With a gacha, if they’re promoting some super-strong character, weapon, etc. that you want and you buy currency to spend in the gacha, you are not guaranteed to get that item or anything of the same quality/rarity in any of those pulls you make

I have only basic understanding of those systems, but it seems, there are "pity" systems which do give some guarantees that you get something if you fail rolling for it for long enough. I do agree it's all very gamblish at its core though.

[–] Grangle1@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Most "pity" systems require hundreds of pulls beforehand, which unless someone saves months worth of free currency for those pulls, can be very expensive in real world money to get the currency to afford. In a way, pity systems are just designed to increase the amount of money players spend.

[–] hisao@ani.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The only "pity" I dealt with at this point is guaranteed 4star for every 10 pulls. It can be anything though, not necessarily a character. But there are sometimes special offers (like tutorial pull) that indeed guarantee that you get a particular character or item for 10 pulls.

[–] Grangle1@lemm.ee 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Like I mentioned before, "tutorial pulls" are part of that hyper-generosity that gachas will commonly have for new players to give them enough of a dopamine rush to hang around and be more likely to spend more later. That generosity will not last and can't last or elee the game will not make nearly as much money. Give it another week and you will find that the supposed good luck runs out, as well as the free currency offered for things like logging in, and then it will start requiring a ton of grinding or real world money to acquire the necessary currency to get to the "pity" in order to ensure you get a top-rarity item. That's how gacha systems work.

[–] hisao@ani.social 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Like I mentioned before, “tutorial pulls” are part of that hyper-generosity that gachas will commonly have for new players

I don't feel it's "hyper", it's only 8 crystals instead of 10 for guaranteed Noelle. Other (non-tutorial) pull categories have something guaranteed for 10 crystals, what exactly they guarantee changes depending on current events and such. Classic pulls category is 10 crystals for guaranteed 4+ star something, which can be character or weapon.

to give them enough of a dopamine rush to hang around and be more likely to spend more later

"Dopamine rush" sounds like a bit of a stretch, because normal gameplay here with tons of randomized minibosses, minigames and puzzles, all of which reward you fancy chests with random loot in open-world, gives way more dopamine every few minutes, and the whole gacha thing feels quite underwhelming compared to that in terms of neurochemistry.

Give it another week and you will find that the supposed good luck runs out, as well as the free currency offered for things like logging in, and then it will start requiring a ton of grinding or real world money to acquire the necessary currency to get to the “pity” in order to ensure you get a top-rarity item. That’s how gacha systems work.

Sure, I will be looking carefully at this dynamics as I progress. I find it quite surprising what you're describing is still not there.

and can’t last or elee the game will not make nearly as much money

Who knows, maybe it makes enough money even without being that pushy? For me it's too early to say.