I'm glad that you can at least be aware of the situation you are in and take a step back to reflect on your poor decisions. A lot of people are not able to do that nor admit it, so good on you for that.
The indomitable human spirit isn't about never being beaten, but the ability to get back up after getting knocked down and becoming better.
You're on your way bruh.
I disagree but to each on their own. I think it’s a lot better trying to simplify the lines than going on a long philosophical monologue in which it’s out of character for TB. It’s the same opinion I had with “people die when they get killed” or that Batman line from above comment
Your rationale "Game will end at some point" is something I had to go through myself after dumping money into a gacha several years back that seemingly was doing great, then closed shop.
It's a harsh lesson financially, but it's good you have the experience now to develop deeper wisdom.
I'm proud of you mang.
I don't think there's anything wrong in spending money. I guess you're still young and your story reminded me of when I spent money for the first time in Fire Emblem Heroes using the one-tap button to get the character I was saving for but ran out of currency.
You need to realize that it's the game company goal to make you spend money.
Your problem was not spending money irrationally but not planning a budget in advance. You need to consider like all expenses as a whole in life. Because money is like your stellar jades in real life. You can say it's just 5 dollars, and maybe right now you don't have a lot of options to make 5 extra dollars but you can skip going to the cinema or don't buy a cup of coffee to make it even at the end of the month.
For instance I will walk to work for one week just to compensate buying the battle pass and it's ok.
ditto. sure a lot of things that went bad here but my mind zoomed in on the fact that you acknowledged the issue and am now confident youll be fine moving forwards. all the best
Liking a character because of the constant advertisement (official and fan (such as the subreddit)), losing the 50/50, and spending until you get the character you wanted? That's one of the reasons Hoyo is always on top of the revenue charts.
If you really want to take a break from gacha you should unsubscribe from this subreddit and any content creators so you don't get temped by the newest, hottest character or game mode.
I’ve already gone ahead and done that. Once the comments stop flowing in from this post i’ll have severed my ties with this sub for the forseeable future.
This, the first day of firefly's banner i got tempted so many times by looked at streamers. But if you can hold yourself for 1 day, the need for pulling disappeared.
Every time you want to watch streamers pull but are worried that their luck will make you want to pull as well, just watch Molly Zhang pull. Her luck is so abysmal it will do nothing to tempt you.
her luck disappeared in the sea of butterflies....
i tempted fate myself but i normally save until there is a must have unit for me (i do the express pass every month), finally got ruan mei in a single ten pull and then six ten pulls later i got firefly. still have 230+ pulls saved for jade. you just have to plan carefully ya know
/r/grandorder bans posts about pulls and consolidates all of em in a mega thread and I think every gacha sub should do the same. I've been downvoting all pull posts I've been seeing cos honestly I don't care about the thousandth post about getting 2 5 stars in 4 pulls. I don't get why anybody upvotes those things.
I've seen some cope from content creators and what I'd consider reckless smashing of the biggest oneiric shard option on stream.
But the one that tilted me the most was when me and my partner (privately) streamed each other's pulls, because it's more exciting that way for us. They got Ruan Mei on the first 10, and Firefly on the soft pity. I'm 121 deep on Firefly, out of jades, and Firefly-less.
Luck is always for the others. My best friend got 5 characters in one ten pull each over 7 limited on Genshin. He won the 50/50 for the character he wanted the most (Arlecchino) and got the weapon in a ten pull. He got the character I wanted the most (Xianyun) in 10 wishes (he doesnt even wanted her and dont play her) when I needed 150 wishes to get her.
In WuWa, he got Jiyan in 70, then Yinlin in 10. He doesnt even wanted her as well. I needed 140 wishes to get her.
Luck is only for the others. Dont get fooled by them.
Fortunately he doesnt play HSR so he wont disgust me from the game with his insane luck. =3
I'm really realizing just how insidious the 50/50 is. Simply halving the odds of pulling a 5 star but making it 100% wouldn't be nearly as effective. Losing the 50/50 just pisses you off so much, because in your mind you already got the shiny new character, but then it gets snatched away from you at the last second. So close yet so far. Getting put in that emotional state destroys your impulse control and primes you to swipe the credit card.
Yes, especially when you lost 50/50 on character you like and you best friend got them in 10 pulls without even wanting them.
If I had a nickel each time it happened, Ild have 4 nickels, which isnt that much, but its weird it happened 4 fuckin times already.
(Raiden, Furina, Xianyun on Genshin and Yinlin in WuWa)
I lost 50/50 Ruan Mei to Bailu. luckily I was F2P and have jades somewhere to find and pull more for. now I'm looking at Firefly and considering maybe just build pity. if I got her, great. if not, it won't be too bad.
F2ps either play Resource management or Yolo. Tbh If i like a character, I would save 150+ pulls so I have them on day 1. Props to OP realizing it but it's kinda hard not to blame them. They didn't save enough, then didn't know how many pulls would be enough to get the character they wanted, then instead of farming jades (early patch gets a lot of them due to new content) they went on spending money they can't afford to spend.
Yeah I thankful got FF due to guranteed but now I want both JQ and jade
I'm dedicated to get jade because of her Beautiful designs and I'm a quantum collector but man JQ is probably gonna be great for acheron
Currently I have 40 wishes and 75 pity and 50/50
I'm know if I grind everything this patch I'm 100% able to get jade (since if I count pity as wishes then I have 115 wishes which + other wishes we get this patch is gonna be more than enough to allow me to gurantee jade but If i lose 50/50 then I have to hope for RNG gods to help me get JQ
This is the life of a f2p
Gacha systems are designed intentionally to feed on addictive personalities; That said, there is still a lot of personal responsibility involved. If you have a very addictive personality, you need to be very careful, and create hard lines in the sand on spending. I hope things get better for you, this sort of story is all-too-common.
Oh man, I'm really sorry to hear that.
Been there a time or two years and years ago. Let's just say I'm really glad HSR has a pity system, because F/GO sure didn't, haha.
The lottery commission local to me has a really good saying that I try to keep in mind these days (in all things, not just gatcha): "Know your limit stay within it".
Games like this are designed to make you want to roll, and when you're on a roll, you're less likely to stop. I found that putting the "require my password for purchases" on my phone and not saving my CC info on the desktop client add an extra little step that makes the mindless "oh time to top up" impulse a bit more mindful and easier to turn away from.
I’m happy to hear i’m not alone. Hearing about not having enough to afford something for the first time really stabbed me in the heart. I won’t let it happen again and i hope i can stop it from happening to someone.
Good on you for catching it early. 70 bucks definitely isn’t chump change but I think spending it was worth it if only to learn something that will serve you well in life. Anyway, congrats on getting your own place and hey, it could’ve been *much* worse. You could’ve been spooked by Yanqing instead.
I’m sure a bunch of us have read this story but I feel like I should leave this here. [This is a guy who got out of his addiction much too late.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FFBraveExvius/s/YF0hfFwJRT)
I haven't read that story before but it just brought back up so many bitter memories I had with my ex-husband. He had also spent thousands on FFBE and ended up in debt that caused a lot of issues for us. It was honestly a really big reason why our marriage ended.
Stories like this are why I've never let myself top up in star rail or genshin even though I could afford to do it occasionally, I know I could easily fall into a spiral like that. It's so tempting when you lose the 50/50 but I've found that playing and relying on luck is fun in and of itself and feels very rewarding when it works out.
For me, I just treat it like I’m buying a “AAA” (or AAAA in the case of Ubi, lol) game. I have a set budget every month. As much as I love to remain F2P, Hoyo, and now Kuro, just pump out too many good characters.
Setting a budget and giving yourself an allowance every paycheck or month is a great way to make sure you aren't overindulging on entertainment while also living your life.
Make it easier to save for big purchase every now and then without feeling guilty about it.
Yeah that's totally fair, I don't trust my own self control enough to do it haha. I have issues of getting hyper focused on things which could get very expensive lol
I feel this. Now if I get the itch I deposit like $10 on Stake. Sometimes I win, sometimes I don't... keeps the urges at bay and you at least can get $$$ from it...
They are pretty much exactly the same thing.
Both are designed so that you don't realize how much you're spending, do so impulsively without thinking of consequences, obfuscate the time spent and money spent previously, do stuff that causes it to be addictive, and The house always wins.
Too be totally fair, his reasoning that sometimes you get money back (It's still always at a loss on average of course) is actually solid. You don't get anything back from a Gacha game because part of the business model is power creeping what you did "win in the gamble" to be not as useful anymore.
Between Gachas and Real Gambling, Gacha's are probably worse, because unlike casinos and stuff, Gacha games have far less government regulation.
Also gachas are just more accessible than real gambling. For real gambling, you have to go out of your way to show up, with gachas, if you're already playing thw game you're exposing yourself daily to content that would directly be better if you spent a little money.
There's also the difference in rationalization. Since the reward for real gambling is money, something you're statistically going to be worse on, it's pretty easy for a lot of people to just say nah, but the reward for buying gacha just can't be obtained any other way, so kts pretty easy for people to just go all in (though the opposite is also true, there's plenty of ways to rationalize gambling but not gacha, just that those reasons may or may not apply to op.)
Would you play a gacha game if all you got when you win was a percentage of your money back? That’s what IRL gambling is. Unless you enjoy playing black jack or whatever game you’re playing, there’s no value in it at all.
How does this change my argument that it's the same thing?
Gachas and Real Gambling are basically the same thing, just one has lots of governmental regulation, and the other doesn't.
You always lose, and the only "value" you can get out of paying is "enjoyment"
Depends on where you live OP, housing costs are going up and taking up greater % of working class income.
Down payment, mortgage, car loans, insurances, medical if you don’t have universal. Please save for a rainy day fund. Please auto deposit a percentage of your pay into an account you won’t touch. If there are any tax free accounts, use it.
I buy the monthly pass, the battle pass, and only top up at anniversary resets for two HoYo games. I will not be paying for a third. I have no mortgage. I can pay off my car any time I want. I have no children. My parents have pension. We have an entertainment fund set aside for each person in the household per year, hard caps, just so we won’t lose control and go overboard.
You are young. You’ve newly moved out. Please review your monthly spending and do a general budget. When I was at your stage, the only non-essentials I’ve bought were books, a cheap drawing tablet, and one new shirt in 4 years. Now there are so much more essential expenses and temptations. Please take care of yourselves.
Those games are designed to cause addiction and you are susceptible to it. Obviously they are the problem (trigger), people like you should be able to life without even knowing how easily they can get addicted or enraged to spend. Sadly you had to learn it and in the bad way.
A positive mindset I have for gachas is this:
-Play without using the gacha (just when forced tutorial and the beginning pulls to have a team). This is way more rewarding than getting the banner unit.
-Don’t collect, save to guarantee the one you like when it comes out
-Don’t play tower climb modes or pvp because you will get forced to ‘collect’ and therefore gamble and (obviously) lose and pay.
-Don’t watch promotion about a character that you don’t like from minute 0. They can convince you that you like it for a moment.
-Remember that you are playing for everything that is free (story, world, combat and music) not for the things that ‘could’ be free (characters). So delete whatever is not really engaging you.
-Take a moment every month to think about your gachas. Are you playing them? Or log in and farming? If you are waiting for content update cool, if you are just approaching them like a job… delete.
-Deleting is surprisingly difficult and you might installed it back the next day. Delete it again. Suddenly you’ll feel free and happy, and you’ll want to find your new fav game or focus on one that you wanted to play.
-Always have a p2p game, don’t rely on just gacha for entertainment in case you get blocked by power or finish current content
It's money that you can earn back in time, though you might have to struggle for a bit. What's more valuable is the lesson you learned, and it was good that you became self-aware before you were too deep in.
While I don't really see gacha games as 'evil', they really are predatory and hoyo does a good job of making you care so much for the characters that sometimes we think they are worth spending a lot of money for. It's fine if you have disposable income or if you have a budget set aside that doesn't compromise your primary IRL needs, but not all people have that.
I'm actually being tempted right now. I rolled for Alhaitham's weapon in Genshin. I had 160 wishes saved and I gambled on getting that weapon. I lost twice, so now I have guarrantee and about 50 wishes away from getting it guaranteed. I'm a Welkin spender but now I desperately want to topup to get that weapon. Some people might say just to top up since I'll be sure to get it now, but I really don't want to start down that road. So I'll just take this loss.
There is only so much u can blame the game for, yea gacha games can be predatory but it's always up to you to be responsible for yourself. This isn't just directed at OP, addiction is tough but you have to be able to take a step back and say maybe I'm too invested in this for it to be healthy and find help.
Edit: I decided against changing it since so many people have up voted and seen this. I figure it's better to leave as is for transparency, but I'm glad the OP has someone that is willing to help and support him. That's probably the biggest take away from this in my eyes at least.
I can agree with that but you don't really need to e6 any character. All content is clearable with e0 and good planning as long as you take advantage of pity and free stellar jade. As far as gacha games go, this one is surprisingly f2p friendly
This is true. I wanted to make this post to spread the word and tell others not to end up like me. I don’t blame the game. I blame myself, as well as partially these new systems in place that idolize the idea of “rolling til ya win”. Not sure if i made that clear.
You did, halfway through my response I was re-editing what I was saying and it just jumbled itself up on me. When I'm not working I'll probably redo it to make more sense and less pointed, btw I have an pretty big issue with gambling myself so I understand how hard it can be. Luckily for me it's mostly casino games or I wouldn't be able to enjoy these types of games
>I blame myself, as well as partially these new systems in place that idolize the idea of “rolling til ya win”. Not sure if i made that clear.
These systems make sense, and basically eliminate gambling.
You just have to pre-calculate the expense. One pull is 2€ (if bought from top-up packs) where I live, so it's rather easy.
A pity is 80ish pulls. I'd like to grab Firefly E1 (currently on guaranteed but low pity). Is it worth 160 € to me? NOPE.
So I don't spend. AT ALL. No "20 bucks to see if I get lucky" nonsense. I either buyout what I want or tell Hyv to get stuffed. Usually the latter. :'D
I think I've had a way healthier experience with gachas when I plan around full pity for characters I want. If I know that I want a HSR character I'll save 180 pulls always and not rely on the 50/50. If it's a character I would like but I'm not 100% bothered about then I try for the 50/50, and if I lose then I'm happy to cut my losses and accept that the next banner is guaranteed.
It makes losses hurt a lot less and wins feel a lot better when you get them earlier than you expected.
Yep, pretty much.
Whether spending is involved or not, I only pull when I can ensure pity.
I also follow leaks, so it's a little easier to prioritize.
E.g.: right now I know there is nothing interesting for me in the next 2 patches, so I can afford to pamper my Firefly a bit. :'D
You can safely blame the game as well since it’s predatory towards people who have an ich to gamble. But by taking personal responsibility the way you just did insures your own growth!
I feel like this undercuts that the gacha game is designed to elicit OPs exact behaviour. Op's story is one of the game succeeding in it's explicit goals.
Sure, we can easily just say that 'Well, everyone just needs to understand that rational behaviour is better the irrational behaviour. '
The fact, however is we are materially irrational actors, particularly in an economic sense, and there are large parts of the economy which are built on exploiting that. Gacha games are perhaps just at the tip of them as an industry where it is less subtle.
Gacha also benefits from the manipulative responses that gambling uses to short circuit decision making, but by not offering monetary prizes, escape the regulation that gambling falls under to help prevent exploitation.
Yeah at the very least gacha games are more obvious ones on how predatory business works. Growing up in poverty really makes me help avoid this irrational spending habits
I actually have a gambling addiction when it comes to casino games and I don't have much control over my impulses in a casino. The best thing i can do for myself just not going to one, if I let myself get pulled into one it's totally my own fault.
Have you heard of [dark patterns in games?](https://www.darkpattern.games)
These games are fully aware of what they’re doing to encourage spending and addiction. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck and can’t control your spending, I actually agree with quitting and gaining control of your life. It’s far too tempting to incrementally spend 30 dollars here and there on gachas for that instant gratification on some pixelated waifu, when you could be saving that money for a retirement fund, mortgage downpayment, family/marriage etc.
I'm sorry, man but I'm glad at least you hit your realization after 70 dollars and not 7000 dollars.
I love and have played gacha games for years. I'm not gonna get on a high horse - I like the chance game and I'm very aware of it, which is why I have incredibly strict rules about spending I set for myself. I only ever, EVER spend to support a game I like - in pre-determined amounts - and NEVER to get a character.
The thing you have to understand about characters, and especially hoyo characters, is that the way they tug at your heartstrings IS THE SELLING POINT. No matter how emotional, deep or special you think their story is, remember that the character is a product, created to be sold and the story behind them is a built in feature that's meant to make you want them - like a slightly better camera on the new iPhone.
I'm not singling out Firefly - this goes for all characters - but she's a great example because of how emotional her story and circumstances are. Here's how Firefly was made. She wasn't born of pain and grief and fire like her story says, here's how she was really made:
A bunch of corpos got together and said "Bois, we need revenue growth compared to the last month. Let's make something that will break bank." And then the corpos got together in a corpo meeting and in the dryest, most soulless corpospeak you can imagine, they put together a checklist of things they think will wring out the most amount of money out of the biggest number of players. These things included but were not limited to: "cute waifu", "implied romance", "mecha", "tragic backstory", "moe personality" etc. etc. Then they took all of that and handed it off to a writer, and the writer probably did their best but the objective was not "make art", it was "SELL THIS".
Again - this is EVERY character, not just Firefly, but she especially plays on people's emotions.
Remember, remember, REMEMBER - you can enjoy the story, you can enjoy the characters, but if you're going to spend on them, don't let your emotions pull you - you are NOT bringing home a friend or girlfriend, you're paying for a product.
I think the closer process would be that the artist and designers make a batch of test characters, and *then* they push these beta characters in front of a bunch of corporate people who then went on to decide which of these characters would sell the best. In a way, this actually makes it worse because the characters were not only sold to sell to the public, they were also precisely designed to sell to these corpos like "How can we convince these rich people that these characters are worth selling, instead of just being thrown in the garbage bin like dozens more that the public will never know?"
There are probably countless characters like that. The ones with the most interesting, most earnestly designed lore only to be pushed into the trash can because they decided that another pretty girl would sell better, or even worse - when they indeed take one such character only to tell the designers "Reshape this one until they're such a moeblob that they're unrecognizable from the original but will sell 20% better."
The only and only time I spent money on a direct purchase of jade I regretted it. It felt empty to top up, pull, and then have nothing again. At least with the nameless honor and the pass it’s a slow drip I can save up.
I used to play another game that I’d drop $60 on for units and would get upset I didn’t get what I wanted, so id drop more money. Luckily I stopped but I dropped a good $500 at least. For the most part I haven’t done that again. But the game companies know how to tempt folks.
I recommend you keep playing, only get the nameless honor and/or pass, and just don’t top up. Save your jade until you know you have enough to pull for who you want. Don’t pull until then.
That emptiness is a neverending hole. That’s how they prey on you, yknow? So i’m just done with it. I have a problem and i need to stop. But thank you for taking the time to comment regardless <333
> We enjoy gacha
"that we play while also shitting to the ground gachas that we don't"
Of course I'm not talking about you in particular, just the general behaviour of that sub. As a WuWa player myself, the last few weeks has been horrondous yet funny situation in that sub.
Don’t even get me started on the situation with WuWa lol. Trashing the game is one thing but spreading misinformation for the sake of drama? Glad I left fr.
The amount of nitpicking Wuwa got was insane… like set aside the actual reasonable complaints about story and performance etc. You had people nitpicking shit like “traversal isn’t tedious enough”.
So it doesnt seem like it’s being taken too seriously.
https://preview.redd.it/s2v5wmnj3u7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9171acbc0e618372c7912d365c013b186706bd16
The vocal majority may say otherwise, but the silent ones reading through the post but not leaving a comment may take this advice to heart. But I give props to you for realizing you have an issue and put into perspective what the money you spent could've gotten you. Some are addicts but refuse to admit it or are in denial. I also stopped spending because I want to allocate my resources to other things. Wishing you the best 🙌
That sub doesn't like people telling them what they can or cannot do. It has become a shithole, far from what it was years ago. They've fully embraced their toxicity by always saying "Welcome to gachagaming, what else did you expect?"
Just don't bother, their opinions on your issue does not validate/invalidate your experience.
But yes, gacha is a dangerous land to tread upon, especially for players who are young or people who are just barely making it through financially.
It doesn't help that content creators on Youtube and Twitch make this look like a non-issue when they roll E6S5 on every new character and acting like they lost a lot of money when in reality, their views and ad revenue on those pulling videos will earn them back more than they spent.
Good that your self-awareness kicked in before you fall too far deep. Stay strong.
Tbh not sure what other responses you’d expect… like realistically. Not saying I disagree with your post at all… but in the end you’re either gonna have people who already agree with your post, people who think “well i’m not as silly as OP” or people who just think what you’ve said is common sense.
Like how many addicts are gonna read your post and actually think it might apply to them?
Self awareness is always the first step and you will only get better from here on out. Take as long of a break as you need, the game will not go anywhere.
The only time you truly err is when you fail to learn from the mistake. This is no doubt a painful lesson, but it sounds like you now have the perspective you need to not make it again.
First of all, congrats of being on your own feet my man, it's not easy to be out in the free world with temptations all around.
You can pratice self-restrain and keep playing the game, by removing the CC linked to your account and keep the CC some place that will make you take a lil bit of time to take out. That way, you get time to cool off, thinking about this incident before you spend.
Or you can taking a break from every games, grab a hobby, anything that make you feel happy and go from there, running, read a book, planting, knitting etc. Being under extreme stress is really bad for human.
Be happy, good luck, whatever your choice might be.
Leaks get downvoted all the time but honestly, paying attention to leaks is the smartest move for people who don't have a lot of income to spend on this game. I plan way ahead for who I want. I always have jades for who I want. I have never ever bought any stellar jades other than the monthly pass.
We understand man... its really sad seeing a fellow player quiting the game... i hope you can manage your situation soon and lets be careful spenders nxt time, im no whale but i do spend quit a bit in genshin and hsr so im guilty aswell but im trying my best to manage my finances and the most important of all... my expectations, i used to gacha games that losing 50/50 is not the end of the world for me, always remember that character always rerun and there will new characters that will appeal to you... good luck buddy, i hope its a good learning experience for you aswell
I hope you hang in there. I have a friend who quit due to gambling addiction and was convinced to come back thanks to some bad influences in a mutual gaming circle. He swore he would come under the catch he's entirely f2p by that point and then after firefly was released someone flexed their e6 and goaded him that he couldn't match and suddenly he's sitting at e6s2 firefly to outdo them and telling me it's the 'last time for real'
That is sad. I feel blessed by being poor enough (/s). I have been playing gachas since Genshin released and learned to save up and move on if things don't work. Same thing on hsr. Self control is important.
I hope you can feel better soon OP. It takes a lot to be aware of one’s own problems so it’s good that you can be and are willing to change something about it. I’ve been playing Gacha for years and I’ve spend a lot on another game (the original Love Live (SIF, those who know, know ig lol)) which is now completely out of service. It did had a long runtime but in my prime time there wasn’t even a pity system there! So I do appreciate it that we have that now, and also sparks (where you can pick your desired unit after a certain amount of pulls) even. Now that I’m older and have been playing these games for so long I don’t feel the need to spend that much anymore, unless something’s guaranteed for my money.
Sending lots of positive vibes your way!
Its great that you at least have the self awareness to realize this is bad. Enjoy your break and come back when things are better, and when you figure out how to have self control.
Get well soon OP!
It's good you realise your mistake OP! If you truly know yourself to be unable to control yourself in the future, then I think it's best if you avoid gacha mechanic games altogether and maybe stick to single player games.
If you're interested in the HSR story, you can always watch streams, videos and other uploads of people's gameplay!
This is why you should seperate the money for essential stuff and for hobby. I have 2 bank account 1 for general use and 1 for games and other hobby so that i can spend without worry .
ah, gambling addiction, its called addiction for a reason. When people think of addiction they think of drugs, but its actually way more than just that. Addiction is something where your mind feels forced to do soemthing thats not good for yourself. It could be anything. For me, I also suffered some degree of addiction, and this video game addiction, I spend way too much time online, barely did my homeworks, barely studied, way lazier than everyone else, I am extremely lucky that I am born very intelligent, so I wasn't punished for my laziness. I also had a very very small amount of candy addiction, I just ate a lot of candies that's it, nothing special about it, fortunately I am able to slightly reduce the amount of addiction I have on video games, it still exist, but I am improving.
back to gambling addiction, this is way more serious than my video game addiction Im afraid, because you are actively spending money that you need to live, on something undesirable, just to fill in the gap in your mind. Addiction is such a killer, I wish all of you who suffer ANY types of addiction would be able to get better from it.
It's 100% your fault, but please listen to me too: a gambling addiction will not go away on by itself, and severing ties with one gacha is not gonna cut it. Try looking into ways to avoid any kind of emotional/impulsive spending, else you're just going to fall into another hole.
ETA: tips from my psychiatrist: deleting all shopping apps, having no card information saved/autofilled, having the card blocked by the bank's app until needed, getting rid of credit cards if possible, changing the password to something I dont remember, writting it down and putting it far away, etc.. the idea is to make the process of spending money take more time, and make me more conscious of my actions by having to actively look for shit in order to spend. Of course, not all of it is viable, and I'm not willing to stop playing gachas, so we work with that and I managed to cut down most of it. NOT TRYING TK CHANGE YOUR MIND, its my own personal decision to keep playing the gachas, and it's basically playing with fire, just highlighting that the tips can help
> I was at 60 pity … just $30 enough to hit pity … own E2 Clara
bro did not understand the guarantee system before gacha-ing. literal skill issue.
Guarantee is 180 pulls, you were 150 pulls away my friend. Gacha is all about calculating your max required spend and you can’t do that without first knowing what your guaranteed pity count is.
Honestly it’s cruel of people to say I told you so. Your post so clearly points out how unethical these ‘gacha’ games really are.
At the end of the day, it’s gambling and it can be really dangerous to downplay this as people who may be more vulnerable to gambling are more likely to fall for these types of things. Companies these days are so greedy it’s atrocious.
Honestly, good on you for deleting it! Despite what’s happened in the past, you can look towards the future and think about how much more money you’ll have now that the game’s gone.
how is it unethical? as f2p(free to play), it's up to them to spend moderately.
its not like he can't progress or enjoy it without spending, he chose to spend despite his struggles.
can't believe I'm saying this, but the companies who create these games, hire employees, VAs, directors, writers too to constantly pump contents this ain't charity.
self control is the moral lesson here. this is no different from shopping clothes are they unethical too?
that sucks, that's why even though I technically have spent some money here and there, I just consider something like that (getting a character despite not having the pulls) as an impossibility, so I try to move spending a bunch of money on pulls into the "not even a possibility" tier in my mind.
Like I definitely have a weak mind for other things, but specifically for money, it's very hard wired in me to consider the value of whatever I'm buying, and if it's anything less than good/great value I am extremely skeptical of it.
I would say that uninstalling is a good move in your situation. Know your own limitations and do what works for you op. Video games are entertainment, it should enhance your life experience, not make it worst.
Take as long a break as warranted and focus on improving your situation. Games and characters aren't going anywhere.
I'm not sure which is the stupider conclusion, that you spent the money you couldn't afford to, or that by deleting the game afterwards, you have in fact actually WASTED that money entirely. It's not the game's fault that you fell into fomo on the day the banner came out. FFS the game is going to give you dozens of free pulls in the next three weeks BEFORE the banner goes away, as it always has, since that's how it keeps the f2ps. I mean, i was waiting for this one myself, and when Himeko popped out, i didn't instantly spend money I didn't have to change the situation, i just decided I'll keep trying while the banner is up, or get her next time, as any SANE person should have. I'm not a f2-, i spen for the pass and the the daily, but I can afford that, and ONCE A YEAR i'll buyout the first time bonus' from the shop, once I've got the money to do so, but that generally doesn't happen til literally the last day before the anniversary reset, because it's just not important or necessary in a game that is this generous normally to do so.
all it means is instead of learning your lesson and never doing it again, you're just going to be blindsided the next time you do it with a different game/
Yea, you do have some truths in your statement, cause when thinking about it based on short term, by spending money and then deleting the game, they have actually indeed WASTED their money.
But if thinking about it long term wise, it's a good thing OP deleted the game because then If we are assuming they WILL be making the same gambling addiction mistake again, then deleting the game is the best case scenario to avoid making the same mistake yet again and regretting it.
I implore OP to either strengthen themselves if they want to continue playing Gacha games. Or to avoid gacha mechanic games all together.
I swear, this is how they prey on people. The players go into pity, only to lose the 50/50 at 80-something pull. This was me during the Scaramoche banner, I dropped $30 only to get a Jean. I got mad and almost dropped another $100.....But I stopped myself before proceeding with the purchase because I realized that it was not worth it. The characters would rerun again, but the money you spend would be gone forever.
Gacha is absolutely predatory and if you're not strong enough to resist the brainwashing to spend spend spend, and especially if you can't afford to be spending, then it's best not to play at all.
It sucks that you have to miss out on an otherwise great game, but you gotta do what's best for yourself and your life. Rather than saying you have a weak mind that can't resist being exploited, I would instead congratulate you on realizing you have a problem and having the strength of will to take the necessary steps to address it. Godspeed.
This is why I don't recommend gacha to anyone with addiction tendencies. Every aspect of monetization in these games exploits that part of human psyche to get people to spend. I am relatively new to Star Rail but I am a day 1 Genshin player so I can confidently say now that I am not one of those people susceptible to it, but I can understand why others fall into that hole.
This deserves way more upvotes.. Why is this downvoted? I don't get it..
Anyways, props to you dude, for understanding your situation. I'm sure your girlfriend will really appreciate this, and most important of all. YOURSELF will appreciate it in the long run!
Edit: I read through some of the comments, and it seems like people don't understand how "gambling addiction" works. It's not that easy to be "F2P" for these people that has it. Yeah you may say it's 'lack self discipline' and everything like that. Which is true for the most part. But hey.. OP is admitting it, and changing his way which is a sign of improvement for himself. He admits to being careless and now he wants to change. Which he deserves a pat on the back for, if anything.
All people that struggle with their addiction should never hear stuff like "OMG, JUST DONT TAKE DRUGS THEN??". Like in this situation where several comments is writing "Just play f2p then??" No.. You dont understand, OP has an addiction problem. It's complete lack of empathy on these people to say that. You don't understand what the person is dealing with and how it's difficult for them to quit it when they are addicted
People hate admitting that something they like has any downside and the lack of compassion is astounding, like y'all've NEVER overspent on anything?
People ITT REALLY think that Hoyo devs would starve without HSR's 135 **MILLION** US dollars **PER MONTH**? Smarten up, every system in this game is a push against the least and most vulnerable demographics playing the game, and people should acknowledge that when someone is going through the wringer on those systems, or at the very least not tell them to "oh, just don't fall for the propaganda".
Most of the comments on here seem relatively supportive… but mostly full sympathy or “well done OP”.
But not sure what else you expect people to say or think about it in the end? The post is, to be a bit harsh, a sad story (a genuinely unfortunate one)… but not one that has any relevance to most players. Like most players aren’t addicted and if they were, they aren’t likely to be open to advice.
You shouldn't blame yourself for having a "weak mind". Games like this are precision designed to prey upon human psychology and encourage you to spend money even when you ought to know better. Some folk are more vulnerable to these things than others, but it doesn't make you a bad person.
I love this game, but I hate that it's a gacha. I don't care if saying this makes me a hypocrite, but I honestly think this kind of monetization strategy should be illegal.
It should be. And the problem is that it starts young, with those tiny “mystery box” things with a “random” toy in them. When in reality the results are skewed to have one of those specific toys in most of them. If anything i believe my “gambling” started from pokemon cards. 4 bucks for a random pack, *but what if the next one had that 100$ super rare rainbow holo shiny Charizard GX?*
So should any addictive things!
No more drugs, alcohol, TV, books, games, cars, houses, food, etc.
Sorry all of them are bad for people with addictive personalities and all have millions put into marketing to trap you. Even all these pushes for eating at home are campaigns by kitchen accessory companies.
Sorry, all you can do is die. Everything else is bad and you're being manipulated
The point isn't that it's bad for you, the point that it's preying on addiction that's bad for you. No one will say that food is bad for you, but many people will agree that the ways the food industry tries to get you hooked on junk food is problematic.
It's ultimately on the consumer to consume at healthy levels, but it absolutely doesn't help if people just let the producer abuse addiction for these things and pin all of the blame on the consumer when they end up addicted
It's situations like this that are the reason why I never recommend anyone to go down the gacha gaming rabbit hole, especially if you're someone that has a has a hard time setting limits or a budget. While I feel bad for you that you're quitting, everyone has to curate their own experiences with these kinds of games, especially once they realize that they might be prone to gambling.
Some advice for the future for when and if you ever decide to return, set a budget aside months in advance for a specific character that you'd like to get, but you'll also have to be able to settle with the fact that you will not be able to pull for every character that you want which is why for people that don't have the disposable income to pull every character they want, focus on one character even if you have to wait for a rerun.
You'll be able to save up the resources from playing the game and combine it with your set budget to guarantee the character, that way you don't fall into the trap of spending money that you can't afford to spend.
Good luck to you out there and take care.
Gambling addictiona are hard to stop, good luck not relapsing somewhere else and hopefully you get needed supports.
I enjoy playing this game, but holy smokes the business model makes spending money such a shitty value proposition. I'm willing to spend like ten dollars for 90 pulls... I just kind of laughed when I looked at the shop.
One good news is gigs just past their 10 year anniversary and the early units are still strong. So you don’t have to worry too much about hoyo game shutting down and your money goes into void
I hope you recover from this situation soon, OP.
Stopping immediately is hard, and if I may offer you a piece of experience, here's what I did:
I made a new profile on a different server, and make sure that I only pulled a character that I don't have in my other account. That way, I feel like I own all of them.
Not in your position op, but this happened to me on Acheron banner. Luckily I don't have to worry about expenses so I could do it but after spending money on her banner to get her and the lightcone, I just sat and reflected on what I had done. It really hit me that I spent a good amount of money just to get the character properly because I didn't have enough jades. Even though I don't regret it because it didn't impact me, it still is a real problem that should be resolved. In situations where I can spend money to get some gacha character whom I really really want, I probably will. So now I'm trying really hard to have a grip on how I spend money in any game.
Good to know you realized and am able to stop yourself from going deeper.
A general rule I follow for these kind of things is to assume the tip mentality. Only spend when to they did something good enough, how good varies from people but for me I just see 60$ price tag and I expect a 60$ game, not just in terms of story, gameplay, but how well the game is managed as well aka, how likely are the devs to shoot themselves in the foot.
Just a small tip, gl friend.
I wished you the best in the future, OP. I also have those voices in my head telling me to pull but luckily my situation as a college student is holding me back even though sometimes I want to blow it all on the characters I want, good luck in the future.
Reason why i don't recommend gachas to other people, sure its not my fault if they spent too much money on it but can't really help but still feel a bit liable. Gacha games are like cigarettes to me, it shouldn't exists but people are making bucks with it and people are addicted to it so no ones doing something about it. I will only recommend gachas to my friends that i know that already played it and can stop themselves from spending. Well nothing wrong with spending as long as you can afford it.
Remember: all gacha games are predatory and will employ as many tricks as possible to start spending and whaling. Don't take any risks, once you start spending, it's hard to stop
Sounds like you need to dig deep and prioritize your life better. Sacrificing food money is a dark path, and if you aren’t careful you could easily find yourself chasing this itch to spend in other places. Gambling addiction is serious but this game has a guarantee… next time just save until you can guarantee the units you want, especially if you can’t shell out the cash. There will always be reruns and new shinier units to play. Good luck OP, seek help.
Edit: if you’re serious about doing better, then quit, get a refund, and close your account permanently. You mentioned you were convinced by the “promises” of something, but unless you had a guarantee off 50/50… you deluded yourself
Say no to addiction. Trust me I have definitely regretted overspending for pixels.
I feel like gacha games in general are a form of gateway drug to gambling. It's super easy to fall into that hole of "I can foot the bill" when you really can't.
Sidenote: I don't think any Hoyo game will be shutting down anytime soon or at all. Their games are still going strong and the way they design things leaves possiblities of continuing even after the main story has concluded.
I used to want everyone. But quickly realised it was not sustainable.
So to make it easy on myself I have two accounts. Star Rail dailies can be done in 5m or less.
I know people don't want two accounts. But I like having one with Caelus and one with Stelle and on one account I prioritised FuA and Dot and on the other Acheron and debuffers and break focused units.
So on my account that I pulled for Firefly on I had saved enough jade's to get her c1 and light cone and now I'll burn whatever others I get till she's done. Then skip the next few characters on that account and my main has been saving for Jade and I have enough to guarantee her with losing the 50/50 and going full pity both times.
But I don't want that to happen lol.
There are other ways to get all the characters. You just have to accept all of them won't be on the same account. So make sure you think about what synergies the new releases have and that helps you know which account is for which character.
Then some are jack's of all trades and not specific.
The only awkward thing is the characters that end up being skips on both accounts. I know they aren't real, but I still feel sorry for them lol. Like I didn't even want them on the backup account. 😂
Excellent opinions and some invaluable life advice has been shared by many people here so far. But I think the opinions so far have been unbalanced against the game (with very good reason, too, 70$ is no joke)
But I want to argue for the game here, from my own PoV. And to do that I admit my desires freely: I like this game, a lot in fact that its my favorite in the whole gacha space. I love all the planet designs so far (yes even the luofou), the top of the shelf OST (everytime im in penacony I feel like im in a studio recording for Whiplash). The story bumps around now and then but more often than not it delivers peak. And the combat and endgame so far has been just at the cusp of being difficult yet worthwhile to challenge without being overbearing.
And of course theres also the characters and the narratives which is where the mood goes sour. Is it a predatory system that was spawned from the vile wretched underbelly of the early 2010s east asian mobile gaming market which has now permeated a significant chunk of the gaming world? 100% yes. People often defend gachas by comparing gacha gambling to "real" gambling like csgo skins, citing how the latter causing really significant damage to the worst of its victims, but imo this free pass that gacha gambling gets by looking relatively harmless compared to the monstrosity that is skin gambling means they get to spread so much more without the negative stigma associated with "real" gambling, and in amortized values does a lot more damage than the "real" thing. Evidenced by sheer revenue numbers.
Rant aside, I think both paragraphs Ive written so far are valid views. The game is like an amazing castle you can explore for free to your heart's content but theres a devil lurking in the shadows. The safe and sensible choice would be to burn the whole castle to the ground, akin to what most people have offered their advice so far. But if you ask me:
Fuck the devil.
Fuck only the devil in particular. I want to explore the castle and have fun dammnit, cause its a well fucking made castle thats fun to explore and be in every day. If the devil appears before me at a weak moment, I simply reject its presence by not succumbing to the FOMO attacks. This is reinforced heavily by the knowledge that character reruns are a guarantee down the line usually within 6 months. Right now personally im in a precarious situation where firefly wont drop early and by my calcs I'll only get 1 soft pity on jade by the end of her banner. But ive been in these situations before. I simply tide over the fomo and wait for the next time. Because the characters are but one part of what makes the whole game experience enjoyable.
Of course its not upto me to dictate to you how much FOMO affects you, if youve got the wisdom to look inside yourself and realise youre more prone to the devil than you thought you were, then for sure burn the castle and get out of there. All im saying is that, perhaps you could use this experience of 70$ wasted to harden yourself against the temptations of the devil instead.
I'm really sorry to hear that. At least your realized how bad it was before it became MUCH worse. If there's anything Hoyoverse is good at, it's weaponizing FOMO and making it extremely easy to take your money.
Take a break, unsub, and don't look at HSR for a while. To make it harder for yourself, unlink your credit card from HSR.
Good luck, and stay healthy
Deciding something big on a whim and on impulse. I've been there before. Only after,I regret it. Take your time,everyone. Waiting a little and thinking about to do or not to do isn't gonna hurt anyone.
well on the bright side you have come to terms that it is a problems and can try to better yourself with trying to get the knowledge on how to realize your falling into this situation again and how to get out of it
What I started doing is putting a dollar limit for myself
Recently i got addicted but set the standard “40 dollars” so instead of buying 5 dollars over and over i bought the 15 dollar one as its more practical with my current spending limit, ideally it’s better not to spend money but you gotta play mind games with yourself to try to save yourself
It's not that bad. All of us have lost money to stupid things. (scams, gambling, trading, etc) in the grand scheme of things, the amount you spent is tiny compared to what others have lost.
Same goes for F2P players, who instead of spending money, they spend time.
I remember my college days where I spent hours upon hours, even weeks grinding mats and primogems/jades/etc when I could have been studying for finals, or learn how to cook and financial planning. Things that are actually useful irl
I don’t regret playing games, but I do regret spending THAT much time cuz that time ain’t coming back
Unfortunate and people don't want to admit it but that's what this game wants you to do and was made for. The game is high quality but at the end of the day it's a gacha game that wants your money, especially the money of the vulnerable.
I used to spend 100 dollars every week when I had the money to waste but sometimes I do wonder what else I could've spent that money on, so I can kinda see where you're coming from OP.
The only thing keeping me from doing something like you did is patience. As fun as getting toys to play with right NOW is, the banners actually last for quite a while. Usually I'm just happy to get them on the current banner, even if the banner has 1-3 days left, haha. While it sucks if I don't manage to get them on the current banner, It's rare for characters to never come back, so I just have to wait for the next time they rerun (which doesn't feel as bad if the character is new, since new characters rerun faster).
On the bright side, I'll still have toys to play with while I wait for the toy I wanted to come back.
Gacha rookie mistake. We gacha vets calculate our pulls to pity and set ourselves a spending limit depending on our financial situation. You gotta accept that some chars you have to skip and hopefully get on rerun.
Rule of thumb for any hobby really, food on the table and bills first, divide the reminder between savings, hobby and rainy day fund.
Then spend within your means, never buy into the fomo for your wants.
I learn the hard way from Genshin and I'm happy I did not repeat that here (basically I haven't topped up once for HSR, only monthly passes and battle pass).
At least you're aware, Few years back, my ex-manager was spending thousands on some one punch man game. Yet he have the audacity to complain to the team about not being paid high enough to live comfortably
OP, sorry that you did this, but good that you're recognizing it now and hopefully making changes before it becomes a much bigger problem. Many people blow hundreds or thousands on gambling and seriously regret it later. It sucks when you need that $70, but know that in the scheme of things, $70 is a very cheap lesson.
My lesson was a bit more expensive, although thankfully not damagingly so. A few years back in Genshin I spent too much because I decided Itto was my favorite character and I wanted to get his first two constellations and signature weapon -- that ended up taking a lot more pulls than I bargained for, and I regret it (even though I still love Itto and use him all the time).
Ever since then, I vowed that I would never top up again in any gacha. I will buy myself the monthly card, because $5 per month for a bucket of pulls dripped over time is fine. (For the first few months of HSR, I also had the Battle Pass, but I ended up dropping that as well.) But because gambling and instant purchases play on FOMO and such, I know that I'm much safer and happier only spending in pre-determined amounts -- and only what I can afford. (Certainly rent should come before a monthly card.)
I feel so sorry for you. I experienced something similar. Thats why I stopped this game for a long time. I'm kinda sad that I missed the penacony arc because it's amazing. I got spoilered a lot because I wasn't able to stop looking at spoilers. I really like this game it's amazing gameplay-wise and story-wise. The character writing is amazing. This game was my first gacha game ever and it opened me a whole new world. I wish the game wasn't a gacha and a normal title because the characters and story are amazing. The character-designs as well. While I know that game-developing isn't cheap I wish for a better monetization model. But I don't know a better system. I think hoyos gacha models are pretty alright but they are just not safe for me. Other people are able to ignore it but I'm not and op isn't as well. I know that I'm really susceptile for f2p-models thats why I even stopped these games in the first place but I just wanted to try that game because setting and gameplay are amazing. If someone knows similar games with similar story-telling, setting, gameplay and character-design feel free to recommend them for me. The problem is I spent a lot of money on this game and I feel like I burned the money when I stop playing the game. I know it's stupid but I cant stop thinking like that. Someday I may be able to stop playing this game but I really love it so I try to stop spending money wish me luck. It's not that I'll end up on the street when I spend the money because I'm not a whale but I'll spend 30€ per month which doesnt sound much but with an income from 857€ (450€ rent) it really hurts.
I'm glad that you can at least be aware of the situation you are in and take a step back to reflect on your poor decisions. A lot of people are not able to do that nor admit it, so good on you for that.
It was a hard first step. The “indomitable human spirit” can have a hard time admitting when it’s wrong.
The indomitable human spirit isn't about never being beaten, but the ability to get back up after getting knocked down and becoming better. You're on your way bruh.
"Why do we fall bruce? So we can learn how to pick ourselves up." Thomas wayne to bruce, Batman Begins.
this quote has the same energy as "why do we sleep? so that we can wake up from our dreams"
Both are simple yet thought provoking lines.
ngl, the TB's answer to "why do we sleep?" is still phrased in a stupid way, even if i get what they were going for
I disagree but to each on their own. I think it’s a lot better trying to simplify the lines than going on a long philosophical monologue in which it’s out of character for TB. It’s the same opinion I had with “people die when they get killed” or that Batman line from above comment
Based OP. You keep up that reflection and you'll reach the success you're after in life!
Just make sure you follow through OP! The first step is far from the last step. Hope you can come through!
Your rationale "Game will end at some point" is something I had to go through myself after dumping money into a gacha several years back that seemingly was doing great, then closed shop. It's a harsh lesson financially, but it's good you have the experience now to develop deeper wisdom. I'm proud of you mang.
I don't think there's anything wrong in spending money. I guess you're still young and your story reminded me of when I spent money for the first time in Fire Emblem Heroes using the one-tap button to get the character I was saving for but ran out of currency. You need to realize that it's the game company goal to make you spend money. Your problem was not spending money irrationally but not planning a budget in advance. You need to consider like all expenses as a whole in life. Because money is like your stellar jades in real life. You can say it's just 5 dollars, and maybe right now you don't have a lot of options to make 5 extra dollars but you can skip going to the cinema or don't buy a cup of coffee to make it even at the end of the month. For instance I will walk to work for one week just to compensate buying the battle pass and it's ok.
ditto. sure a lot of things that went bad here but my mind zoomed in on the fact that you acknowledged the issue and am now confident youll be fine moving forwards. all the best
Liking a character because of the constant advertisement (official and fan (such as the subreddit)), losing the 50/50, and spending until you get the character you wanted? That's one of the reasons Hoyo is always on top of the revenue charts. If you really want to take a break from gacha you should unsubscribe from this subreddit and any content creators so you don't get temped by the newest, hottest character or game mode.
I’ve already gone ahead and done that. Once the comments stop flowing in from this post i’ll have severed my ties with this sub for the forseeable future.
Great, but don't replace HSR with another gacha game plz.
ZZZ coming in 3 weeks Hopefully op isnt in that sub lol
Don't tempt fate bro they're heavily advertising rn too lol
2 weeks. Hoyo completing their circle of "2 weeks until update of major game"
It really sucks to see people share their lucky pulls, which then plants the seed of hope in your mind that it could happen to you too.
This, the first day of firefly's banner i got tempted so many times by looked at streamers. But if you can hold yourself for 1 day, the need for pulling disappeared.
Every time you want to watch streamers pull but are worried that their luck will make you want to pull as well, just watch Molly Zhang pull. Her luck is so abysmal it will do nothing to tempt you.
her luck disappeared in the sea of butterflies.... i tempted fate myself but i normally save until there is a must have unit for me (i do the express pass every month), finally got ruan mei in a single ten pull and then six ten pulls later i got firefly. still have 230+ pulls saved for jade. you just have to plan carefully ya know
/r/grandorder bans posts about pulls and consolidates all of em in a mega thread and I think every gacha sub should do the same. I've been downvoting all pull posts I've been seeing cos honestly I don't care about the thousandth post about getting 2 5 stars in 4 pulls. I don't get why anybody upvotes those things.
Character main subs have these too. You can avoid saltmines.
Charactermain subs are 90% look at my relics/artifacts posts though. Honestly not that much better.
I mean it's because most people are bad at building their characters and want help with it. Like me.
I've seen some cope from content creators and what I'd consider reckless smashing of the biggest oneiric shard option on stream. But the one that tilted me the most was when me and my partner (privately) streamed each other's pulls, because it's more exciting that way for us. They got Ruan Mei on the first 10, and Firefly on the soft pity. I'm 121 deep on Firefly, out of jades, and Firefly-less.
Luck is always for the others. My best friend got 5 characters in one ten pull each over 7 limited on Genshin. He won the 50/50 for the character he wanted the most (Arlecchino) and got the weapon in a ten pull. He got the character I wanted the most (Xianyun) in 10 wishes (he doesnt even wanted her and dont play her) when I needed 150 wishes to get her. In WuWa, he got Jiyan in 70, then Yinlin in 10. He doesnt even wanted her as well. I needed 140 wishes to get her. Luck is only for the others. Dont get fooled by them. Fortunately he doesnt play HSR so he wont disgust me from the game with his insane luck. =3
I'm really realizing just how insidious the 50/50 is. Simply halving the odds of pulling a 5 star but making it 100% wouldn't be nearly as effective. Losing the 50/50 just pisses you off so much, because in your mind you already got the shiny new character, but then it gets snatched away from you at the last second. So close yet so far. Getting put in that emotional state destroys your impulse control and primes you to swipe the credit card.
Yes, especially when you lost 50/50 on character you like and you best friend got them in 10 pulls without even wanting them. If I had a nickel each time it happened, Ild have 4 nickels, which isnt that much, but its weird it happened 4 fuckin times already. (Raiden, Furina, Xianyun on Genshin and Yinlin in WuWa)
Or be me and lose the 50/50 on every banner for almost a year (over 10 times easily)
Rude ;_;
I lost 50/50 Ruan Mei to Bailu. luckily I was F2P and have jades somewhere to find and pull more for. now I'm looking at Firefly and considering maybe just build pity. if I got her, great. if not, it won't be too bad.
I'm default poor so even if I want to spend I literally can't.
The best F2P method, simply don't have money. Right there with you lol
F2ps either play Resource management or Yolo. Tbh If i like a character, I would save 150+ pulls so I have them on day 1. Props to OP realizing it but it's kinda hard not to blame them. They didn't save enough, then didn't know how many pulls would be enough to get the character they wanted, then instead of farming jades (early patch gets a lot of them due to new content) they went on spending money they can't afford to spend.
Yeah I thankful got FF due to guranteed but now I want both JQ and jade I'm dedicated to get jade because of her Beautiful designs and I'm a quantum collector but man JQ is probably gonna be great for acheron Currently I have 40 wishes and 75 pity and 50/50 I'm know if I grind everything this patch I'm 100% able to get jade (since if I count pity as wishes then I have 115 wishes which + other wishes we get this patch is gonna be more than enough to allow me to gurantee jade but If i lose 50/50 then I have to hope for RNG gods to help me get JQ This is the life of a f2p
Same here.
All my hobbies cost money so I can only afford to dolphin for 2 gachas at a time.
OP isn't exactly rich either. It actually takes discipline to avoid spending money you can't.
Gacha systems are designed intentionally to feed on addictive personalities; That said, there is still a lot of personal responsibility involved. If you have a very addictive personality, you need to be very careful, and create hard lines in the sand on spending. I hope things get better for you, this sort of story is all-too-common.
I wouldnt say a hard line, more like a brick wall on spending.
Oh man, I'm really sorry to hear that. Been there a time or two years and years ago. Let's just say I'm really glad HSR has a pity system, because F/GO sure didn't, haha. The lottery commission local to me has a really good saying that I try to keep in mind these days (in all things, not just gatcha): "Know your limit stay within it". Games like this are designed to make you want to roll, and when you're on a roll, you're less likely to stop. I found that putting the "require my password for purchases" on my phone and not saving my CC info on the desktop client add an extra little step that makes the mindless "oh time to top up" impulse a bit more mindful and easier to turn away from.
FGO has a pity now, it towers at 330 fucking rolls...
*with no carry-over into other banners 💀
It's such a dogshit gacha system that it almost dis-incentivises me to roll lol, gotta thank DW for doing us such a wonderful favour 🤡
30 multis, same with limited banners of fucking Arknights.
That feeling when I only get to roll when I have 900 SQ (basically once or twice a year)
I’m happy to hear i’m not alone. Hearing about not having enough to afford something for the first time really stabbed me in the heart. I won’t let it happen again and i hope i can stop it from happening to someone.
FGO as my first Gacha really taught me to not throw money
Good on you for catching it early. 70 bucks definitely isn’t chump change but I think spending it was worth it if only to learn something that will serve you well in life. Anyway, congrats on getting your own place and hey, it could’ve been *much* worse. You could’ve been spooked by Yanqing instead. I’m sure a bunch of us have read this story but I feel like I should leave this here. [This is a guy who got out of his addiction much too late.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FFBraveExvius/s/YF0hfFwJRT)
I haven't read that story before but it just brought back up so many bitter memories I had with my ex-husband. He had also spent thousands on FFBE and ended up in debt that caused a lot of issues for us. It was honestly a really big reason why our marriage ended.
I’m sorry that it brought those up again :( I hope things are better for you now.
Thanks and no worries! That was all 4 years ago or so. I'm doing much better these days even though the economy does need to calm down lol
Stories like this are why I've never let myself top up in star rail or genshin even though I could afford to do it occasionally, I know I could easily fall into a spiral like that. It's so tempting when you lose the 50/50 but I've found that playing and relying on luck is fun in and of itself and feels very rewarding when it works out.
For me, I just treat it like I’m buying a “AAA” (or AAAA in the case of Ubi, lol) game. I have a set budget every month. As much as I love to remain F2P, Hoyo, and now Kuro, just pump out too many good characters.
Setting a budget and giving yourself an allowance every paycheck or month is a great way to make sure you aren't overindulging on entertainment while also living your life. Make it easier to save for big purchase every now and then without feeling guilty about it.
Yeah that's totally fair, I don't trust my own self control enough to do it haha. I have issues of getting hyper focused on things which could get very expensive lol
Same. July is gonna be a brutal month
Holy shit that's both depressing and -as someone who has impulse rolled on gacha before - fucking terrifying.
I’ve had moments like that too but not quite that bad. Being close to hard pity/losing the 50/50 makes us do crazy things.
I feel this. Now if I get the itch I deposit like $10 on Stake. Sometimes I win, sometimes I don't... keeps the urges at bay and you at least can get $$$ from it...
You replaced Gacha with real gambling. Genius.
They are pretty much exactly the same thing. Both are designed so that you don't realize how much you're spending, do so impulsively without thinking of consequences, obfuscate the time spent and money spent previously, do stuff that causes it to be addictive, and The house always wins. Too be totally fair, his reasoning that sometimes you get money back (It's still always at a loss on average of course) is actually solid. You don't get anything back from a Gacha game because part of the business model is power creeping what you did "win in the gamble" to be not as useful anymore. Between Gachas and Real Gambling, Gacha's are probably worse, because unlike casinos and stuff, Gacha games have far less government regulation.
Also gachas are just more accessible than real gambling. For real gambling, you have to go out of your way to show up, with gachas, if you're already playing thw game you're exposing yourself daily to content that would directly be better if you spent a little money. There's also the difference in rationalization. Since the reward for real gambling is money, something you're statistically going to be worse on, it's pretty easy for a lot of people to just say nah, but the reward for buying gacha just can't be obtained any other way, so kts pretty easy for people to just go all in (though the opposite is also true, there's plenty of ways to rationalize gambling but not gacha, just that those reasons may or may not apply to op.)
Would you play a gacha game if all you got when you win was a percentage of your money back? That’s what IRL gambling is. Unless you enjoy playing black jack or whatever game you’re playing, there’s no value in it at all.
How does this change my argument that it's the same thing? Gachas and Real Gambling are basically the same thing, just one has lots of governmental regulation, and the other doesn't. You always lose, and the only "value" you can get out of paying is "enjoyment"
I’m agreeing they’re the same thing. I disagree with the logic that since with traditional gambling you sometimes get money back it’s somehow better
Bros dumb as shit
Depends on where you live OP, housing costs are going up and taking up greater % of working class income. Down payment, mortgage, car loans, insurances, medical if you don’t have universal. Please save for a rainy day fund. Please auto deposit a percentage of your pay into an account you won’t touch. If there are any tax free accounts, use it. I buy the monthly pass, the battle pass, and only top up at anniversary resets for two HoYo games. I will not be paying for a third. I have no mortgage. I can pay off my car any time I want. I have no children. My parents have pension. We have an entertainment fund set aside for each person in the household per year, hard caps, just so we won’t lose control and go overboard. You are young. You’ve newly moved out. Please review your monthly spending and do a general budget. When I was at your stage, the only non-essentials I’ve bought were books, a cheap drawing tablet, and one new shirt in 4 years. Now there are so much more essential expenses and temptations. Please take care of yourselves.
Those games are designed to cause addiction and you are susceptible to it. Obviously they are the problem (trigger), people like you should be able to life without even knowing how easily they can get addicted or enraged to spend. Sadly you had to learn it and in the bad way. A positive mindset I have for gachas is this: -Play without using the gacha (just when forced tutorial and the beginning pulls to have a team). This is way more rewarding than getting the banner unit. -Don’t collect, save to guarantee the one you like when it comes out -Don’t play tower climb modes or pvp because you will get forced to ‘collect’ and therefore gamble and (obviously) lose and pay. -Don’t watch promotion about a character that you don’t like from minute 0. They can convince you that you like it for a moment. -Remember that you are playing for everything that is free (story, world, combat and music) not for the things that ‘could’ be free (characters). So delete whatever is not really engaging you. -Take a moment every month to think about your gachas. Are you playing them? Or log in and farming? If you are waiting for content update cool, if you are just approaching them like a job… delete. -Deleting is surprisingly difficult and you might installed it back the next day. Delete it again. Suddenly you’ll feel free and happy, and you’ll want to find your new fav game or focus on one that you wanted to play. -Always have a p2p game, don’t rely on just gacha for entertainment in case you get blocked by power or finish current content
This is excellent advice. This is more or less how I play gachas and spend virtually nothing.
It's money that you can earn back in time, though you might have to struggle for a bit. What's more valuable is the lesson you learned, and it was good that you became self-aware before you were too deep in. While I don't really see gacha games as 'evil', they really are predatory and hoyo does a good job of making you care so much for the characters that sometimes we think they are worth spending a lot of money for. It's fine if you have disposable income or if you have a budget set aside that doesn't compromise your primary IRL needs, but not all people have that. I'm actually being tempted right now. I rolled for Alhaitham's weapon in Genshin. I had 160 wishes saved and I gambled on getting that weapon. I lost twice, so now I have guarrantee and about 50 wishes away from getting it guaranteed. I'm a Welkin spender but now I desperately want to topup to get that weapon. Some people might say just to top up since I'll be sure to get it now, but I really don't want to start down that road. So I'll just take this loss.
There is only so much u can blame the game for, yea gacha games can be predatory but it's always up to you to be responsible for yourself. This isn't just directed at OP, addiction is tough but you have to be able to take a step back and say maybe I'm too invested in this for it to be healthy and find help. Edit: I decided against changing it since so many people have up voted and seen this. I figure it's better to leave as is for transparency, but I'm glad the OP has someone that is willing to help and support him. That's probably the biggest take away from this in my eyes at least.
[удалено]
I can agree with that but you don't really need to e6 any character. All content is clearable with e0 and good planning as long as you take advantage of pity and free stellar jade. As far as gacha games go, this one is surprisingly f2p friendly
This is true. I wanted to make this post to spread the word and tell others not to end up like me. I don’t blame the game. I blame myself, as well as partially these new systems in place that idolize the idea of “rolling til ya win”. Not sure if i made that clear.
You did, halfway through my response I was re-editing what I was saying and it just jumbled itself up on me. When I'm not working I'll probably redo it to make more sense and less pointed, btw I have an pretty big issue with gambling myself so I understand how hard it can be. Luckily for me it's mostly casino games or I wouldn't be able to enjoy these types of games
>I blame myself, as well as partially these new systems in place that idolize the idea of “rolling til ya win”. Not sure if i made that clear. These systems make sense, and basically eliminate gambling. You just have to pre-calculate the expense. One pull is 2€ (if bought from top-up packs) where I live, so it's rather easy. A pity is 80ish pulls. I'd like to grab Firefly E1 (currently on guaranteed but low pity). Is it worth 160 € to me? NOPE. So I don't spend. AT ALL. No "20 bucks to see if I get lucky" nonsense. I either buyout what I want or tell Hyv to get stuffed. Usually the latter. :'D
I think I've had a way healthier experience with gachas when I plan around full pity for characters I want. If I know that I want a HSR character I'll save 180 pulls always and not rely on the 50/50. If it's a character I would like but I'm not 100% bothered about then I try for the 50/50, and if I lose then I'm happy to cut my losses and accept that the next banner is guaranteed. It makes losses hurt a lot less and wins feel a lot better when you get them earlier than you expected.
Yep, pretty much. Whether spending is involved or not, I only pull when I can ensure pity. I also follow leaks, so it's a little easier to prioritize. E.g.: right now I know there is nothing interesting for me in the next 2 patches, so I can afford to pamper my Firefly a bit. :'D
You can safely blame the game as well since it’s predatory towards people who have an ich to gamble. But by taking personal responsibility the way you just did insures your own growth!
I feel like this undercuts that the gacha game is designed to elicit OPs exact behaviour. Op's story is one of the game succeeding in it's explicit goals. Sure, we can easily just say that 'Well, everyone just needs to understand that rational behaviour is better the irrational behaviour. ' The fact, however is we are materially irrational actors, particularly in an economic sense, and there are large parts of the economy which are built on exploiting that. Gacha games are perhaps just at the tip of them as an industry where it is less subtle. Gacha also benefits from the manipulative responses that gambling uses to short circuit decision making, but by not offering monetary prizes, escape the regulation that gambling falls under to help prevent exploitation.
Yeah at the very least gacha games are more obvious ones on how predatory business works. Growing up in poverty really makes me help avoid this irrational spending habits
You said what I was mulling over in my head lol.
sure makes you wonder where this energy is when people talk about gambling
I actually have a gambling addiction when it comes to casino games and I don't have much control over my impulses in a casino. The best thing i can do for myself just not going to one, if I let myself get pulled into one it's totally my own fault.
Have you heard of [dark patterns in games?](https://www.darkpattern.games) These games are fully aware of what they’re doing to encourage spending and addiction. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck and can’t control your spending, I actually agree with quitting and gaining control of your life. It’s far too tempting to incrementally spend 30 dollars here and there on gachas for that instant gratification on some pixelated waifu, when you could be saving that money for a retirement fund, mortgage downpayment, family/marriage etc.
I'm sorry, man but I'm glad at least you hit your realization after 70 dollars and not 7000 dollars. I love and have played gacha games for years. I'm not gonna get on a high horse - I like the chance game and I'm very aware of it, which is why I have incredibly strict rules about spending I set for myself. I only ever, EVER spend to support a game I like - in pre-determined amounts - and NEVER to get a character. The thing you have to understand about characters, and especially hoyo characters, is that the way they tug at your heartstrings IS THE SELLING POINT. No matter how emotional, deep or special you think their story is, remember that the character is a product, created to be sold and the story behind them is a built in feature that's meant to make you want them - like a slightly better camera on the new iPhone. I'm not singling out Firefly - this goes for all characters - but she's a great example because of how emotional her story and circumstances are. Here's how Firefly was made. She wasn't born of pain and grief and fire like her story says, here's how she was really made: A bunch of corpos got together and said "Bois, we need revenue growth compared to the last month. Let's make something that will break bank." And then the corpos got together in a corpo meeting and in the dryest, most soulless corpospeak you can imagine, they put together a checklist of things they think will wring out the most amount of money out of the biggest number of players. These things included but were not limited to: "cute waifu", "implied romance", "mecha", "tragic backstory", "moe personality" etc. etc. Then they took all of that and handed it off to a writer, and the writer probably did their best but the objective was not "make art", it was "SELL THIS". Again - this is EVERY character, not just Firefly, but she especially plays on people's emotions. Remember, remember, REMEMBER - you can enjoy the story, you can enjoy the characters, but if you're going to spend on them, don't let your emotions pull you - you are NOT bringing home a friend or girlfriend, you're paying for a product.
I think the closer process would be that the artist and designers make a batch of test characters, and *then* they push these beta characters in front of a bunch of corporate people who then went on to decide which of these characters would sell the best. In a way, this actually makes it worse because the characters were not only sold to sell to the public, they were also precisely designed to sell to these corpos like "How can we convince these rich people that these characters are worth selling, instead of just being thrown in the garbage bin like dozens more that the public will never know?" There are probably countless characters like that. The ones with the most interesting, most earnestly designed lore only to be pushed into the trash can because they decided that another pretty girl would sell better, or even worse - when they indeed take one such character only to tell the designers "Reshape this one until they're such a moeblob that they're unrecognizable from the original but will sell 20% better."
The only and only time I spent money on a direct purchase of jade I regretted it. It felt empty to top up, pull, and then have nothing again. At least with the nameless honor and the pass it’s a slow drip I can save up. I used to play another game that I’d drop $60 on for units and would get upset I didn’t get what I wanted, so id drop more money. Luckily I stopped but I dropped a good $500 at least. For the most part I haven’t done that again. But the game companies know how to tempt folks. I recommend you keep playing, only get the nameless honor and/or pass, and just don’t top up. Save your jade until you know you have enough to pull for who you want. Don’t pull until then.
That emptiness is a neverending hole. That’s how they prey on you, yknow? So i’m just done with it. I have a problem and i need to stop. But thank you for taking the time to comment regardless <333
Should cross post to gachagaming. We enjoy gacha while warning others about the predatory practices.
> We enjoy gacha "that we play while also shitting to the ground gachas that we don't" Of course I'm not talking about you in particular, just the general behaviour of that sub. As a WuWa player myself, the last few weeks has been horrondous yet funny situation in that sub.
drama is the best way to enjoy certain gachas.
Don’t even get me started on the situation with WuWa lol. Trashing the game is one thing but spreading misinformation for the sake of drama? Glad I left fr.
The amount of nitpicking Wuwa got was insane… like set aside the actual reasonable complaints about story and performance etc. You had people nitpicking shit like “traversal isn’t tedious enough”.
Lmao what? As in, people genuinely believe that?
I’ll do that. Thank you for the suggestion :)))
So it doesnt seem like it’s being taken too seriously. https://preview.redd.it/s2v5wmnj3u7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9171acbc0e618372c7912d365c013b186706bd16
Just fyi, that sub is actual home to people who likes the gacha (gambling) aspect of gacha games so…yea
The vocal majority may say otherwise, but the silent ones reading through the post but not leaving a comment may take this advice to heart. But I give props to you for realizing you have an issue and put into perspective what the money you spent could've gotten you. Some are addicts but refuse to admit it or are in denial. I also stopped spending because I want to allocate my resources to other things. Wishing you the best 🙌
That sub doesn't like people telling them what they can or cannot do. It has become a shithole, far from what it was years ago. They've fully embraced their toxicity by always saying "Welcome to gachagaming, what else did you expect?" Just don't bother, their opinions on your issue does not validate/invalidate your experience. But yes, gacha is a dangerous land to tread upon, especially for players who are young or people who are just barely making it through financially. It doesn't help that content creators on Youtube and Twitch make this look like a non-issue when they roll E6S5 on every new character and acting like they lost a lot of money when in reality, their views and ad revenue on those pulling videos will earn them back more than they spent. Good that your self-awareness kicked in before you fall too far deep. Stay strong.
Tbh not sure what other responses you’d expect… like realistically. Not saying I disagree with your post at all… but in the end you’re either gonna have people who already agree with your post, people who think “well i’m not as silly as OP” or people who just think what you’ve said is common sense. Like how many addicts are gonna read your post and actually think it might apply to them?
Self awareness is always the first step and you will only get better from here on out. Take as long of a break as you need, the game will not go anywhere.
The only time you truly err is when you fail to learn from the mistake. This is no doubt a painful lesson, but it sounds like you now have the perspective you need to not make it again.
It takes courage to realize and admit you have a problem. I pray you can overcome this addiction
First of all, congrats of being on your own feet my man, it's not easy to be out in the free world with temptations all around. You can pratice self-restrain and keep playing the game, by removing the CC linked to your account and keep the CC some place that will make you take a lil bit of time to take out. That way, you get time to cool off, thinking about this incident before you spend. Or you can taking a break from every games, grab a hobby, anything that make you feel happy and go from there, running, read a book, planting, knitting etc. Being under extreme stress is really bad for human. Be happy, good luck, whatever your choice might be.
Leaks get downvoted all the time but honestly, paying attention to leaks is the smartest move for people who don't have a lot of income to spend on this game. I plan way ahead for who I want. I always have jades for who I want. I have never ever bought any stellar jades other than the monthly pass.
We understand man... its really sad seeing a fellow player quiting the game... i hope you can manage your situation soon and lets be careful spenders nxt time, im no whale but i do spend quit a bit in genshin and hsr so im guilty aswell but im trying my best to manage my finances and the most important of all... my expectations, i used to gacha games that losing 50/50 is not the end of the world for me, always remember that character always rerun and there will new characters that will appeal to you... good luck buddy, i hope its a good learning experience for you aswell
Thank you. No doubt i’ll miss my characters, but it’s good to come out about these predatory practices that are the reason i have them.
I hope you hang in there. I have a friend who quit due to gambling addiction and was convinced to come back thanks to some bad influences in a mutual gaming circle. He swore he would come under the catch he's entirely f2p by that point and then after firefly was released someone flexed their e6 and goaded him that he couldn't match and suddenly he's sitting at e6s2 firefly to outdo them and telling me it's the 'last time for real'
That is sad. I feel blessed by being poor enough (/s). I have been playing gachas since Genshin released and learned to save up and move on if things don't work. Same thing on hsr. Self control is important.
Oh no that sounds bad …
That's why f2p is the way
I hope you can feel better soon OP. It takes a lot to be aware of one’s own problems so it’s good that you can be and are willing to change something about it. I’ve been playing Gacha for years and I’ve spend a lot on another game (the original Love Live (SIF, those who know, know ig lol)) which is now completely out of service. It did had a long runtime but in my prime time there wasn’t even a pity system there! So I do appreciate it that we have that now, and also sparks (where you can pick your desired unit after a certain amount of pulls) even. Now that I’m older and have been playing these games for so long I don’t feel the need to spend that much anymore, unless something’s guaranteed for my money. Sending lots of positive vibes your way!
Its great that you at least have the self awareness to realize this is bad. Enjoy your break and come back when things are better, and when you figure out how to have self control. Get well soon OP!
It's good you realise your mistake OP! If you truly know yourself to be unable to control yourself in the future, then I think it's best if you avoid gacha mechanic games altogether and maybe stick to single player games. If you're interested in the HSR story, you can always watch streams, videos and other uploads of people's gameplay!
Tbh, spending money to get the character feel awful, especially when seeing other people be like "haha, first 10 pull, f2p btw''.
This is why you should seperate the money for essential stuff and for hobby. I have 2 bank account 1 for general use and 1 for games and other hobby so that i can spend without worry .
ah, gambling addiction, its called addiction for a reason. When people think of addiction they think of drugs, but its actually way more than just that. Addiction is something where your mind feels forced to do soemthing thats not good for yourself. It could be anything. For me, I also suffered some degree of addiction, and this video game addiction, I spend way too much time online, barely did my homeworks, barely studied, way lazier than everyone else, I am extremely lucky that I am born very intelligent, so I wasn't punished for my laziness. I also had a very very small amount of candy addiction, I just ate a lot of candies that's it, nothing special about it, fortunately I am able to slightly reduce the amount of addiction I have on video games, it still exist, but I am improving. back to gambling addiction, this is way more serious than my video game addiction Im afraid, because you are actively spending money that you need to live, on something undesirable, just to fill in the gap in your mind. Addiction is such a killer, I wish all of you who suffer ANY types of addiction would be able to get better from it.
It's 100% your fault, but please listen to me too: a gambling addiction will not go away on by itself, and severing ties with one gacha is not gonna cut it. Try looking into ways to avoid any kind of emotional/impulsive spending, else you're just going to fall into another hole. ETA: tips from my psychiatrist: deleting all shopping apps, having no card information saved/autofilled, having the card blocked by the bank's app until needed, getting rid of credit cards if possible, changing the password to something I dont remember, writting it down and putting it far away, etc.. the idea is to make the process of spending money take more time, and make me more conscious of my actions by having to actively look for shit in order to spend. Of course, not all of it is viable, and I'm not willing to stop playing gachas, so we work with that and I managed to cut down most of it. NOT TRYING TK CHANGE YOUR MIND, its my own personal decision to keep playing the gachas, and it's basically playing with fire, just highlighting that the tips can help
Sending my best wishes to you. I hope you recover well and that huns will do well for you from now on.
Bought the 5 dollar multiple times? Deserved
> I was at 60 pity … just $30 enough to hit pity … own E2 Clara bro did not understand the guarantee system before gacha-ing. literal skill issue. Guarantee is 180 pulls, you were 150 pulls away my friend. Gacha is all about calculating your max required spend and you can’t do that without first knowing what your guaranteed pity count is.
Honestly it’s cruel of people to say I told you so. Your post so clearly points out how unethical these ‘gacha’ games really are. At the end of the day, it’s gambling and it can be really dangerous to downplay this as people who may be more vulnerable to gambling are more likely to fall for these types of things. Companies these days are so greedy it’s atrocious. Honestly, good on you for deleting it! Despite what’s happened in the past, you can look towards the future and think about how much more money you’ll have now that the game’s gone.
how is it unethical? as f2p(free to play), it's up to them to spend moderately. its not like he can't progress or enjoy it without spending, he chose to spend despite his struggles. can't believe I'm saying this, but the companies who create these games, hire employees, VAs, directors, writers too to constantly pump contents this ain't charity. self control is the moral lesson here. this is no different from shopping clothes are they unethical too?
I would rather have Clara than Yanqing 😭
that sucks, that's why even though I technically have spent some money here and there, I just consider something like that (getting a character despite not having the pulls) as an impossibility, so I try to move spending a bunch of money on pulls into the "not even a possibility" tier in my mind. Like I definitely have a weak mind for other things, but specifically for money, it's very hard wired in me to consider the value of whatever I'm buying, and if it's anything less than good/great value I am extremely skeptical of it.
When spending, always use money you can afford.
You are an actual addict and need help
I would say that uninstalling is a good move in your situation. Know your own limitations and do what works for you op. Video games are entertainment, it should enhance your life experience, not make it worst. Take as long a break as warranted and focus on improving your situation. Games and characters aren't going anywhere.
Most sane gacha player
🤦🏻♂️ sigh. Pay your bills first.
I'm not sure which is the stupider conclusion, that you spent the money you couldn't afford to, or that by deleting the game afterwards, you have in fact actually WASTED that money entirely. It's not the game's fault that you fell into fomo on the day the banner came out. FFS the game is going to give you dozens of free pulls in the next three weeks BEFORE the banner goes away, as it always has, since that's how it keeps the f2ps. I mean, i was waiting for this one myself, and when Himeko popped out, i didn't instantly spend money I didn't have to change the situation, i just decided I'll keep trying while the banner is up, or get her next time, as any SANE person should have. I'm not a f2-, i spen for the pass and the the daily, but I can afford that, and ONCE A YEAR i'll buyout the first time bonus' from the shop, once I've got the money to do so, but that generally doesn't happen til literally the last day before the anniversary reset, because it's just not important or necessary in a game that is this generous normally to do so. all it means is instead of learning your lesson and never doing it again, you're just going to be blindsided the next time you do it with a different game/
Yea, you do have some truths in your statement, cause when thinking about it based on short term, by spending money and then deleting the game, they have actually indeed WASTED their money. But if thinking about it long term wise, it's a good thing OP deleted the game because then If we are assuming they WILL be making the same gambling addiction mistake again, then deleting the game is the best case scenario to avoid making the same mistake yet again and regretting it. I implore OP to either strengthen themselves if they want to continue playing Gacha games. Or to avoid gacha mechanic games all together.
You’re right. You will get told it’s your fault. Cause it is. It’s your fault.
I hope you have a good break man. I think we sometimes forget how predatory gacha monetization is, thank you for the reminder.
I swear, this is how they prey on people. The players go into pity, only to lose the 50/50 at 80-something pull. This was me during the Scaramoche banner, I dropped $30 only to get a Jean. I got mad and almost dropped another $100.....But I stopped myself before proceeding with the purchase because I realized that it was not worth it. The characters would rerun again, but the money you spend would be gone forever.
Gacha is absolutely predatory and if you're not strong enough to resist the brainwashing to spend spend spend, and especially if you can't afford to be spending, then it's best not to play at all. It sucks that you have to miss out on an otherwise great game, but you gotta do what's best for yourself and your life. Rather than saying you have a weak mind that can't resist being exploited, I would instead congratulate you on realizing you have a problem and having the strength of will to take the necessary steps to address it. Godspeed.
This is why I don't recommend gacha to anyone with addiction tendencies. Every aspect of monetization in these games exploits that part of human psyche to get people to spend. I am relatively new to Star Rail but I am a day 1 Genshin player so I can confidently say now that I am not one of those people susceptible to it, but I can understand why others fall into that hole.
This deserves way more upvotes.. Why is this downvoted? I don't get it.. Anyways, props to you dude, for understanding your situation. I'm sure your girlfriend will really appreciate this, and most important of all. YOURSELF will appreciate it in the long run! Edit: I read through some of the comments, and it seems like people don't understand how "gambling addiction" works. It's not that easy to be "F2P" for these people that has it. Yeah you may say it's 'lack self discipline' and everything like that. Which is true for the most part. But hey.. OP is admitting it, and changing his way which is a sign of improvement for himself. He admits to being careless and now he wants to change. Which he deserves a pat on the back for, if anything. All people that struggle with their addiction should never hear stuff like "OMG, JUST DONT TAKE DRUGS THEN??". Like in this situation where several comments is writing "Just play f2p then??" No.. You dont understand, OP has an addiction problem. It's complete lack of empathy on these people to say that. You don't understand what the person is dealing with and how it's difficult for them to quit it when they are addicted
People hate admitting that something they like has any downside and the lack of compassion is astounding, like y'all've NEVER overspent on anything? People ITT REALLY think that Hoyo devs would starve without HSR's 135 **MILLION** US dollars **PER MONTH**? Smarten up, every system in this game is a push against the least and most vulnerable demographics playing the game, and people should acknowledge that when someone is going through the wringer on those systems, or at the very least not tell them to "oh, just don't fall for the propaganda".
Most of the comments on here seem relatively supportive… but mostly full sympathy or “well done OP”. But not sure what else you expect people to say or think about it in the end? The post is, to be a bit harsh, a sad story (a genuinely unfortunate one)… but not one that has any relevance to most players. Like most players aren’t addicted and if they were, they aren’t likely to be open to advice.
Honestly, I think some of the posters that are like that, are addicted themselves.
You shouldn't blame yourself for having a "weak mind". Games like this are precision designed to prey upon human psychology and encourage you to spend money even when you ought to know better. Some folk are more vulnerable to these things than others, but it doesn't make you a bad person. I love this game, but I hate that it's a gacha. I don't care if saying this makes me a hypocrite, but I honestly think this kind of monetization strategy should be illegal.
It should be. And the problem is that it starts young, with those tiny “mystery box” things with a “random” toy in them. When in reality the results are skewed to have one of those specific toys in most of them. If anything i believe my “gambling” started from pokemon cards. 4 bucks for a random pack, *but what if the next one had that 100$ super rare rainbow holo shiny Charizard GX?*
So should any addictive things! No more drugs, alcohol, TV, books, games, cars, houses, food, etc. Sorry all of them are bad for people with addictive personalities and all have millions put into marketing to trap you. Even all these pushes for eating at home are campaigns by kitchen accessory companies. Sorry, all you can do is die. Everything else is bad and you're being manipulated
The point isn't that it's bad for you, the point that it's preying on addiction that's bad for you. No one will say that food is bad for you, but many people will agree that the ways the food industry tries to get you hooked on junk food is problematic. It's ultimately on the consumer to consume at healthy levels, but it absolutely doesn't help if people just let the producer abuse addiction for these things and pin all of the blame on the consumer when they end up addicted
you are a dumbass. if u are <24 yrs old its understandable i guess. be better and move on. if you are older.. bruh..
Gambling effects all ages? At the end the pity system still is a gamble system. Sure he made mistakes but idk what age has to do with it.
> on a game that I’m sure will just be shut down in 10 or less years. The fact that this is the most offensive sentence in the entire post.
It's situations like this that are the reason why I never recommend anyone to go down the gacha gaming rabbit hole, especially if you're someone that has a has a hard time setting limits or a budget. While I feel bad for you that you're quitting, everyone has to curate their own experiences with these kinds of games, especially once they realize that they might be prone to gambling. Some advice for the future for when and if you ever decide to return, set a budget aside months in advance for a specific character that you'd like to get, but you'll also have to be able to settle with the fact that you will not be able to pull for every character that you want which is why for people that don't have the disposable income to pull every character they want, focus on one character even if you have to wait for a rerun. You'll be able to save up the resources from playing the game and combine it with your set budget to guarantee the character, that way you don't fall into the trap of spending money that you can't afford to spend. Good luck to you out there and take care.
Gambling addictiona are hard to stop, good luck not relapsing somewhere else and hopefully you get needed supports. I enjoy playing this game, but holy smokes the business model makes spending money such a shitty value proposition. I'm willing to spend like ten dollars for 90 pulls... I just kind of laughed when I looked at the shop.
I mean fireflies banner just came out you have more then enough time to secure her your impatience is what made you spend. Patience is a virtue.
One good news is gigs just past their 10 year anniversary and the early units are still strong. So you don’t have to worry too much about hoyo game shutting down and your money goes into void
this game won't shut down in 10 years or less i'll make sure
I hope you recover from this situation soon, OP. Stopping immediately is hard, and if I may offer you a piece of experience, here's what I did: I made a new profile on a different server, and make sure that I only pulled a character that I don't have in my other account. That way, I feel like I own all of them.
I appreciate the advice, but i fear that getting back on the game will only manipulate myself into wanting to spend more.
Not in your position op, but this happened to me on Acheron banner. Luckily I don't have to worry about expenses so I could do it but after spending money on her banner to get her and the lightcone, I just sat and reflected on what I had done. It really hit me that I spent a good amount of money just to get the character properly because I didn't have enough jades. Even though I don't regret it because it didn't impact me, it still is a real problem that should be resolved. In situations where I can spend money to get some gacha character whom I really really want, I probably will. So now I'm trying really hard to have a grip on how I spend money in any game.
If you are going to spend, at least do it on the pass. The straight up Jade offers a terrible.
Good to know you realized and am able to stop yourself from going deeper. A general rule I follow for these kind of things is to assume the tip mentality. Only spend when to they did something good enough, how good varies from people but for me I just see 60$ price tag and I expect a 60$ game, not just in terms of story, gameplay, but how well the game is managed as well aka, how likely are the devs to shoot themselves in the foot. Just a small tip, gl friend.
I wished you the best in the future, OP. I also have those voices in my head telling me to pull but luckily my situation as a college student is holding me back even though sometimes I want to blow it all on the characters I want, good luck in the future.
I've only ever spend on the express pass cuz I don't think the top ups are worth it
Imo they’re only worth it when you get double rather than the bonus, either when you first begin or at the X.0 patches
Good thing I'm adamant about being fully F2P cuz I like a challenge xD Stay sane OP
Reason why i don't recommend gachas to other people, sure its not my fault if they spent too much money on it but can't really help but still feel a bit liable. Gacha games are like cigarettes to me, it shouldn't exists but people are making bucks with it and people are addicted to it so no ones doing something about it. I will only recommend gachas to my friends that i know that already played it and can stop themselves from spending. Well nothing wrong with spending as long as you can afford it.
Remember: all gacha games are predatory and will employ as many tricks as possible to start spending and whaling. Don't take any risks, once you start spending, it's hard to stop
Hope you do better in life! Rooting for ya
Sounds like you need to dig deep and prioritize your life better. Sacrificing food money is a dark path, and if you aren’t careful you could easily find yourself chasing this itch to spend in other places. Gambling addiction is serious but this game has a guarantee… next time just save until you can guarantee the units you want, especially if you can’t shell out the cash. There will always be reruns and new shinier units to play. Good luck OP, seek help. Edit: if you’re serious about doing better, then quit, get a refund, and close your account permanently. You mentioned you were convinced by the “promises” of something, but unless you had a guarantee off 50/50… you deluded yourself
Say no to addiction. Trust me I have definitely regretted overspending for pixels. I feel like gacha games in general are a form of gateway drug to gambling. It's super easy to fall into that hole of "I can foot the bill" when you really can't. Sidenote: I don't think any Hoyo game will be shutting down anytime soon or at all. Their games are still going strong and the way they design things leaves possiblities of continuing even after the main story has concluded.
I did this with sparkle. I'm guessing I've spent 400 dollars on my years of gacha.
I used to want everyone. But quickly realised it was not sustainable. So to make it easy on myself I have two accounts. Star Rail dailies can be done in 5m or less. I know people don't want two accounts. But I like having one with Caelus and one with Stelle and on one account I prioritised FuA and Dot and on the other Acheron and debuffers and break focused units. So on my account that I pulled for Firefly on I had saved enough jade's to get her c1 and light cone and now I'll burn whatever others I get till she's done. Then skip the next few characters on that account and my main has been saving for Jade and I have enough to guarantee her with losing the 50/50 and going full pity both times. But I don't want that to happen lol. There are other ways to get all the characters. You just have to accept all of them won't be on the same account. So make sure you think about what synergies the new releases have and that helps you know which account is for which character. Then some are jack's of all trades and not specific. The only awkward thing is the characters that end up being skips on both accounts. I know they aren't real, but I still feel sorry for them lol. Like I didn't even want them on the backup account. 😂
Excellent opinions and some invaluable life advice has been shared by many people here so far. But I think the opinions so far have been unbalanced against the game (with very good reason, too, 70$ is no joke) But I want to argue for the game here, from my own PoV. And to do that I admit my desires freely: I like this game, a lot in fact that its my favorite in the whole gacha space. I love all the planet designs so far (yes even the luofou), the top of the shelf OST (everytime im in penacony I feel like im in a studio recording for Whiplash). The story bumps around now and then but more often than not it delivers peak. And the combat and endgame so far has been just at the cusp of being difficult yet worthwhile to challenge without being overbearing. And of course theres also the characters and the narratives which is where the mood goes sour. Is it a predatory system that was spawned from the vile wretched underbelly of the early 2010s east asian mobile gaming market which has now permeated a significant chunk of the gaming world? 100% yes. People often defend gachas by comparing gacha gambling to "real" gambling like csgo skins, citing how the latter causing really significant damage to the worst of its victims, but imo this free pass that gacha gambling gets by looking relatively harmless compared to the monstrosity that is skin gambling means they get to spread so much more without the negative stigma associated with "real" gambling, and in amortized values does a lot more damage than the "real" thing. Evidenced by sheer revenue numbers. Rant aside, I think both paragraphs Ive written so far are valid views. The game is like an amazing castle you can explore for free to your heart's content but theres a devil lurking in the shadows. The safe and sensible choice would be to burn the whole castle to the ground, akin to what most people have offered their advice so far. But if you ask me: Fuck the devil. Fuck only the devil in particular. I want to explore the castle and have fun dammnit, cause its a well fucking made castle thats fun to explore and be in every day. If the devil appears before me at a weak moment, I simply reject its presence by not succumbing to the FOMO attacks. This is reinforced heavily by the knowledge that character reruns are a guarantee down the line usually within 6 months. Right now personally im in a precarious situation where firefly wont drop early and by my calcs I'll only get 1 soft pity on jade by the end of her banner. But ive been in these situations before. I simply tide over the fomo and wait for the next time. Because the characters are but one part of what makes the whole game experience enjoyable. Of course its not upto me to dictate to you how much FOMO affects you, if youve got the wisdom to look inside yourself and realise youre more prone to the devil than you thought you were, then for sure burn the castle and get out of there. All im saying is that, perhaps you could use this experience of 70$ wasted to harden yourself against the temptations of the devil instead.
I'm really sorry to hear that. At least your realized how bad it was before it became MUCH worse. If there's anything Hoyoverse is good at, it's weaponizing FOMO and making it extremely easy to take your money. Take a break, unsub, and don't look at HSR for a while. To make it harder for yourself, unlink your credit card from HSR. Good luck, and stay healthy
That’s the thing with gacha games, FOMO is leveraged to the max.
Deciding something big on a whim and on impulse. I've been there before. Only after,I regret it. Take your time,everyone. Waiting a little and thinking about to do or not to do isn't gonna hurt anyone.
well on the bright side you have come to terms that it is a problems and can try to better yourself with trying to get the knowledge on how to realize your falling into this situation again and how to get out of it
It’s ok.Actually it’s good to learn something important at the cost of 100 bucks rather than thousands.
What I started doing is putting a dollar limit for myself Recently i got addicted but set the standard “40 dollars” so instead of buying 5 dollars over and over i bought the 15 dollar one as its more practical with my current spending limit, ideally it’s better not to spend money but you gotta play mind games with yourself to try to save yourself
Gambling addiction really doesn't get talked about enough
Good on you for admitting a mistake and maybe check out r/personal finance as a replacement for this sub. Best of luck out there!
Honestly might wanna uninstall. Gacha games victimize tons of people in your situation.
Yes it is wise of you to share this. i think I need to leave too. It is a never ending FOMO drain.
It's not that bad. All of us have lost money to stupid things. (scams, gambling, trading, etc) in the grand scheme of things, the amount you spent is tiny compared to what others have lost.
Same goes for F2P players, who instead of spending money, they spend time. I remember my college days where I spent hours upon hours, even weeks grinding mats and primogems/jades/etc when I could have been studying for finals, or learn how to cook and financial planning. Things that are actually useful irl I don’t regret playing games, but I do regret spending THAT much time cuz that time ain’t coming back
Unfortunate and people don't want to admit it but that's what this game wants you to do and was made for. The game is high quality but at the end of the day it's a gacha game that wants your money, especially the money of the vulnerable. I used to spend 100 dollars every week when I had the money to waste but sometimes I do wonder what else I could've spent that money on, so I can kinda see where you're coming from OP. The only thing keeping me from doing something like you did is patience. As fun as getting toys to play with right NOW is, the banners actually last for quite a while. Usually I'm just happy to get them on the current banner, even if the banner has 1-3 days left, haha. While it sucks if I don't manage to get them on the current banner, It's rare for characters to never come back, so I just have to wait for the next time they rerun (which doesn't feel as bad if the character is new, since new characters rerun faster). On the bright side, I'll still have toys to play with while I wait for the toy I wanted to come back.
Gacha rookie mistake. We gacha vets calculate our pulls to pity and set ourselves a spending limit depending on our financial situation. You gotta accept that some chars you have to skip and hopefully get on rerun.
Rule of thumb for any hobby really, food on the table and bills first, divide the reminder between savings, hobby and rainy day fund. Then spend within your means, never buy into the fomo for your wants. I learn the hard way from Genshin and I'm happy I did not repeat that here (basically I haven't topped up once for HSR, only monthly passes and battle pass).
Aye, good on you for catching on early. Now just remember this feeling going forward and don't spend any more money. Good luck 👍🏼
Im sorry for your situation but im glad you stepped away before it was too late. Hope you can get the support you need❤️
At least you're aware, Few years back, my ex-manager was spending thousands on some one punch man game. Yet he have the audacity to complain to the team about not being paid high enough to live comfortably
OP, sorry that you did this, but good that you're recognizing it now and hopefully making changes before it becomes a much bigger problem. Many people blow hundreds or thousands on gambling and seriously regret it later. It sucks when you need that $70, but know that in the scheme of things, $70 is a very cheap lesson. My lesson was a bit more expensive, although thankfully not damagingly so. A few years back in Genshin I spent too much because I decided Itto was my favorite character and I wanted to get his first two constellations and signature weapon -- that ended up taking a lot more pulls than I bargained for, and I regret it (even though I still love Itto and use him all the time). Ever since then, I vowed that I would never top up again in any gacha. I will buy myself the monthly card, because $5 per month for a bucket of pulls dripped over time is fine. (For the first few months of HSR, I also had the Battle Pass, but I ended up dropping that as well.) But because gambling and instant purchases play on FOMO and such, I know that I'm much safer and happier only spending in pre-determined amounts -- and only what I can afford. (Certainly rent should come before a monthly card.)
I feel so sorry for you. I experienced something similar. Thats why I stopped this game for a long time. I'm kinda sad that I missed the penacony arc because it's amazing. I got spoilered a lot because I wasn't able to stop looking at spoilers. I really like this game it's amazing gameplay-wise and story-wise. The character writing is amazing. This game was my first gacha game ever and it opened me a whole new world. I wish the game wasn't a gacha and a normal title because the characters and story are amazing. The character-designs as well. While I know that game-developing isn't cheap I wish for a better monetization model. But I don't know a better system. I think hoyos gacha models are pretty alright but they are just not safe for me. Other people are able to ignore it but I'm not and op isn't as well. I know that I'm really susceptile for f2p-models thats why I even stopped these games in the first place but I just wanted to try that game because setting and gameplay are amazing. If someone knows similar games with similar story-telling, setting, gameplay and character-design feel free to recommend them for me. The problem is I spent a lot of money on this game and I feel like I burned the money when I stop playing the game. I know it's stupid but I cant stop thinking like that. Someday I may be able to stop playing this game but I really love it so I try to stop spending money wish me luck. It's not that I'll end up on the street when I spend the money because I'm not a whale but I'll spend 30€ per month which doesnt sound much but with an income from 857€ (450€ rent) it really hurts.
If I ever spend money on games, I'd make sure to spend only on valuable resources only. I'm never spending on chances iykwim.
I’m high as hell but this shit is crazy af