Boggles the mind that people could spend that much money to subpar games. I guess it's the whole moe waifu thing that's driving it.

But you don't need to spend money to find a waifu, they could just go watch Gundam or something

>19% that's crazy >20s and those should be completely mature people, most with some level of education Something is completely broken there. But money must flow, I suppose.

I can not fathom the idea of spending that much on gacha

> 20% *can't enjoy the game* if they're not able to buy micro-transactions Wtaf

It's basically the same thing as gambling but with less regulations and social stigma. It's not going to get better if no one does anything - and it's not going to be the unregulated casinos cosplaying as gaming studios that will do it.

I can't fathom the idea of wanting to play that garbage, but maybe that's just me, maybe my brain isn't smooth enough to find games like that stimulating and entertaining.

 A lot of "that garbage" has better game design than some western "triple AAA titles" which a lot of are also filled with micro transations. Especially Genshin which is shown in the article has so much content and still receives updates every 6 weeks. Every 6 weeks there is 1 or 2 new characters, a new region, new story, new orchestrated music, new events and so much more. It is absolutely just to hate microtransactions but calling every game you don't like garbage is like a child hating broccoli because a character in a TV show does. There is still incredible effort to make a somewhat good game, even in F2P Gachas or Fortnite for that matter.

[Problem Gambling](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_gambling)

Have to say, Genshin is far from a subpar game, it's so incredibly polished and smooth. That said, it's still a gacha game.

There are gacha games out there that are garbage games. They aren't the ones that are popular though. Stuff like Gensin has a lot of quality content that pulls you in and hooks you. It looks like that has proven to be much more effective than just a waifu simulator. Now, I do think Genshin has a lot of other problems even gacha aside, but calling it garbage is blatantly unfair.

Neither could I, until I found out that my psychological profile was the target demographic. It was an expensive lesson to learn.

game about gambling makes gambling addicts: americans shocked, more at 5

what was your experience, if you don't mind me asking? what game snared you?

I feel bad for those young adults.

Fire Emblem Heroes. The game portion was nearly perfect pocket FE. But of course that was all just a wrapper for the gacha, and it only took a few months of playing before I cracked open the wallet. It's just a few bucks, the game was free, what's the harm? Things just went downhill from there. Rationally, I knew it was madness. I kept a spreadsheet tracking spend and results. And I knew that odds of rolling someone new went from bad to worse the more complete my roster got, but the hooks were in deep. It got BAD. Took me a year and a half to delete my account, and just as long to dig myself out of the financial crater my face made.

Gotcha games should be fucking illegal.

The games like ZZZ or Genshin are fun as long as you don't take them seriously or engage with the gacha elements too much. ZZZ has a really nice vibe to it despite being a gacha game.

Not just youth! The older ladies at my work are candy crush/royal match fiends. They are hooked... The problem is we socially dont view it as gambling (which it is), coupled with the fact its designed to be addictive. There isnt a social stigma or support yet to stop playing and break the cycle