10-20€ a month and very few people spend hundreds or thousands of euro every month.

As far as honkai star rail is concerned, i enjoy the story, environments, music and the characters and i recommend it. You dont need to spend and you can do everything(or miss like 5% of the rewards, if you dont want to tryhard) without ever spending money.

The main selling point of the game is the story and you can do that with any characters. If you dont want to participate in the endgame, you can ignore it. Ultimately it is a singleplayer turned based "rpg", though it is actually just an anime+idle game. Every 40 days, you get a new episode/season.

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[–] ech@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

You can still be addicted, even of you don't spend a dime.

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[–] NIB@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

Sure but then you only waste your time. Some more casual gachas, like star rail, are deliberately designed to be casual, in order to increase their retention rate(ie keep most of the players playing in the long term). They dont require much time daily(you can afk do the dailies in the background within 5mins) and while there is replayable content, it isnt necessary and eventually you will be done with that too.

Some gachas are more hardcore, demanding more time, which enables them to have a smaller pool of players who are more dedicated(ie less likely to quit because of sunk cost).

I assume addiction rates are higher on those gachas, then again mainstream casual gachas like star rail, have tens of millions of players, so maybe they have more "addicted" players(total, not as a percentage).

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[–] TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Sure but then you only waste your time.

not true at all. you can absolutely fuck up your social life and work life by paying free games. you can fuck up your medical life too. easily meeting criteria for gaming disorder mild severity without ever spending a dime

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[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

They are not a great analogy because they at least have a legit use in medicine.

That said, not really sure what the best analogy for SAAS slot machines would be. Even playing them for free you still have the sensation of pulling down on the device (phone screen/machine lever) and then the "spin" with variable rate rewards.

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[–] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

They do, but given everything Purdue’s done I felt it was fitting. Fine as a concept, awful when the sole goal is extracting money.

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[–] trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago