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Comment by terribleperson | Hacker News Reader

I think it's worse than that. Miyoho gives you the impression you can play their games without spending money, but in practice the gap between one copy of a character and four copies of a character can be enormous. By the time you realize this, you've been on the game for a while and are more likely to spend.

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A lot of gacha games use this. Right when players think they've got something top tier, no no, the real top tier version is that .0001% drop x 4 to merge into some super version.

It's gross when you hear a young kid talk about how much some youtuber or twitch streamer "whaled" on stream like it's a flex to be admired.

While that is true, in Genshin Impact at least, the main game is so easy it's not really an issue unless you choose to be a min-maxer, and there's no PvP competitive aspect. You can beat the abyss full f2p, but it will take a bit longer to get there (as someone who has been a denegerate min-maxer in other games, I have no interest in pushing for it myself). The worst whales I've seen are those who get emotionally attached to a character.

The other thing is that there's no meaningful leaderboard or PVP situations. Some gamers will whale to acquire or preserve a position as #1-on-the-charts, so hyperoptimizing for single player doesn't scratch that itch, unless you're doing some Rube Goldberg setup like self-promoting video streams demonstrating your overpowered build.

I've tossed a little money (probably about USD40 over three years) on Genshin, but I'd rather express my attachment to characters by buying an Arataki Itto oppai mousepad off of Aliexpress. TBH, I found my interest waning when I realized I had a sufficiently capable team of characters I liked, so there wasn't really any reason to go chasing characters I didn't want.

That's why I pay for Genshin impact despite I generally don't like such monetize system. There's no anxiety for the game, so I can just pay for my satisfaction.

It depends on how you play the game. One copy or 4 copies, even 5 star characters or 4 star characters don't really matter in killing all monsters in the open world. As long as you do not play Abyss, it doesn't matter. (e.g., me, 3 years into the game and abyss only cleared at 10-2) I spent a few hundred dollars on chars though, but they were mostly about aesthetics (you just like them).

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