An Ode to Gacha Games

In September of 2020, Genshin Impact was released to the world. It would go down as one of the most important games that year. It was huge all around the world, much more than any Chinese or gacha game had ever been. If you were into video games around its release, you knew its impact. Everyone was talking about it, it was a phenomenon I hadn't seen since the Pokemon Go spectacle of 2016. For many, myself included, it was their first gacha game.

Now, nearly 4 years after its release, Genshin Impact is still one of the highest grossing mobile games in the world. Its parent company Mihoyo is now known worldwide, where before it was unknown outside of China. Mihoyo's next games: Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero, have also made splashes thanks to the market Genshin created, and it's likely we will continue hearing about these big budget gacha games for a long time. We also finally have the first non Mihoyo gacha to find success within the Genshin audience: Wuthering Waves. The gacha game space created by Genshin has changed a lot in these four years, as has its players.

I got into Genshin Impact around its launch, and since then, gacha games have been a consistent part of my life. I played Genshin for approximately two and a half years. Afterwards I jumped into Honkai: Star Rail, which I played consistently for a little over a year. Finally, I've spent the past month or two playing Wuthering Waves and Zenless Zone Zero.

Yet, as I prepare to move into the next chapter of my life, I've decided I am going to end my time with these games, at least for the forseeable future. They are simply too time consuming for the life I will be living.

With all that said, I thought it would be fun to look back on my time with these gacha games. Remember the good times, the bad, and how everything changed when these games hit the market. Head on down below for a fun story on the four years I spent playing gacha games.

As I look back on my time with these games, one thing becomes certain. As much as there are differences between them, they share so much in common that, in my mind, they blur together as one big game. All four games feature you progressing through linear stories told through cutscenes, all feature you collecting a variety of different characters, grinding various locations to invest in and level up your characters, and collecting currency so you can roll with it to try and get the 5 star characters that appeal to you. To this end, you will want to keep up with all events, which often consist of basic minigames and side activities, and stay up to date with new updates and streams to collect all the goodies you can. It is a never ending grind to collect and level up an endless stream of characters.

Gacha games are similar to MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) and GaaS (games as a service). These are not games you play to completion and then put down. These are games that become a part of your life, games that you play every day and continuously think about. They consume your life, for better or worse.

These kind of games were new to me, and it's part of why they left such an impression. I was into one MMO for a brief period of time (Spiral Knights), but I generally stayed away from these types of games. What was it then that changed everything?

Genshin Impact was what did it. I actually got into it a bit later then all my peers, which led to a fun result, when they all got bored of and stopped playing just when I got way too into it. What I really loved about Genshin Impact initially was its gameplay. It was an open world game, like Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I loved Breath of the Wild! So when I heard it was similar, and free to play, well why wouldn't I try it?

That is how these gacha games succeed. By being free, it encourages a massive amount of players to try the game and see how they like it. Within that massive pool, a small amount will grow committed to the game, wanting to stick with it as long as they can, while consistently spending money on it. I found myself within this group after playing Genshin for a month.

It's a simple question: Why play a game with a massive budget for an initial price tag of $60 or more, when you could instead play a game with the same budget for free? That was the thing about Genshin. Gacha games existed before it, but they never had a big budget or were the most complex games. So them being free made sense, since you weren't going to get a lot out of them. But Genshin Impact had as much budget as the biggest console games, and it was still free! It cannot be understated how big this was. It's the main reason why all my friends were playing Genshin at the time of its release.

Another factor at play was the time period Genshin released in. The Covid-19 pandemic was still within its first year when the game released, and just like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it gave people something to do while stuck at home, and gave them reason to reach out and make friends within this new bustling community.

This was also true for me. Genshin released at a time in which I had recently graduated from university. I was now working full time, while struggling to move on to the next phase of my life due to the pandemic. Genshin was the perfect source of entertainment, something to get lost in while waiting for society to recover. 

It also helped that my current roommate, my work friends, and my online friends had also fallen into Genshin. This gave us something to always discuss, since the game was constantly evolving and adding new content. We could speculate on the future, discuss who we were saving our pulls for, and discuss our feelings on the current content released in the patch. It kept us connected through the pandemic.

Looking back, while the version 1 patches that released during the first 9 months of Genshin Impact are generally considered the weakest patches, it's also not surprising. This was when the game had first released, it was a new kind of game that found far more success than anyone anticipated. The developers were spending this time trying to understand just how to release content in the game, and how to keep players excited, while making sure the game ran properly. There were also lots of launch issues to figure out.

Indeed, the version 1 patches saw many hiccups as Genshin found its footing. There was the Zhongli drama, in which a highly anticipated character released to...not be good. This led to huge backlash from fans, especially in China, resulting in the only time Mihoyo would massively buff one of its characters. There was also the security dilemma, in which for the longest time, it was impossible to create a Mihoyo account that allowed for 2FA, which would make your account secure. This led to many hackers attempting to steal accounts, and it took a while for it to finally get addressed. There was also the issue of leaks. Due to the way Mihoyo prepared for upcoming patches, leaks of future characters and story beats always found their way into the community. Mihoyo spent a long time fighting against them, until finally giving in and revealing characters ahead of schedule, which at least meant they were able to reveal the character first, rather than leakers.

Genshin also got low on content for periods of time. While Mihoyo had a clear roadmap for great content to keep players engaged for the first three patches, the next couple of patches were dry due to a combination of things. I speculate that Mihoyo ran out of their initial roadmap content, and also wanted to focus on preparing for the big version 2 release, resulting in little to do during the second half of the version 1 patches.

Still, despite all the bugs and issues, anyone there will likely remember their time fondly. It was when Genshin was the hot new thing, when everyone was talking about it, and when no one could understand where it was going, which made it exciting. There were so many amazing fan creations in this huge new community that had so much energy for the game. It was incredible.

The Version 2 patches, which took place from July 2021 to August 2022, featured the game's first major content update to the game, in the form of the region of Inazuma. Players had been anticipating this for a while, and I can still remember how unreal it felt when we could finally explore this new region. The excitement was huge, and for many that were losing interest, it was like a rebirth of the game. There were tons of new areas to explore, new mechanics to understand, new enemies and bosses, a lot of progress in the main story, and tons of new characters to roll for and understand. It was exciting, and I recall these patches quite fondly. I remember saving up a ton of currency so I could grab a bunch of the new characters.

If I look at how many 5 star characters I rolled during each version of the game, this was the peak. In Version 1, I rolled a total of six. In Version 3, I rolled five. Throughout the Version 2 patches, I rolled eight 5 star characters, exactly one per patch.

Version 2 showed the developers commitment to improving the content pipeline and keeping players engaged. There were new areas to explore added in nearly every patch, and the story was much more ambitious. It had an interesting cast of characters, and to this day I would call Inazuma my favorite region in the game.

However, just like the Version 1 patches, once the initial ones with the new major content had finished releasing, the content inevitably slowed down, and while it wasn't as bad as the second half of Version 1, it still had an effect. Players became divided on the state of the game, with many feeling burnt out and choosing to move on. This is the unfortunate result of gacha games. They are designed to keep players engaged consistently, meaning they play every day and constantly have it on their mind. This is fun and creates a special year or two with that game. However, after that initial boom it can become difficult to deal with, and soon you will feel forced to play it each day rather than actually wanting to. It begins to feel like work as you grind for new characters, and the fun starts to evaporate.

When feeling burnt out, it becomes easy to focus on your problems. Many players began taking issue with the game, and soon much of the genshin community was filled with tense discussions on how to improve it and if its new characters and environments were still worth experiencing. After all, how could Mihoyo continue to keep the game and its characters feeling fresh when players already had so many characters and had spent so much time with the game?

This is when burn out began to set in for myself. While I stuck with the version 2 patches for most of it, the last three patches were the first ones I hardly played. I took a long break from the game, only playing a bit for the main events. Looking back, I think at this point I already had one foot out the door. I had played Genshin for over a year and a half, and it was starting to feel too familiar for my liking. The game had lost its novelty, and few content was exciting me the way it was a year ago.

This could also be seen amongst my friends. By this point all of them had either dropped the game or chose to only come back for the big story patches. Only one of my friends was still deep into it.

In this declining environment, Version 3 launched in August of 2022 to much acclaim. It once again added a new region, with its own exploration mechanics, enemies, and bosses. The main story was somehow even more ambitious then the previous region, and in a way that was received much more positively by the community.

But the big thing about Version 3, the main reason I came back, was for Dendro. For the only time in the game's history, a brand new element was introduced. This changed up the core Genshin gameplay, since it meant new elemental interactions for all the elements Dendro interacted with had to be learned. It also made characters more exciting, since everyone now needed to roll for Dendro characters if they wanted a roster with access to all the game's interesting mechanics. Suddenly, a bunch of characters were worth grinding for.

With Version 3's release, Genshin once again felt new, and tons of players returned to enjoy the new systems introduced into the game. I had a blast with these early patches, it was fun getting to learn the Dendro mechanics and see how the developers had once again expanded on the game to create even stronger areas to explore. While overall, I think I enjoyed Inazuma more as a region, Sumeru had some of the highest highs in the game for me, leaving it fond memories. The standouts were the story and the archon. The archon is the god of each new region, and tends to be the character that receives the most focus each version. So if they resonate with you, you will have a great time with the region. That was what happened with me in Sumeru. Nahida became my favorite archon, and her character demo remains my favorite.

Wait, why am I talking about a youtube video? That's the thing about these gacha games. If I strictly compare them to other games, they generally aren't as special as the best console games. But you don't play gacha games only for the game. It's also for the big community, the constant fun discussions you can have with fellow fans, the wonderful fan art, stories, and merchandise people create, and having something to look forward to each week. I kept up with discussion threads on resetera regarding Genshin for years, and met some cool people there. I also saved way too much amazing fan art from creators all around the world. It was a fun time, and cool to put the game down and still be able to discuss or view content related to it. Even now, I went back to rewatch some of my favorite character demos, and it hit me with some good old nostalgia. The content Mihoyo create for their games is on another level of polish.

Still, while I enjoyed keeping up with the community, learning the new element, rolling for the archon, and rolling for the main villain, a character I had been waiting for since the start of the game when he first appeared, by the time all the major content for Sumeru had released, I felt boredom sinking in. The game could only feel new for so long.

Much of the cynical discussion that came in Genshin discourse during the late Version 2 patches returned once the community came to fully understand the new region and element, and like many, I decided to take my leave. But unlike a couple of my friends, who would continue to return for new main story and exploration content, I was done for good.

For me, I didn't play Genshin mainly for its story. It was the gameplay: getting to explore great new vistas, rolling for and utilizing the many cool fun characters, that's what I loved about the game. After grabbing a couple dendro characters, I was content with my roster. None of the upcoming characters excited me, at least to the point that I would want to grind for the pulling currency. What was a fun grind became boring and lost its fun, and I knew I had my fill of the game. Sumeru also felt like a nice stopping point due to its highs, and none of the future regions interested me that much. So, that was that. When 2023 rolled around, I reduced my time with the game and prepared for my exit.

But as a farewell, I played the lantern rite event one final time. Because these are games you are meant to play constantly, Genshin has the lantern rite event, which takes place every year in game, at the same time as Chinese new year. It's a nice reminder that this is a game you stick with for years. You get to see it change and evolve each year, while still returning to the same cast of characters you first saw at the start of the game. It's the sort of thing you can only find in these gacha games.

 

After Genshin, I thought my time with gacha games was over. I think many did when quitting Genshin. After all, it was lighting in a bottle, we wouldn't see a game like it for a long long time.

How surprised I and many were when Honkai: Star Rail released, a game with little publicity leading up to release, only for it to make a massive splash, pulling many Genshin players away, but more importantly, grabbing former Genshin players, such as myself, back into the Hoyoverse. Before I knew it, I was knee deep in another Mihoyo game.

The thing about Star Rail that appealed so much to former Genshin players like myself was that, while it was similar to Genshin, it was a lot less demanding of your time. It was a turn based game, so you didn't have to be as engaged for battles. You could also put battles on auto, and have the game play itself for you. This made grinding a lot less of a hassle. The game was also more generous then Genshin, giving away free pulls each patch, and even giving a free 5 star character at one point.

I can clearly see this in the number of 5 stars I rolled. Remember how the most 5 stars I rolled in a version of Genshin was eight characters, across Version 2? Well, across the Version 1 patches of Star Rail, I rolled a total of eleven 5 star characters.

The Star Rail team seemed to know that without the novelty of Genshin, without the promise of a massive open world to explore in a free game, they would have to step up, and they did. Star Rail adds new characters at an absurd rate compared to Genshin. Within its first year, Star Rail had as many characters as Genshin did in its first two. This meant there was always a character to look forward to, and always new characters to roll for and play with, keeping the gameplay fun and fresh.

Star Rail's story was also great, definitely a step up from the Version 1 stories of Genshin. Characters were now not only beholden to their home region, but were also part of various factions that roamed the galaxy, leading to all sorts of interesting scenarios. The constant influx of new characters also kept the world building expanding at a fast pace.

The main appeal of Star Rail I would argue, was its mobile nature. Due to the ability to grind on auto battle, plus taking your time in combat thanks to the turn based system, Star Rail became the first game I downloaded and played on my phone. I had for so long seen people spend bus rides playing games on their phone, and now I understood why. The ease of play meant I could keep up with Star Rail without having to always turn my computer on, and this made it easier to stick with for a long time.

I wasn't alone in this. Many genshin and former genshin players were grabbed by Star Rail, and the community quickly evolved into being as large as Genshin's, though not as large as Genshin's was in its prime. 

While this led to a new fun community to take part in, it also unfortunately led to a lot of fighting between the Genshin and Star Rail communities. Many former Genshin players, burnt out from the game, were more then delighted to point out how much more generous Star Rail was, and how much more novel its combat events and new characters were. I largely avoided these, but I did find them interesting.

Because gacha games want players to stay engaged, they inevitably compete with other gacha games for a player's time. This made these comparisons inevitable, as did the fact that, because Star Rail was the newcomer, it had to do a lot more to encourage players to stick with it, unlike Genshin. This gave many fans ample ammunition for attacking Genshin and calling it the lesser game.

Still, this competition led to Genshin's developers stepping up. They implemented systems to make activities easier to complete and less straining on players. After a year of release, I think both communities have finally come to live more in coexistence, rather than being at odds with each other, especially now that they are no longer the only two major gachas on the market. 

Looking back, there's a real parallel to the Nintendo vs Sega console wars of the 1990s. First, Nintendo dominated the console markets in Japan and North America, just as Genshin dominated the gacha space. Then the first major competitor launched, and to make a splash it went all out, spending tons on marketing and taking risks, while attacking their competitor. Sega did it in the 1990s, and the Star Rail community very much followed suit. After this rivalry, more competitors entered the market in the form of Sony and Microsoft, and soon the intense console rivalry died off as the space became more complex. This also happened in the gacha space. With two major gacha games recently releasing, the intense rivalries seem less heated and more nuanced.

Sorry for the tangent, I just thought that was an interesting parallel.

 

Getting back to Star Rail, it became a big hit, and a game I happily stuck with for over a year. The Version 1 patches had engaging content and characters to mess with, and by the time of Version 2, I had successfully completed all content in the game, while having a roster I was satisfied with.

This may remind you of my ending time with Genshin. Yes, the downside to making Star Rail much easier to play, more generous, and featuring more characters, was that I was able to gain a roster I was satisfied with much quicker than I had in Genshin. It also helped that it wasn't my first gacha, so I was more prepared on how to take advantage of its systems and complete it.

Thankfully, this wasn't an issue yet, because in February of 2024, Version 2 released! The major update featured the new region of Penacony, which was excellent through and through. Like Inazuma in Genshin, I saved up a ton for it, and grabbed a bunch of characters. Across the four main patches of the new region, I pulled a total of six 5 star characters.

It was hard to resist. Penacony has my favorite cast of characters in a Mihoyo game. Despite running into them all in one location, they all came from wildly different planets and factions, having varied and interesting backstories and goals. It made for Mihoyo's strongest story I've experienced, and I'll look back on it as a delightful time filled with great complex characters.

However, just as with Genshin, Star Rail's great characters kept me engaged, but the moment it ended, my desire to play dropped off a cliff. Like Genshin, after over a year of playing Star Rail, I had reached a point in which I was content with my roster, future characters and content no longer interested me, and I felt like I could leave the game on a high note, content with my time.

By July of 2024, I decided to put Star Rail down. I think many other players were in a similar position. There may have been much discussion on Star Rail's losing players and declining quality if not for new games releasing, stealing the major discussions within the gacha community. Just as Star Rail slowed down, the next chapter had arrived.

In May of 2024, Mihoyo's first competitor released in the form of Wuthering Waves. This came from Kuro Games, a company that had made a couple successful gacha games, and was looking to go big and challenge Mihoyo's crown.

Despite being from a different company, Wuthering Waves plays quite similar to Genshin, being a clear competitor to it. It is an open world action game, just like Genshin. Despite this, there were many signs that this was a different kind of game. For starters, if Genshin had a difficult launch full of issues, Wuthering Waves was on another level. Many players had numerous issues playing the game on mobile devices. I'm pretty sure the game's release date was moved up at the last minute to avoid launching alongside Mihoyo's next major title. This meant a lot of bugs, and the developers had a difficult time patching everything up as quickly as possible, no doubt pulling all nighters and stressing its poor developers out.

As a result however, Kuro Games showed that when it comes to gacha games, they are a lot more generous. They already had a more generous system, less pulls required for a 5 star character then in Mihoyo games, and a way to pick a free 5 star of your choice. But after the release troubles, they allowed players another 5 star character of their choice, and it has recently been revealed that players will be receiving yet another free 5 star character in the upcoming patch. I've put roughly the same amount of time into Wuthering Waves as I have Zenless Zone Zero. I have two 5 stars in the latter, while I have four in the former.

Wuthering Waves also adds a lot of quality of life improvements that makes returning to Genshin difficult. Exploring can be done much quicker, combat is generally more engaging, and you can now skip cutscenes and dialogue if you find it overbearing. That last one is greatly needed. As much as I've praised the stories of Genshin and Star Rail, they are filled with lots of unnecessary and drawn out dialogue. You may note that I've only praised parts of their main stories, never mind all the side stories and character quests. These games have a lot of dialogue, which is why many players say they play these primarily for the story.

I can never be one of them, as I find the overall story and writing quality of these games to be good at best, and annoying at worst. They're fine, but their reliance on cutscenes that removes choice from the player means they can get quite boring. They also tend to follow similar structures, such that after a while, it's easy to guess where they're going. Finally, the constant introduction of new characters doesn't help, as it means no character can get a large amount of focus, reducing the depth of the many many characters in these games.

You can view the story of Wuthering Waves as having a similar progression to the game in general. The beginning of the story is bogged down in way too much dialogue without giving the player any time to get used to the new world and its inhabitants. It was awful to get through. Thankfully, by the 5 hour mark the story gets much better, and I can see why there has been much praise for it online. It took some time, but by its second patch Wuthering Waves has found its footing, and seems ready to continue as another successful big budget gacha game for players to sink their teeth into.

A month and a half after Wuthering Waves, Mihoyo released their third massive gacha game: Zenless Zone Zero. Despite being another gacha, ZZZ went in a completely different direction then its contemporaries. ZZZ is an action oriented game, without an open world. This means the combat in ZZZ is generally more satisfying to play, and I had much fun with it.

To make up for the lack of an open world, ZZZ has a small but intimate world it takes part in. Unlike Genshin, Star Rail, and Wuthering, which are all about adventuring and exploring new areas, ZZZ takes place in your quiet home base, where you get to know the residents of your small town, and get to see it slowly build itself as new residents arrive and you spend time with its many fun characters.

I appreciated this a lot. Wuthering Waves felt too similar to Genshin for my liking. I had already played Genshin for over 2 years, and wasn't looking to play a game just like it. I appreciated that ZZZ chose to have a smaller scope, focusing more on a small intimate setting and having its own unique identity. In ZZZ, you can hang out with characters in a way that seems similar to the social links from the Persona games, which I quite like, as it gives characters some much needed depth.

ZZZ's story is also quite good. Dare I say of the four gachas I've played, it has the strongest writing and start. The cutscenes are animated with more personality, the dialogue never lasts longer then it needs to, and the story does a great job at characterizing everyone and showing their fun dynamics with each other. In ZZZ, all characters work together in groups of four, so there's a fun group dynamic to them you wouldn't see in the previous games.

Mihoyo seems to get better and better at making gacha games, as each one builds on the previous titles in great ways. Despite this, I noticed a problem. I have next to no desire to save up and roll for any of its 5 star characters. Maybe it is the urban vibe of the game, but something about the characters doesn't grab me. I like them, but I've yet to find one I really latch on to, unlike Genshin and Star Rail.

As great as Wuthering Waves and ZZZ are, I think I'm at a point in which I'm too burnt out on gacha games to play another. I've had enough of chasing characters, watching cutscenes, and grinding. I've had enough of spending lots of time for games that don't have the most depth. So while it was fun to play both games for a bit, and I was into them at the start...it only took a week or two for me to lose interest and stop playing them.

This seems to be the general reception among the big budget gacha community, at least from what I've seen. Wuthering Waves found a large fanbase, but many quickly dropped it from how similar it was to Genshin, greater interest in ZZZ, or feeling burnt out from gachas in general. ZZZ was able to succeed more than Wuthering, with it finding another large fanbase that may one day rival the likes of Genshin and Star Rail. It likely made more money in its first month then Wuthering did in its first two. This isn't too surprising when you consider Mihoyo's budget. They have become masters of advertising, using all the cash they've gained from Genshin to promote their other games. Kuro games was going to be at a disadvantage in that regard.

According to this chart, 4 of the 6 highest grossing gacha games last month were the four games spoken of in this article. I suspect that to stay true for a long time.

Still, while both games are succeeding, and there's some competition between their communities, the gacha space in general seems quieter as it becomes more divided. All four games are now continuing to release great patches, vying for player attention. It's becoming too much for people to stick with, so many are picking the one or two gachas they prefer, sticking with those, and keeping their heads out of the other game communities. Many are, like me, becoming overwhelmed in the number of gacha games and instead choosing to abandon them all.

It definitely feels like, after 4 years of gacha games, many players are either losing interest and moving on, or no longer worrying about what to do with their time, as they spend more time playing the many big budget gachas instead of discussing them.

Still, this does feel like an important moment in the gacha space. When Genshin first made a splash, Mihoyo teased their upcoming titles in Star Rail and Zenless. Now that both are out, there is no word of them releasing any new big budget gachas for the forseeable future. Genshin, Star Rail, and Zenless are their holy trinity, and now they look to dominate the gacha space and make Mihoyo the king of the market for a very long time. There are non Mihoyo titles in the works, such a project Mugen, but it looks like Mihoyo will continue to dominate this space for the forseeable future, with others doing their best to compete below them, as Wuthering Waves shows.

As I move on to the next chapter in my life, I look back at my time with these gacha games with some fondness and regret. They were unlike any games I'd played before, making them quite memorable experiences. It was always fun getting to discuss the newest content with friends online and at work. It was fun to wake up knowing I would be rolling for a new character that day. It was fun getting to see these games and their communities grow and evolve.

It was also crazy seeing just how much they dominated conventions. I've been going to anime and video game conventions for years. I don't think I've ever seen a game dominate conventions like Genshin did. So much of the fan merchandise and cosplays were from it. It really was a massive phenomenon like no other, dominating video game and anime spaces everywhere. I just got back from an anime convention, and as I look at all the merchandise I've bought over the years, I have more Genshin merchandise then I do any other video game, and there's a reason for that. Star Rail is not far behind.

These games, and Genshin in particular, were a movement, and I enjoyed getting to be a part of it, and see where it led. It was fun getting to experience this journey with friends and the community as a whole. When I play console games, it's nice to be able to complete it. But it always feels a bit lonely, knowing there aren't many friends I can discuss the game with.

At the same time, I spent a lot of time and money on these games. I bought the monthly and battle passes in Genshin and Star Rail a lot. I don't know exactly how much I've spent, but I estimate I spent approximately $250 on Genshin, and $150 on Star Rail, for $400 total. Considering I played both for roughly 3 and a half to 4 years, that's approximately $10 per month, which is how I convinced myself to spend so much. But even looking at it now, man, if I hadn't played these games, I'd have $400 to spend on other things.

They are also very time consuming. Having to play these games every day takes a lot of your time away. I can't help but wonder what other games I could have played, hobbies I could have picked up, or other things I could have done had I not spent so much of so many days playing these darn gacha games. These games have predatory and evil systems baked into them, and for that reason I can never in good faith wholly recommend them to anyone.

This is why I'm not sure I ever want to return to these games. They're so parasitic, I no longer want to spend time and money saving up currency for characters, making it hard for me to get excited for any new character in any of the four gacha games. I'm not sure I can play them anymore. The fun and novelty is gone, and all I see is the underlying toxic systems within them.

That being said, I see myself still keeping up with their communities and seeing how things progress, just because I find that sort of thing interesting, and like seeing the market change as new games release and update. For all their problems, these games are fun to read about, especially since there are so many opinions to read, given how big they are.

In conclusion, gacha games are fun, weird, and interesting. When Genshin Impact released, many had never played anything like it, leading to huge worldwide success and a massive community with much to discuss. It dominated our lives in such a way that we'll never forget. When Star Rail released, it showed us another way to do big budget gacha games, leading to more discussion and fun times as a new community emerged and clashed. Now, with Zenless and Wuthering released, the community has come to finally understand and accept these gacha games. They have created a massive worldwide market, and as they grab new players and dispose of old, it will continue to grow and change in the coming years.

If you were to ask me the main appeal of gacha games, why I played them for nearly 4 years, I would say it is the characters. Because there's something fun about having a character that grabs you, a character to grind and progress through this fun game to save up for. Having a character to then roll for, succeed and feel joy, and then get to build and see how they change your gameplay, is really satisfying. Characters kept me engaged with the stories of these games, and kept me engaged with the gameplay. They both offered a new perspective and avenue to the story, and new means of gameplay, and it kept the game feeling fun for far longer than most games would stay fun.

I think the surest sign a gacha game isn't for you, is if its characters stop appealing to you, and you do not get excited for future characters. Because if you do not want new characters, you will stop completing content for the rolling currency. The story will lose investment and attachment since you do not have or care for its new characters. Finally, the gameplay becomes stale as you use the same cast of characters in each scenario. These games live or die by their ability to get you invested in their characters, which make them an interesting case study in character design.

Still, given the predatory nature of these games, I wouldn't be surprised if the normal route for players of these games is similar to my own. Get into them, play for a few years, and then grow bored and move on. So long as these games can continue to grab new players by staying free and accessible, they will continue to find new fans to supplement older fans leaving. This is the gacha game economy, and it is a sight to behold.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey with these gacha games. I look forward to hearing about how the market progress, and how these games that gave me many fond memories progress and conclude.