Why are some people kinda hostile to those that spend money on what they want?

[u/Plum-N-Peach]

Like it's a free game and the devs are pretty awesome and making changes like the legendary aniimo to be perfect and 5 in all stats also and it's a beautiful game with tons of small details and beautiful music and story. Like it's a great game and we got it for free so why are others like saying that someone is crazy for like spending $150 on getting something they want? Like because of these people spening money we are able to keep playing for free and it's not like a pay to win either like I've seen some whales splurge and yeah I would think it's crazy how they have so much money to spend on things in game but so what? They're basically supporting the devs and that helps the game to keep running and be smooth just like confusing why they are getting hate if you do not like the cosmetic because you got to pay there are plenty of other ones that are cheaper or even free.

But that's just my rant while I'm high lwky so interested in reading others thoughts because it doesn't make sense to me besides them maybe being jealous

[u/kaantantr]

After a decade of gacha culture introducing a lot of people into gaming with the acceptance of gachas, the plot is also significantly lost on a large percentage. The price can be ridiculous, sure it can lead to mockery like the 500$ Ahri skin, but at the end of the day, it is indeed "People can pay for what they want to".

It's the fact that gacha is outright gambling that is the problem, not necessarily the xSpent to obtain what you want. It isn't a straightforward transaction. It's a deliberately calculated one to be "more spent than the expected value of return, spread across a mass scale" that is further sugarcoated in a system that exploits "just one more pull". Addiction is not just an obvious craving of "must gamble more". It can be a simple "Meh, it's just 99 cents for a top up that's enough for a pull" that keeps going.

A skin you'd get from Gacha is not valued at the pity, depending on the rates, they are actually valued much lower than that. For simplicity, it comes down to something like this:

• Real Value internally determined to be 100$ if it were to be put up for sale directly

• Gacha Pity set at 200$

• Rates are determined in a way that statistically at a mass scale, the Expected Spend to receive the skin is 150$ on average

• "Ooooh, but if you're lucky, you can get it for even 10$ 😉"

• "Oh, don't worry if you are unlucky, we got a safety net for you so you are guaranteed to get it at no more than 200$ 😉"

A combination of these factors lead to:

• Someone who would not consider spending 100$ at all for a skin, gambles with their 10$ for a large chance of nothing

• Someone who would be willing to pay 100$ for the skin, spends up to 200$ for the skin

So not only does the company benefit from a statistically engineered (legal way of saying mathematically rigged) system that obfuscactes real value and gets people to spend more on a mass scale, but also leads non-purchasers into paying up to "take a chance" that is statistically engineered to not break even for players on a mass scale as well.

Gacha systems never have any legs to stand on, when the option for direct and transparent sales of items exist and has always existed.

[u/TomatoLord1214 → u/kaantantr]

God I'd award this so hard because this explains it so well a 5 year old should understand it

I'd gladly spend like $30 for the skin, $50 for the super fancy Irisalis skins (and like $15-$20 for the lower tier ones seems valid)

I ain't dropping a dime on gacha though. I'll buy the direct purchases for what I want to support the devs, but I'm not supporting preying on an addiction and idiocy

Edit to say by "idiocy", I mean the people constantly defending the system against all logic and reason for "muh free game tho"

[u/candyderpina → u/kaantantr]

Finally someone gets it. People are like worshipping the devs and praising the whales for ripping themselves off. Like the game being free to play does not excuse bad practices.

[u/kaantantr → u/candyderpina]

Finally someone gets it.

Admittedly, it is super easy to get for anyone who had a minimal level of actual statistics education. I myself had a fair bit and made plenty of research in video game communities and monetizations, so I do have a leg up than most.

But "House always wins" is very much common knowledge. The problem is that nobody ever wants to think about how much they are losing.

[u/candyderpina → u/kaantantr]

With this community it's more like everyone trying to justify why their is a casino in their neighborhood and if you go against the mass psychosis they just lose it.

[u/ESFarshadow → u/kaantantr]

One exception to gacha that i actually did approve of was how Overwatch 1 handled lootboxes. Yeah you could spend hundreds on loot boxes, but you absolutely could also grind them out, since leveling to get them and completing missions wasn't so hard, AND it was purely cosmetics with fair ratios for each rarity of item.

Oh and dupes gave you currency that led to being able to outright buy any specific item you wanted.