Genshin Impact Is PREDATORY 

Wow this is really your most viewed video... Clearly riding the clout huh? Didn't last long tho.. next video 2 digit view.. maybe create more genshin video for views? I dont know.. lol 😂😂😂

It’s sad because most of the time what stops me from pulling is reminding myself how long it would take to build a new character.

I hate how normalized gambling mechanics have become. CHILDREN ARE GAMBLING NOW. CHILDREN!!! Gambling mechanics for children should not be legal!

I'm gonna be honest, I'm just playing Genshin for the story and characters. I've played pay-to-win stuff before as a kid, and my parents never let me spend on those games, so I'm used to playing the hard way. Huge thanks to my mom. If she hadn't denied me an Animal Jam membership when I was 11, I very well might have developed a gacha addiction. Same goes for her limiting my computer time. I only play for a couple hours a day, so by the time I've spent all my resin, I'm ready to log off. TL;DR My mom made me immune to a lot of these issues

One of my gripes that you didn't mention was events. Hoyo would place incredibly important world-building, character development, or special weapons that were tailored to match a specific character in time sensitive events. Unreconciled Stars. This event debuted when genshin first launched and it showed the first appearance of Scaramouche, and you met Mona and Fischl. Most players don't care about Scaramouche because he never appears in the game until you reach Inazuma. He doesn't feel like a threat because no one besides genshin veterans because there was no introduction. Another example being The Chalk Prince and the Dragon event. Not only there was an event locked weapon tailored to work on Bennet or Albedo, you learned that not only a whopperflower was capable of becoming a doppelganger of Albedo but ALBEDO IS CONNECTED TO KHAHNRIAH, HES MADE OF CHALK, AND IS SIBLINGS WITH THE DRAGON THAT DIED ON DRAGONSPINE. Honorable mentions: Guoba being a whole God, Xinyan and Childe meeting, being on an island with Kaeya/Diluc/Klee/Albedo/Jean/Barbara, going to the same island again but with Xinyan/Kazuha/Mona/Fischl (and their whole backstories), Inazuma characters going to the Chasm in Liyue and learning of the war that caused the chasm, and other important things. Like it feels inefficient and disrespectful to the developers that make these events because after the time limit is over, they never come back. It's frustrating because if it wasn't for me playing early, I would have missed out on major lore of the world and character development.

The fact that companies nowadays are hiring psychologists to direct your emotional investment into an addicting cycle in videogames as well is terrifying. These behaviours are very hard to control and can easily spiral into psychopathology, ruining a life, especially in early stages of age. There probably are so many people in need of therapeutic help because of their life struggles and they might happen upon games like this where they can identify in something else and find purpose in a virtual reality as a way to escape the struggles they should be facing and learn to withstand in reality, falling deeper in their problems. I hope the coming generations will realize how much of a massive problem could derive from such predatory strategies and act upon it.

I remember I asked people in a genshin group how they would feel if Mihoyo allowed us to customize our traveler and of course I got attacked by the fandom. They started calling me an sjw for asking a question. Also I find it weird when the traveler randomly speaks after not speaking for so long.

There's no ifs and buts about the predatory nature of gacha games, but I will say this for Genshin specifically: pretty much all gacha games I've seen, when you log in, they will constantly point you to the cash shop or whatever their pulling mechanic is. Log in, big red arrow to the SPEND MONEY section, sit still for more than 10 minutes, game goes 'hey player have you SPENT MONEY lately?', find some new item 'Ohey player, this is our twenty-seventh currency type, which you can use towards saving for 1% of the thing you SPEND MONEY on, by the way, you wanna SPEND SOME MONEY?'. Some of them even automatically open the gacha window by themselves under certain circumstances. But Genshin, at the very least, doesn't really do much of that. Apart from like, the first time every banner cycle, the game won't ever really direct you to the wish screen or the shop. I guess that means that Genshin is still predatory but it's less annoying about it? I dunno lol And it also does help that there's no game content you can be locked out of, either directly or indirectly, by not spending any money.

This video is so true because of my addiction to the game I literally developed a fear of missing out because of this stupid ass game I'm so glad I quit after my recent birthday this game is rlly and truly predatory and the fandom is toxic af especially on twitter

Completely free to play here, and I intend to keep it that way as a moral principle. I’ve recently gotten extremely lucky with my pulls for Scaramouche (got him twice in a single ten pull and then again at 74 pity), and it actually feels rewarding to me because I’ve spent weeks accumulating primos for him. Now what keeps me logging into the game daily is slowly ascending him and getting some artefacts here and there. That being said, it’s taken me two weeks so far and he barely reached level 60, and while I level him up I can’t level up my other characters. It’s very time consuming and oftentimes feels simply boring to be playing Genshin, constantly farming the same things over and over again for something I know will only be half as decent as what whales get. Nonetheless I still very much enjoy the game, but every point you brought up I completely agree with. I feel sad for my friends who spend hundreds on the game to sometimes get less lucky pulls than I did.

Gacha game players are notorious to say things like those, "its free, the gacha is generous, its good" and so on and so forth. At this point you can't just argue with them.

I spent about $85 on this game. I feel like I got my money's worth. The odd thing about all these leveling systems in the game is that they are basically unnecessary. You do not need them. The game is so easy you do not need any of this gear or artifacts at all except for that 1% of content in this game. They do not even plan on adding in content that requires this sort of grinding. I think they just exist to give you something to do to get something you don't need. Outside of the grinding there is not much to do after you have cleared the map.

I don’t defend or rationalise Gacha in the normal sense. Triple a games and most payed games aren’t really that good anymore. You’ll find most free to play games having some kind of in-purchasable system these days. I mean even MMO’s that aren’t Free to play have in game purchases, to you having to spend 10 or dollars to play the game every month, the expansions to the game costing 40-60 dollars and there being actual ingame items you can buy with money. It’s not so unusual to have these systems in games anymore. Even stuff like fortnight and Valorant have BP and even sometimes lootboxes. These systems are “predatory” indeed. I’m not going to say this in any way for people to actually understand, but business works differently to us, let me explain. The Gacha system is one of the most profitable and useful systems in gaming atm. Especially because for Genshin it doesn’t throw the Gacha in your face, the players do, they tell you what characters are META and tell you to play them. If anything, if anyone is exploiting the Gacha system, it’s the players, it’s the people throwing the meta around. But this is not me defending HoYoVerse, HoYoVerse instead try to lure you into using the Gacha with designs, Combat and most of all CHARACTERS. PEOPLE LOVE GOOD CHARACTERS. As some that has been F2P in Genshin and P2P in Honkai 3rd, I can tell you that Genshin IS FAR from the worst offenders of Gacha games. I’d even call it the least predatory and mandatory Gacha created. Honkai that’s something to worry about, it’s true, the game is competitive. It requires you to keep up with the meta and get new characters and weapons every month, Genshin is a casual game, you can actually completely avoid the Gacha if you don’t care for the Abyss that imo isn’t worth the Gacha. Abyss you play 1 time every month, there’s little interaction with it. Other than characters that the player may want, i would personally say avoiding the Gacha is pretty easy. Genshin impact costed 900 million dollars. The game updates every 42 days with solid for the most part content. Most players have already overpayed for this game, but we know that this game will start vastly improving and get better with both story, characters and rewards because of this. My only standpoint can be here the Gacha fuels the games lifespan, many Gacha games have died due to having a more F2P aspect to its Gacha systems or it’s systems being way too predatory. The concern for Gacha players IS understandable and I’ll never protect these systems I’ll just describe how the systems are meant to be used. In the end of the day for me, understanding something is way more important than devaluating something and attacking others for it. If you disagree with me that’s absolutely fine you have the right too, I just wished to share my views and if you don’t like them, I’m fine with that.

your effort in bringing attention to this especially in one of todays most prevalent games with predatory monetisation deserves much more recognition

Honestly, this video deserves so much views and likes. I play Genshin Impact on and off (mostly because it wasn't new player friendly), but was turned away with the predatory issues like in the video. The game had so much potential, but I feel like it's going to waste.

What if I told you that making the game flawed is actually part of Mihoyo's tactics? They'd slowly address the problems to make it seem like they're listening... but then introduce another problem to keep the loop going for as long as they can get away with.

Indie game dev here, This is just what happens if capitalism gets less and less regulations. This whole mobile game formula is in a way a parasite in the genre. Like a thing the development teams of greedy companies that are already unimaginably wealthy dreamt up and decided it was ok to hook children onto bypassing laws by dressing up gambling into something it‘s not. And this isn‘t new mind you. Arcades and these game centers are also in a way gambling. This has always been a way to leech money off of people vulnerable like children and addicts. And in my eyes it really should be more regulated. I mean seriously. Why do you have to buy a game asset per asset? How ridiculous is it? What‘s next? Pay money for every bush in the game? Or every tree? It‘s just a joke really. I only got into this game to see it for myself. But the way the gacha works is just ridiculously predatory. I do have to say though that the truth about the matter is and always will be that whales are the ones that control the company. And as long as they buy there won‘t be any changes. This also makes sense for the company. Why be generous if the big money addicts pay either way? That‘s the issue with this „vote with your dollar“ mindset and the way these companies target people with addiction issues is telling. If you wanna milk your product the most you gotta make sure your customer is the most loyal and the most complacent customer you can find. The type of customer that‘ll spend life savings on cartoon characters for a brief boost of serotonin. It‘s a sad reality as well since in truth many whales are in fact not wealthy either. But I do think the most aggressive defenders of the game are the whales. Because they feel the need to justify their gambling and also keep themselves thinking that they don‘t have a problem. It‘s sad in my eyes honestly. Because this whole thing is a perv*rsion of art. interactive art to be more specific. Yes games like this take a lot of money and resources to create. But how come a company like Nintendo can make a game just like it (zelda) and charge you 60bucks once and never charge you again? Not to mention that they also make big money. This gacha company doesn‘t need this aggressive monetization but they still do it because the cash cow works the way it‘s set up perfectly for them. That is why I never feel like I can like games like these the way I like others. They promise you a free experience with all this fun stuff and also say stuff like: „you can pay what you want for bonuses on top of the free game and the game will be updated for years unlike your other games that never get updated that‘s why you should pay for our game sometimes that‘s why we reward ppl that pay us.“ but this is just marketing. There is no free to this thing if you want a decent experience or these games to value your time. And on top of it they are built for profit. Nothing more. It‘s an investment for these people. And this model is just the most profitable. They‘d give you no actual primogems without spending if that was the thing that‘d make it more profitable for them. But it doesn‘t help hooking you so they drip feed you the lowest amount they can get away with. And it works. It just works. And it‘s great for them. And not so great for the player. Gacha games are an insult to the gaming world in my eyes. They drip feed you a game gradually and make you pay for that process to be less painfully slow and on top of that they also make sure that the game will never be finished no matter what you spend on it. This is how a genshin account can be worth 10k and upwards while everyone pays the same 60 bucks for zelda or a few bucks less if they buy it on sale. To me this monetization is far removed from actual good art. Art that we get to experience as a full package. Art that isn‘t just made for the rich to get richer. Art that actually speaks to you. And art that a community doesn‘t have to do free labour for because the writing is so medeocre that the community even has to do the writing for them. And usually it‘s the free to play people that are religated to do it maybe for a slim chance to actually get payed for their hard work via some giveaway. Wich mind you, as a professional artist is also something u should stay away from cause these giveaways only exist to give you free labour. And the company already gets so much fanart. You are practically working for nothing while they expect you to spend your life savings on a singular game asset. It‘s a joke man. And for the fan artists and fan creators lemme give you this: monetize if you can. Write fanfics and if ppl like it publish it while changing names and places etc. to monetize it for yourself or write fanfics for ppl by taking these as commissions, make oc‘s that fit into the universe and sell those, it‘s legal. Stuff like that. There is good ways around these leech practices and your labour shouldn‘t be free just because you got inspired by a greedy company‘s property. And don‘t feel bad for this. Even if you do this people buying from you still get something more valuable than they get from the actual company that made the game. It‘s a way to take back the power. And to make your own efforts actually pay off. The best art and stories are borrowed, copied and given a new paint job, or blatantly stolen. Genshin is a fantastic example of that. They stole most of the gameplay from zelda breath of the wild, they borrowed the aesthetic if zelda, creature design, anime styles as well as the anime fantasy look, and they also worrowed from mythology and real life to write their own lore. Alwaxs remember. Nothing is original. And genshin is not the first to make a open world fantasy game. In fact, all the gameplay and world functions are blatant copies of zelda. So really, if you do wanna spend about 60 bucks or more on genshin, get yourself zelda tears of the kingdom instead. It is mostly the same game in terms of gameplay. But with the exception of greedy gambling, artifical holding back of progress, dry and overexplained storytelling for the sake of padding and dragging out quests to keep you from earning currency too fast, and on top of it all, you get all the fun stuff like costumes, abilities, weapons and experience for free while exploring the overworke. And all that for just 60 bucks. The only thing u don‘t get is a large character roster. But link is pretty androgynous and gets a lot of outfits during the game so really you don‘t have to feel like it‘s less of a fun experience. Yes genshin technically has more content and characters, but remember that that comes at a steep cost increase. And what honestly keeps me from spending is just remembering that Zelda is always there for me to switch to whenever this game wants to pull the rug and start squeezing me into paying. And it‘s a better game for not doing so. And on top of that genshin wouldn‘t even exist without zelda. So really, if you should chose between the two, chose zelda. It‘ll reapect you and your time so much more than genshin does.

Its interesting how much we push to regulate Lootboxes, yet Gacha gets off scott free. Mihoyo is especially predatory. Most gacha games arent good, so they wont hook an average player. Mihoyo makes amazing games to try and hook those players into spending. And Mihoyo fucking hates free to play players.

Despite the fact that this is already a year old, I keep coming back to this video. It is so well made and literally says exactly what I have been telling some of my friends about Genshin and other gacha games. As someone who has previously suffered from FOMO and had a friend that had a gambling addiction, this video runs deep. The sad reality is that not everyone will be convinced despite the points you brought up. Hell, the community encourages Mihoyo and have ridiculous amounts of copium that an endgame will come in the near future. It really astounds me that your channel is so small, considering the quality of this video.

The moment I lost respect for Hoyoverse was the anniversaries. First anniversary was a complete mess, and they made it worst by giving away the concert bundle for free like it's duct tape for a sinking boat, 2nd anniversary was okayish until 3rd anniversary came and it's basically a copy and paste. I was thinking they'll give us a concert for players who didn't purchase the tickets on livestream but they didn't (and I felt they should at least let Yu-Peng perform one last time as Genshin's 3rd anniversary gift as he's well-loved amongst fans for three years). The only memorable moments are the fans' works which I find hilarious that the fans put more effort into the anniversaries than the company itself. Out of topic, I'm still upsetti spaghetti they didn't set up an event for the Sabzeruz Festival considering Nahida can finally celebrate her birthday in person after 500 years of imprisonment.

One of the biggest points that shows how much terrible this company can be is the addition of the abyss wolves. They are literally the worst thing added to the game, they were the most lazy way possible: They were created to make healers more viable (In the release of Kokomi to make the pain big enough. Also yeah, Dendro bloom deserves some shit for this too ngl.) and to counter shields... The problem is, they were 100% rushed, they have colision problem with certain animations, their movement is bullshit, they can apply the corrosion status effect even on I-Frames because it is coded as an Elemental Status Effect, they are VERY tanky and they have one of the most annoying AI I've ever seen. This wasn't an oopsie, I'm sure they were testing our patience with this, to see how far they could have gone. Thank god that I think they noticed we didn't like those wolves because the most recent counter, The Husks, are actually rather balanced. I would have quit the game right there and then if this was the new Wolf 2.0. 💀

Yes this game has mentally manipulated me into paying money for characters that I don’t even need, but I have no plans to quit anytime soon lol

THIS VIDEO NEEDS TO BE RECOMMENDED TO EVERY SINGLE GENSHIN PLAYER It's truly sad that the world has gotten to this point. When did so many people become unpaid corporate shills?

also .. beware of the advertising on RU-vid. It preys on the gullible.

pretty well thought video, I personally pay for welkin monthly, it's more than enough to wish for characters every one or two patches. nothing to say about the grind, it's awful

I just realized I have good self control, which I am very very great full to have. My heart goes out to all those with vulnerabilities, and I hope they will be free from gambling addictions 💜

I play since the birth of the game, but I am a casual player and play rarely. I like to get into Genghin fron time to time just to adore beautiful landscapes accompanied by gorgeous music. No need to talk about characters, their design is top notch. But I still don't even have all regions opened and didn't move that far into the story after 3 years. I just get in, do dailies, 1 or 2 quests and log off. In conclusion, this game is awesome, I enjoy playing Genshin, I only spend money on it 1 time in 2020 to buy some battle pass (I don't remember how it's called) and never ever since then. I enjoy Genshin and i don't feel addicted. So for me, it's a win-win situation. P.S Great video, thanks for spreading awareness of the situation. Keep up the great work!

genshin is predatory however its very rare to find a person spending loads on a gacha game like genshin impact and they dont have disposable income for it. I know that there is a ton of predatory tactics but there is also a good game behind this stuff and I dont spend money and can get multiple 5 stars easily might have something to do with luck however you can experience everything in the game for free and the only thing that is p2w is the gacha system which isn't even that bad compared to other games with horrible rates that dont have a pity system at all

I quit this game 2 years ago. Had an endgame acc with lots of 5 stars and some 5 star weapons, I spent money on welkin and battle pass for like a whole year. I fully built my acc, abyss became a joke the new characters which are the gameplay are locked behind a paywall. There is literally zero reason to play this game. It’s fun for some time but just gets boring. I hope u all realize that and stop wasting ur time.

The sad thing is that positivity sells, negativity doesn't sell as much. I'm inclined to believe that everyone is addicted to copium in these games... You always see titles like, "WISHING FOR (who cares)! I GOT HER!" and then when they get the character, they act like they were flashbanged and are having a seizure while screaming even though they lost 50/50 and almost had to reach 180 wishes... This is why I like content creators like Tectone, they shit on the game because they like the game and want the game to be better. How far up your ass does your head need to be, to not be able to understand that if a person is negative towards something, doesn't mean they hate the same. I mean these white knights gotta be weebs too right? Have they ever heard of Tsunderes? Hell, have they ever heard of Psychology?

I'm looking for justification that gacha is predatory, specifically genshin, and I found this 2 years old video. THANK YOU. This is a great video reminding me again on what psychological tricks they do to manipulate their consumers. Now that my most anticipated gacha game: Wuthering Waves also applying genshin's 50/50 its worrying me.

Im so glad I was able to cut that game entirely, and I never returned. What made me back out was the endless amount of backlash when I criticized the predatory system. I have the strong suspicion that a good amount of forum users are in fact employees of Mihoyo, or just some useful idiots who receive codes for their "service" .

I quit Honkai a few years ago (been with the game for 4 plus years and dollars to that game), I became a gacha addict with this game (it was NOT a pleasant experience like I was on drugs, can't think straight, shaking, for some reason, sniffing like wth?). With that experience I started Genshin since launch in September 2020 and yes the experience helped me to manage my finances more. After two years, I quit the game cause it was boring, but I do occasionally came back to check things out, or some character quests that I REALLY wanted to play (Yoimiya story quest that is, perfect story for Yoimiya simps like me XD). Overall, my point is, be careful to anyone decided to play this game. It is a good game (so does Honkai Impact 3 and HSR) but be mindful with what you spend in this game. Videos like this will help you to see some pointers and to be more careful and be more in control. Don't let them tells you what to do. Have fun with the game, NOT work for the devs

This is truth. Hoyoshit is indefensibly predatory. Now they're locking most of character's power behind constellations with a lot of them being almost unusable at c0(mika/faruzan/dehya). So it's just getting worse.

If you buy new moon blessing, do your dailies and battle pass and events, you will have enough primos to play with and get the ones you want. You dont have to buy a lot of crystals, as with anything, the secret to get what you want is being consistent. You can spend a lot in any game that has content to be purchcased (even when they dont directly affect gameplay). I see it almost as a montly sub thing. The game is always updated, always evolving and runs on a livw serves, i "pay" to be in it every month and enjoy it and I believe thats fair. Its how it was with RPGs back in the day.

this should be an introduction video to new players who will try Genshin Impact

Agreeing with everything you said, but what really pisses me off now is that the new region Sumeru is coming out and along with Dendro just to push more FOMO. Just a few hours ago they showed the reactions trailer to Dendro and people were so hyped about it like saying "OMG this game gets better and better," and "I just love how much detail they put into this game." And I just thought to myself, " Was this really necessary to take two years for them to work out these simple reactions to that element, even though we know that Dendro is the 7th element from the beginning, just to release it with such simple mechanics? These people don't think that if Dendro visions is out into the world, why we have no Dendro characters until Sumeru comes out? I don't think that's a coincidence; they had this planned out to take your money since people have no Dendro characters, people will fork over their wallet for them due to FOMO. I mean hell, even their roadmap trailer for all the regions is a dead giveaway for this (Sumeru smack dead in the middle of the story while Hydro, Pyro, and Cryo regions in the second half).

You probably right, I'm a whale from the game, but last years I feel like I don't like anything. Because I level up each character to 90 9/9/9 and don't even need any type of new characters to finish abyss. BTW, I'm asking for 120+FPS PC feature since release of the game, as you know we still don't have it. But we have useless teapot, that they keep updating with each patch. The same with card game, I stopped playing it too. It's good for 2023+ because now we have a more gachas and other games that we actually can play as f2p. This game is popular because other games, including AAA, have little attention to detail and bugs, polishing the game itself to perfection. It's good that games like Baldur's gate 3 are coming out, if you have problems with hooks, try such games that can drag you for 100+ hours, you won't want to go back to genshin after them. Regular story games can cost as little as $60 and have more content than the entire genshin at once. The problem is that you can spend $100+ on a genshin and still not get what you need. Their greatest manipulation is to keep you constantly in the game and hungry for resources through resin.

This take is very old for some parts, but as long as people are aware of the nature of gacha games and live service games like this in general, those problems shouldn’t be a big deal. Genshin used to be somewhat more generous, until the gacha community came in with feedbacks that completely changed how rewards are handled in a negative way, especially event rewards, that part is still a big disappointment till this day.

I think this video is useful to people who haven't heard or played a gacha before, it's all common sense stuff. You're right on some aspects, like the way Mihoyo try to get you to get their characters and resin. But like to play to win? Maybe in terms of spiral abyss, I can see you making an argument of that. But the main story is simple enough that artifacts with main stats that make sense for your character Is good enough. My 5 stars aren't the best built, and only 2 of them are truly excellent. I've played Eula with shitty artifacts, I didn't know how artifacts worked after like a year of playing this game. I wasn't at all having trouble with the enemies, nor was I in a terrible state for not having her 5 star weapon. I can't see how it could be considered play to win, with all due respect. Also, while we're at it, ganyu and zhongli are indeed strong. But both are not needed to bypass any part of the game. There's no part of the game where having a zhongli shield will make you better off than actually dodging people. I have zhongli, I barely even use him, and he's more of in a flex spot for me. Ganyu is broken, but she's not the meta defining character you need to even do abyss. I mean this well, friend, but I think the biggest problem with this video is that you don't think people know how the system works or know the people who play this game. Most people who are addicted know they're addicted, but it's hard for them to let go. It'll take more than a RU-vid video for them to get out of that mindset. There's others who are just low spenders or f2p. They tend to make do with what they have or don't mind spending here and there. I'm one of those low spenders, I pay 5 dollars on welkin pass. On rare occasions, I'll spend 15 dollars for gems or 10 dollars for battle pass. I understand doing these things aren't guaranteed, it doesn't bother me. Because I enjoy the game, and they're spending money on things that I legitimately enjoy. There's going to be a time when the game will get boring for me, but I don't regret spending time on it. It was a fun ride, not every game made me feel like Genshin did. Anyways, I'm just adding another perspective to the fire. I hope you read this, I'd like to have a discussion.

As a Genshin Impact player, I am very happy to hear another person shitting on this game. Deserved.

I've been playing Genshin since week one and despite how much I genuinely love playing this game, I will never disagree with this sentiment - Genshin Impact is a GACHA and by extension, gambling. Even if it didn't accept real-life currency, it would still be gambling by definition, just not the kind that affects your wallet. I love Genshin Impact, but honest to god, if you have any bit of an addictive personality, I do NOT recommend it. I personally am able to hold back and enjoy the game for what it is, I periodically spend on the Welkin Moon, maybe once every three months, and basically consider it my "subscription" kinda like other MMOs such as WoW. And sometimes I've gone a year without even touching the store, even for Welkin. I also don't get angry when I fail a 50/50 - in my mindset, this character will re-run later and I only have a few characters I even really want in the first place, so I don't mind skipping a bunch of banners. But to some people, even people who avoid spending, this is undeniably anger inducing. My boyfriend technically got me into Genshin, and he dropped it within a few months because he just couldn't handle the sheer anger and disappointment he'd get when failing a 50/50. Genshin IS predatory and it's monetization SUCKS as most monetization in games does. I love Genshin but I am a very specific kind of person - someone who isn't affected by the fomo, isn't bothered by 50/50 loss, and doesn't mind the very blocked grind the game has. But if you are NOT this kinda person, you at risk of either losing your money or your sanity.

I joke about being a gambling addict because I play these games but like... it's not really a joke if I spend shit tons of money. I thankfully don't usually because I understand limits, but sometimes I blur the line and spend a good bit on money which kinda proves this is painfully true and it's incredibly... I don't want to use the word predatory as well but it's kinda just the best word for it. I love the game since I have fun with what I have but it's not really a good thing because I want more every time I meet a new character plus how it deals with that via the gambling, and how it's sometimes literally impossible to get what you want if you've already exhausted every other resource. also what's the end goal of getting all the characters? it doesn't give an achievement, it doesn't say "congrats!" you just have them. if there was something in the end game where more than just 8 OP characters could be then maybe it would have a point but other than that getting characters that aren't meta is really just a hollow victory for us, and a much bigger win for them since they essentially tricked you into getting the character because you liked said character and need a different better character later but prolly will have to spend because you spent all your stuff on the not meta character. all the arguments I see, especially the ones in your description don't work at all. "The game is free" no it's not. you pretty much have to pay if you want a certain character and if you don't you have to pray a one in a million chance occurs and you get lucky and don't lose 50/50. "Just enjoy it" how can people who installed the game for like one person 'just enjoy it' if they don't GET that character because they have to wait for the character to come back/out or if they can't afford to spend a lot of money to get them. "stop being ungrateful" how can a person be ungrateful if they never got anything? they want a certain character and get nothing or someone/thing they never wanted or even have the ability to use. there is no way to always get the character because it's gambling and the game makes everyone limited because it's more money. I don't know how things would ever change to become better without pretty much taking all of the money the game has made, but I hope it does become less predatory and more EVERYONE friendly instead of rich people/addicts who spend far too much only. even if that second one it's not really friendly and more over taking advantage of an addict to get a lot of money.

Only seeing this now but im really happy that someone had the guts to expose this predatory type of game

I got gatcha'd finally by genshin (Just started a few weeks ago) and discovered I might have a gambling problem.

I agree with everything in the video and I know you mainly focused on how predatory it was monetarily, but we need more people talking about how boring and exhausting it is sitting through the story. It's literally just an exposition dump with you spamming the spacebar or right click for hours on end. It wastes your time for no reason other than extending playtime. I can't fucking take it, just add a skip buttom for the love of god.

this video should have more views. I love genshin, love all those characters and their stories, love the big beautiful world to explore, but the fact you have to wait 1-2 years to save enough primos for maxing out a 5 star and their weapon (or just whale a whole ass of money on them) is pissing me off. It kills all the joy and turns the game into casino. Even in terms of gacha this is realy sad. There is no way you can farm any primos if you are in the endgame (for example cookie run kingdom at least gives you a ton of gems, while genshin is generous enough for 60 a day) I hope they get it just a little better lol I also wonder what will happen when servers will stop. Everybody will just lose their invested money?

This video should spread thru all social media about Genshin! Really good and real! Holly, thats what i want Genshin community talking about to change the game. Ty sir !!

Yeah this game really uses some good tricks to make people spend money while never actually locking any game aspect if they don't pay. I am playing this game for 500+ days and I still haven't spent any money on this game and I still love playing it. And I can clear every content in the game without any problem.

No it ain't .. the people who get carried away with Fomo, will get carried away at anything else if not this..it's well known you can play till end for free.. and other than Eula, banners are cyclical..just chill ..screw meta, it's 1 player game.. Edit: resin was a ccp issue, they had to help stop kids spending too much time on games Edit; pay to win? Lol.. not even! Ad you CAN get multiple constellations for 5stars or free

really interesting and good points and i completely agree! not so much with the casual thing,,, im fairly casual and still doing pretty well. i think resin and stuff are time-gated to try and stop players from reaching the end game and having nothing to do. it'd be great to have more end game content for those who have already played through everything though

Genshin Reminded me why one shouldn't get into gaming communities. People are disgusting.

So true,bro.Recently i quit Genshin after playing,like,500 hours since August 2022 . In fact, i've got to the point,where the only things i could do to progress(to get and build enough characters for the Spiral Abyss,to be exact) is either spend money(easy and fast way) or grind for months or years(slow and painful way).And then one day i asked myself "why the eff am i even doing here,what's the point in self-torturing?".And then i just uninstalled Genshin right away,despite my gacha addiction.Sure,it would be hard to not play this gacha for a while after that,but i've got some great indie games with me.

I just really dislike the welkin thought of "just login lol" On phone especially, it still takes time to log on, and it' s still an annoyance to do, like.. why, why would I even HAVE to think of a game during the day, I don't want to I dunno, the game is super casual and catering to people that work 25 hours a day but then you have to time manage REAL LIFE for a goddamn game? It' s dumb, it' s stupid, it shouldn't happen, so much fomo, time management (in game and not), the fact ppl burn out, when the term is meant for work... Idk, sounds like a different kind of a job, how is that relaxing

this video just refreshed my mindset, thanks

i think that genshin is the most tame when it comes to predatory marketting in the gacha scene.

You forgot the Weekly 10k xp limit on the battlepass so even if you want to grind everything you have to wait a week to claim some.

I've been trying to make myself leave the game, I knew something was wrong, added the dots and came here. Thanks to your video I can see things more clearly, leading to me leaving the game and buying baldur's gate 3 instead. XD

This video is exactly what I have in mind but can never get into words. The FOMO's horrible; the way they drag you to do dailies just for a crumb of gems that can't even net you a single pull; Resin; heavy RNG for a so-called casual game and a lot more. One of the earliest sign that I know MHY (now HYV) was a money-hungry company was when they revamped the weapon banner. Was it so hard to just make it at least the same as the character banner? Wherein if you lost the 50-50 you can get guaranteed.

I completely agree with you, its absurd how little content creators mention how you can spend money to *not play the game* because of how boring farming is

Genshin might have started brilliantly as an open world, but I think even that aspect of it is declining. - Enemy aggro range and loading zones are getting smaller and smaller, so they're becoming more likely to despawn or loose aggro during normal gameplay. - Some areas cannot be entered or exited without using fast-travel (Inazuma, the Chasm). - Teyvat as grown larger the the camera's render distance, so you can't fully appreciate the beauty of the horizon, as some landmarks will pop in and out of existence depending on what angle you look at them from. - The Paimon barriers are getting closer and closer to points of interest, and has a lot of odd protrusions, and don't follow the natural shape of the land, so you run into it all the times. Even the latest region of summeru is just its own bubble, that you can only acces through a very tight path. You can perfectly see the rest of summeru from it, but if you try flying toward most landmarks in a straight line (including the sandstorm area that is literally next-door), you _will_ be blocked off by paimon, and eventually shepherded back to that one path.

Genshin is so good with its shit that it made me, someone who had never spent a daym penny in any video game ever, spend money (not much just 2 welkin moons lol). The gacha system is so mercilessly designed that it induces this fear of losing out in a character that you always wanted to get, plus not wanting to feel the feeling of getting left out when others are enjoying the same character you missed out on. Shit like this made me anxious and made me buy a welkin for the first time.. and that invited this new mindset of "oh well I've spent in this game already it's not like I'm gonna quit it anytime soon so it won't be a waste to spend again" And well next thing you know you can't get out of it. But luckily I stopped purchasing welkins after the second time. Kinda got bored and burnt out and thought to myself that it isn't really worth it to spend anymore. Nowadays after reaching end game i just chill and take it lightly, well since I've got all of the characters I want rn (except eula😢) just by saving up with discipline. So yeh don't make dumb decisions and regret later.

omg yes thank you :) i do have a addiction and gacha games were leaving me homeless and with no food. I thought Genshin would be different, but over the last 2 years i noticed it got me in different ways. It is to target people like me who have bad addictions. the gacha system with anime tricks the person to think its ok. Up until you try to buy food and you cant :( Then i tried to save but with my poor addiction still spent on standard to try to get a random 5 star anything to feel the dopamine! Thats the issues with gacha games. there is no in game exp when you defeat monsters which is weird, and true its all locked behind resin to try to get materials and artifacts. its 2022 oct and they still wont increase resin :( there is to much to do and not enough resin to do it for your characters! Artifacts was the last straw for me as the rng for the right artifact , then the stats and substats its all bull . This makes me depressed and i spend to feel better. Thats the trap! I dont support Genshin anymore as i see it a horrible trap for all type of addictions. Also the main characters never talks :( i thought they would talk as they go through the story but no. The story is lack luster and being spoiled every patch! im still in Inazuma and ive been so spoiled just by RU-vid, and the internet that i feel like why should i play if i know what happens? I currently dont see a reason to play. I paid for packs as i cant get exp from monster :( . Thank you for this vid it helped alot :)

Those who can't stop spending for PURELY VIRTUAL items shouldn't be masters of their bank account but have a guardian limit their allowance (btw. who many are this anyway?) But those who have that problem in a (mostly or purely) SINGLE PLAYER GAME, without PvP or any competition, should look for professional help.

Eye opening, interesting take. The points made here reflect throughout the game, and causes many players to burn out. I suppose Hoyoverse wouldn't/doesn't care because they have no competition at the moment. I still love the game, but the gimmicks and manipulative tools implemented in the game just make it so much more difficult to play.

to add more to the Quickfire round of annoying things in the game, if you accept several commission character story missions, you cant focus on the main story, which makes things INSANELY annoying, this was one of the main reasons on why i quit this game

Patting myself on the back for never installing this chinese spyware

I agree heavily especially on the cant skip dialogue option. Listen to this, during one of the character hangout events (heizou's) theres this long ass dialogue that am not kidding, took me 5 minutes to skip through, TO SKIP THROUGH not even to listen to it.

At least we still have, and probably always will have, indie devs who create some awesome shit

The worst is 5 star characters needing constellations to have their kit work.

I think a difference between genshin and most other western games is the idea that genshin is a GACHA game, one should be aware of that fact going into it. In a way in a card collecting game like MTG bug more expensive. Its is also technically f2p. Most western games are pay to play therefore more complaints there. End all be all is genshin is a gacha with an average 23$ per user spending so one should be wary before starting to play it.

I feel pretty much the same way as you. I love the music, story, animations, combat, etc from this game but man do I hate all the rng and fomo the game throws at you. I quit way back in 2.7 after I got Yelan since I was burned out from logging in everyday to make sure I do commissions, farm artifacts and make sure my resin doesn’t cap. I wanna get back into the game now but I absolutely do not have the time (or storage) to run around and find every chest to have as many primos as possible for the next character I wanna get. Like bro I remember staying up late on sundays to make sure I got all the boss rewards for the week before it resets or falling asleep on the couch while fishing for a polearm for Raiden. Maybe I’ll come back when I’m consistently making good money because until then my time is better spent on lots of other things

I can't relate, as a dolphin who welkin pass occasionally and drops the game for most of the year, this game is easy. Whaling would just make it brain dead easy.

Not to suddenly get political btw, but this "game" has proven yet again the times we are in as a people, all thx to the monetary practices and applications displayed by it. A lot of people have no problem with owning nothing. They're quite happy about it in fact. Ecstatic even.

A year late to see this but this is why I keep saying Genshin is a good game but not a good Gacha game.

Well, when there's an exploit, it's perfectly balanced. If Las Vegas can do it, so can anyone else.

It is and how annoying my sisters is asking me to help them buys welkins... i am also broke and unemployent

Most of what u said is true and I agree that the game wants to lure players and addict them and make them spend money, but a lot of your points were also pretty stupid. Needing specific elements to break shields is just part of the gameplay and not a problem its a mechanic it has nothing to do with money or gambling. Taking dmg from enemies of the same element and them being immune is also a game mechanic. There are more but im too lazy to menton all of the others, but i think u get the idea. Game mechanics can be annoying but they are not a p2w problem and they can easily be dealt with with just the free characters u get guaranteed.

the fact that gacha games are accessible and marketed towards children is disgusting. this shouldn't be legal

Genshin's developers will never act according to the will of the community because the developers receive orders from the top about what they should and shouldn't do. The game will die at some point like every other gacha game because their life expectancy often only has a few years and then disappears and then new gacha games often appear and then die out again. Gacha games should be banned and those responsible for these game companies should be prosecuted and convicted.

I really don't play anymore games now except on weekends sometimes I'm still to late to stop (I'm 19) I play genshin for only 15 minutes on daily basis and sometimes 40 minutes on weekends if there is event or new quests. It's better to play just for enjoyment unless you don't want to start a earning by being a creator. life is a lot better than doing 100% exploration on every region but it isn't worth your time (I did it once but I won't anymore) JUST enjoy the gameplay and storyline till it doesn't affect you mentally.

So glad you think the same way, people don't criticize this game enough and they are hitting themselves in the foot with hammer

What disgust me about this game is how much money this game earn, jeez.... 3 Billion in just a year? More than any games out there. I mean, there's a lot of better games out there but i guess when new characters showing their armpit Genshin players just like "TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!!!"

"You fucking Moron!" that got me hard 🤣🤣🤣

I sometimes wonder if I ever would've stuck around with Genshin if I didn't get as lucky as I did. I won 5 out of 8 50/50s which translates into a 62,5% win ratio, got 2 5 stars at 1 pity and I have gotten a total of 11 5 stars across the span of 4 patches. I now have a total of 7-8 teams to play with, but what if I didn't? What if I lost all of my coinflips and ended up only being able to play 3 measly teams for months? Well, the reality is that your average Genshin player isn't nearly as lucky as I was: many have said that they almost never win their 50/50s, and in reality, this is exactly what Mihoyo wants. They want you to lose the coinflip, become desperate and spend money. Of course, many players (myself included) would never outright buy genesis crystals because of how fucking expensive they are. 2 pulls are 5$, that same amount of money can buy you DOOM 2016, RE1 and many other great games on sales. Mathematically speaking, from 0 to 80 (which is normally a max amount of pulls you'll need to get a 5 star), you'd need a whopping total of 200$ to secure a single fucking character in a single fucking video game. Imagine playing warframe and needing to spend 80 rolls TWICE to secure Mesa or something. It's fucking abysmal. But you now what's even more abysmal? No matter where, how and when Mihoyo fucks up, the community will ALWAYS defend them to hell and back: 1. Predatory gacha system that preys on vulnerable people who are susceptible to addiction? "Muhmuhmuh not their fault you are mentally unstable muhmuhmuh X gacha game is worse muhmuhmuh" 2. A grind system that intentionally lock you away from grinding 70% of the game, if not more? "Muhmuhmuh you'd be done with the game in 2 months if they did that muhmuhmuh you wouldn't have a reason to come back" (yeah, maybe they should make their permanent content more interesting so that I DO have a reason to come back). 3. Pretty good story that's delivered with shitty, recycled animations, bloated dialogue and poor line deliveries where the fucking annoying sidekick has more lines than over half of the playable characters combined? Oh, and they force you to sit through said story if you want the premium currency because there's no skip button? "Muhmuhmuh you're a diseased addict muhmuhmuh just buy the primos if you want them so much muhmuhmuh" 4. "Events" that are very hit or miss, often times a miss because they're recycled stuff made for toddlers? "Muhmuhmuh be glad they give you anything be grateful you brat muhmuhmuh" And you know what's the worst part? They defend Mihoyo so hard that they can never step up for themselves. You know when they made Dehya useless and the community supposedly made a giant stink about it, as well as the lack of Eula rerun in the same patch? Yeah, nobody talks about either of those things anymore. This community would rather shut the fuck up and act like Mihoyo is their god than do anything.

If I didn't play gacha before I would prob spend on Genshin too. When I bought the equivalent of welkin there it basically doubled my chances of getting what I wanted and here you just get roughly 12 wishes. It's dumb. Recently I saw a comment of someone asking how the frick those prices went through beta testing.

I love Jenshin Impact. It helps me beat my gambling addiction by having so much gambling in the game that makes me tired of it. It also helps me beating fear of missing out by having tedious and annoying event (and prerequisite quests) that really wants me to do it. It was that time when the event is gonna end but I didn't want to play the game, so I skipped it. And it wasn't so bad, I actually isn't missing anything (other than 3 or 4 pulls, which doesn't even matter) for the trade off of actually doing something I enjoy doing.

For some reason yt decided to recommend me this video a year later of its initial release. So watching the part with overall "minor" complaints made me think that at least half of it was resolved in the past year, or it was done by HSR team, huh... But that's not the point here. I mean i get the main point of the video, but i don't see solutions. Like basically there're only two ways: either you stop playing the game or somehow manage to influence the developers (by making a petition or just spamming their mailbox i dunno). Realistically speaking the second option is not possible. Not only due to the lack of communication between devs and their playerbase, but also because they find our opinion insignificant. Like yeah, they do some quality changes here and there, but for majority in the grand scale of things this all pointless. And there's no way of forcing changes. Like in every survey i write about billets exchange, resin increase, 4* path of choice (like with weapon banner, but for a 4*) or a system that will allow you to craft artifact you want (like in HSR), but nope nothing changes. I doubt they even read those surveys. There're plenty of videos on yt about "what would be awesome to add in the game" which also shows that players are thinking about it, but it's just not enough. And yeah, genshin is kinda for casuals, but mostly in a sense of "log in, do commissions, spent resin, log off" - this my daily routine, and i don't really mind slow progression, because i'm at the point where i don't really need to progress already (3 years of playing), but i get what you mean, and by no means i'm defending this system. There were many occasions when i got jealous of whales who had their characters c6 or got cool builds much earlier than i did, and it made me really sad. But nowadays i don't have much time to play the game, so even if i did have opportunity to spend money to get more resin - i wouldn't use it, because i try to make my sessions as short as possible anyway. You may think "why not stop playing altogether then?", and the answer is: because i still like the combat, the characters i pulled, the exploration etc. I'll be really sad when the game will shut down, because i know i'll be playing till the very end. So yeah, while i do agree with the video overall, i just don't think there's a realistic way of changing anything within the game. If you have another solution aside from "stop playing" then i'll gladly listen. Because blaming devs is one thing and giving the suggestions of how to influence them to our benefit - is another.

This video has finally put into words something that has been bothering me for a long time. I want to love Genshin, I really do, but 90% of the gameplay and mechanics are so boring and grindy to me that I can't stand it. The game is really beautiful, the characters and lore are very in-depth and interesting, and the sound design is phenomenal. However, once you complete the main story and have to wait for the updates the game becomes so boring. The events often surround the same few things- fighting, fetch quests, and tedious dialogue. Other aspects of the game like daily quests and bosses add nothing except for a way to grind. What few genuinely interesting aspects of the game are often rushed and sloppy or transformed into soulless cash grabs. In the end, keeping up with the game feels more like a chore than an enjoyable way to spend my time. TLDR. Genshin is a game with huge potential and an obvious level of love and creativity poured into it that has been manhandled and deformed by MiHoyo into a shameless money maker that views its players as nothing more than a way to make a few bucks.

I've played since launch, AR 60 and in like early 2021 I considered paying money for the game, because I like paying for my games. But then I saw how insultingly expensive the pulls were and was like "nope, I'm not going to pay to be insulted". Not to mention that I already disliked paying for gambling. Now I've paid money for the Diluc skin, but since there's no gameplay advantages and I never used any crystals for wishing I'm still in the F2P place of no constellations no weapons. Oh you didn't even mention that the mid-sized crystal packs actually have better value than the big ones. It's kind of atrocious. When will I spend money on the game again? When my money is no longer enough for all the husbando skins. I refuse to pay money for gambling.

I grew up without anyone telling me to hold back on spending on games. I remember dropping a hundred bucks on an MMO as an 11 year old. Fast forward to today, after massive capital losses in crypto I have learned my lesson. Gambling addiction is a real thing people, you may laugh at it now but if it gets a hold of you or someone you know you would understand why games like these need to go.

I might be a bit late to this video, but I wanted to make a comment on how I found this to be incredibly poignant and refreshing. I've spent way too much time on this game, because my psychology is very inclined towards a completionist mindset, but the more I've played the more I've come to actively hate this product. My playtime is fragmented over many devices, but I'd wager it is in the 2000 hour range. During this time, the impression that I've gotten for the design philosophy of this game is that it wants to waste as much of the players' time (and by extension money) as possible. You mentioned in this video that Genshin is a good game beyond the predatory practices, but I don't know if I'd agree. I'd say Genshin only has superficial strengths. The greatest efforts have been invested into the most plainly obvious facets of the game. That is to say the visuals, the music, the character designs and their voice actors. All the while the actual mechanical substance of the product suffers greatly. I guess I don't know about anyone else, but I personally cannot stand the way Genshin writes dialogue. Again, it feels like it is intentionally designed to waste as much time as possible, no matter the consequence. I can't even stomach the main quests, let alone some of the world quests that are nothing but absolutely abysmal chores. And this concept of "chores" is obviously extrapolated across the entire progression loop. I've completely lost sight of what the "fun" part of this game is. New regions or content rarely fill me with anything but dread, as I realize what chores will inevitably await. New elemental occuli to painstakingly gather. New chest achievements and clunky puzzle mechanics, and more story quests that make my brain devolve. I really enjoy the combat still, even after all these years, and I enjoy experimenting in Spiral Abyss. But that might be about it on the positive side. But even with everything in mind, my brain is completely broken and insists that I've come too far to walk away. I've become a slave to the sunk-cost fallacy. I might be lucky in the sense that I've never been able to justify investing much money into this game, but time is just as valuable a resource, and it is being torn away from me just because I'm too emotional and irrational to walk away from something that is clearly not a worthwhile activity to partake in. I've often pondered over the notion that I wish I had never even started playing this, because that would have been the proper solution. When I first started hearing about this game, I looked up a "Should you play Genshin" video, and was led astray by the message it delivered. I sure wish that video would instead have told me to stay far, far away. I really appreciated this video. Well-written and well-presented. Thanks for being a voice of reason in a sea devoid of it.

What makes me crazy is that lots of whales or even low spender are willing to put 100 bucks to get a single character when you can use this money to buy you a much better game that can give you actual 50 or 80 hours of gameplay instead of this repetitive bullshit.

Honestly I don’t understand how anyone but rich people can waste money on the game. The top genesis crystal purchase which is $133 CAD only gives you enough primo gems for 40 pulls. That’s not even one guaranteed 5 star. It costs 60+ primo gems to refill resin and you can only get 5 a day. The wayfarer bundle that gives you fragile resin costs about $23 CAD. I think f2p players actually get a huge value because frankly paying players are getting ripped off. To C6 R5 a 5 star you have to spend as much as $3500 for the character and up to $2600 for the weapon. Spending $6000 to buy easy mode for the game is retarded. Meanwhile a new player gets about 70 fragile resin playing through the game and enough primos and fates to furnish 1 team of decent characters.

The Billions of Genshin are currently used to develop their upcoming games. Zenless Zone Zero and Honkai Star Rail. A sequel to Honkai Impact 3 or close to it. So that's where its going.

I was thinking, just earlier, that what if the welkin moon just doesn't give you primos you _paid for_ on days you don't (or even can't) login in? Like, what if there's a problem with your service provider and you can't get on for a couple of days. But, I put it aside thinking "There's no way it's THAT abusive right? I'm shocked and not shocked at the same time. There's not a single thing in this game worth spending money on.

One thing that f2p often forget is that the only reason the game has free stuff is because there are people paying for it. If there weren't people buying stuff in the game with real money, f2p wouldn't even exist. I won't say that your arguments are invalid because of that, in fact it's exactly the opposite, most of it is true and agreedable, but everytime people complain about the amount of freemogens or the fact that you need to pay to get a better experience in the game, they totally forget or purposely ignore that the reason that there are free stuff in the game is because there are people already paying for it.

99% of the players just want to explore, watch cutscenes, and worship their waifu/husbando (in their bathroom).

y ur video doesnt have much more views, sadly tho genshin players doesnt want to watch this type of videos... i am genshin player n im agreed every point on ur video, this game is VERY predatory

My friend spend 700€ on this shitshow 💀 Bro's still regretting it, and it's been 3 years.