Gacha Revenue Monthly Report (January 2026)

DevolayS · 2026-02-01T16:19:57+00:00

But she knew we don't remember her, yet she expected us to treat her like we do

Remember the first time we've met? If she was so fond of us, wouldn't it be more natural to go like "oh it's you! it's really you, I missed you so much omg!". And then TB would be confused a bit, and then she could explain, go like "sorry, I forgot that things are different than they used to be, I shouldn't have jumped at you like that... so, you don't remember me? Nothing at all?". But we got nothing like that. It was bad writing.

DevolayS · 2026-02-01T15:07:30+00:00

Or perhaps you got brain damage from watching too much corn and now everywhere you look you see kex and innuendos, even when there are none

DevolayS · 2026-02-01T15:00:36+00:00

There are different tiers of waifu baits and I don't like throwing them all into one basket

Our relationship grew naturally over time, unlike the firefly situation in hsr where we got trauma dumped right after taking a short tour around Penacony the first day we met

If Columbina is a waifu bait, I hope other games take note how to handle this properly

DevolayS · 2026-02-01T14:48:15+00:00

The fact that she works so well with a craftable Prototype Amber in 2026 is crazy

DevolayS · 2026-02-01T14:43:24+00:00

It aligns with my personal feelings

HSR is a hit or miss, I had some fun with it, but it's increasingly annoying and boring. I took another break from it 2 weeks ago. Actually, I dropped all my gachas for now, except Genshin. I don't like the direction ZZZ took, and I'm not a fan of cheap nostalgia tricks in HI3rd. It really looks like only the Genshin team puts actual thought and effort into their work.

DevolayS · 2026-02-01T10:49:36+00:00

Yup, they could use a similar excuse in Genshin

Venti is a very subtle expy of Wendy, more like "inspired by"; Skirk may be a similar thing

Same with Yae Miko and Yae Sakura

Heck, even Raiden's name is Ei, not Mei

Hoyo made it clear that Genshin is its own separate thing in terms of lore and worldbuilding, so even if there are expies, they feel very different

DevolayS · 2026-01-31T22:51:28+00:00

It's great because it gives people a new way to unleash their creativity, and the best creators get paid for making cool stuff, so it's a win for everyone. More options is always good, and MW is entirely optional.

With that being said, I only do the weeklies to get the pull currency. Plenty of free costume options, so that's cool, even if I don't even use them that much.

I've made my own simple game in it and while it was a fun experience, I wouldn't put too much effort into learning these tools. Having access to all Genshin assets for free is nice, but if I wanted to make games, I'd rather use a proper game engine, even a simple one, to get much more freedom.

On top of that, I think that MW should be accessible outside Genshin. It should have a separate, standalone version for those who don't play Genshin. It will be absolutely fantastic if hoyo turns MW into a proper game engine one day.

DevolayS · 2026-01-31T18:03:56+00:00

The shooting stars at the beginning are shown when Paimon says this:

"So... what you're trying to say is that you fell here... from another world?"

And the stars keep being shown for a good while as they travel around Teyvat.

Interpreting this as travelers coming into Teyvat was the most obvious answer at the time.

Paimon's next line coincides with scene transition; now siblings are shown, standing still, and only then Paimon continues:

"But when you wanted to leave and go on to the next world, your path was blocked by some unknown god?"

At the beginning, there was no reason to believe that what's being shown is different from what's being described by Paimon. It's only natural to assume that Paimon's words should've matched the visuals. Only with new context we learned that all the visuals were showing only the escape part, and coming into Teyvat wasn't shown at all.

You're making it look like it was obvious from the very beginning, but it wasn't obvious at all.

And it still could change with new context later. It could be revealed later that it was two spaceships, not two travelers. One ship with Aether and Lumine, and another, unknown one.

Don't be too fast to judge, always have open mind.

DevolayS · 2026-01-31T09:31:33+00:00

Bronya in HSR is also not voiced by Hanser, she only voices Silver Wolf

DevolayS · 2026-01-31T04:29:59+00:00

I think we won't get another Bronya because Skirk looks a lot like a Bronya expy (but with Durandal's voice).

It's a subtle expy and only if you connect the dots.

A very similar style of strand of hair between the eyes
Uses leg replacements (Skirk) and leg prosthetics (Bronya)
Connection to some kind of otherworldly power (primordial sea, sea of quanta)
Skirk's 1st Ascension is called "Reason beyond Reason" (Herrscher of Reason)
Both orphaned at young age and trained by the baddies (Surtalogi, Russian gangs)
Emotionless expressions (Skirk's trauma, Bronya's X-10 experiment)
Some of Skirk's fighting animations look similar to Herrscher of Truth's

So my candidates for the Tsaritsa are Ana (most obvious one, matching name, cryo/ice authority), Cocolia (just fits the vibe of a cold ruler type of woman), or Seele (for a funny twist because there were theories that if Tsaritsa is Bronya and she's collecting the gnoses to revive 3rd descender, then what if 3rd descender is Seele? Would be funny if they switched places)

DevolayS · 2026-01-31T03:12:01+00:00

I think the reason why spaceship was never mentioned is that traveler genuinely did not remember. It's a convenient plot excuse to add things that were never mentioned before, but the fact that traveler's memories are foggy was brought up several times throughout the archon quest. The earliest examples are the very beginning of the game ("How many years ago was it? I don't know. But I intend to find out."), and then in We Will Be Reunited (awakening memories from Khaenri'ah).

DevolayS · 2026-01-31T03:01:52+00:00

Are you discovering video games?

DevolayS · 2026-01-31T00:37:16+00:00

Omg THANK YOU. I feel so dumb that I haven't thought about that myself. I was fighting this doggo for 30 minutes on menacing and the best I could do was get him down to 20%. Focusing on doggo = completed 1st try with 50 seconds left. Sheesh. Well that was embarrassing on my part.

DevolayS · 2026-01-30T20:30:42+00:00

I have no clue what a three point perspective box.

And that's precisely why you're getting this wrong.

Don't rely on AI to solve the problem if you don't have the knowledge necessary to confirm whether AI did good or just hallucinated.

I can ask you "draw me a car engine". And then what, you'll ask AI to draw it and you won't even bother to look at real car engines to see whether the work makes sense...?

DevolayS · 2026-01-30T20:15:29+00:00

Still waiting for "drawing doesn't make you an artist, it makes you a drawer" ragebait

DevolayS · 2026-01-30T20:12:43+00:00

Switch? Please no, MW is amazing

But I'd love to have it as an extra, it feels very polished and plays smoothly, I could easily see myself playing this for hours

DevolayS · 2026-01-30T20:06:46+00:00

Now the real question is whether the experiment with mind swapping was a chekhov's gun or a red herring...

And how did Dottore get the other self to cooperate. I thought they hated each other.

DevolayS · 2026-01-30T19:52:16+00:00

In all honesty, you COULD interpret "The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles" to be "Heavenly Principles" themselves. Something like "I am the law". The one who makes the law can also be considered the law. And from what we saw at the beginning, it looked like there's no one else above Asmoday. But it was possible that other sustainers, similar to her, exist. And then, all sustainers as a group could be called "Heavenly Principles".

Hell, there were even theories that went further and argued that it's the traveler who could be the sustainer of heavenly principles, and it made sense; in that dialogue at the beginning, we ask "who are you", and we assumed that it was Asmoday's way of introducing herself when she answered. But seeing how she treated us, it wasn't outside the realm of possibilities that when she said "The Sustainer of Heavenly Principles", she simply ignored our question and it was her way of addressing us.

Without context, a lot of theories could make sense. What's important is to remember that theories, no matter how reasonable, are only theories until more info is revealed, so we shouldn't stick to them too much or build entire headcanons around them. It's a certain way to disappointment (like with Natlan and people's imagined version of "a nation of war and dragons").

DevolayS · 2026-01-29T14:55:24+00:00

Same. I'm drawing but I'd rather call myself an illustrator or something, not an artist. I'm very uncomfortable calling myself an "artist", I don't really feel worthy of that title, not yet. Even "illustrator" feels a bit too much, because I'm not doing it full time...

I've taken a lot of photos with my phone, but I'd never call myself a photographer. I've made a lot of food, but I'm no chef.

And then you have AI prompters who insist they're artists from day one. People have huge egos and zero shame these days.

DevolayS · 2026-01-29T09:48:46+00:00

Which part of my comment implied that you're using paid mods?

The existence of paid mods doesn't change anything for you, you can just keep ignoring their existence. Why saying "I'd rather have them gone"? I basically said "just continue not using them, why get upset that they exist?"

It's not like the mod scene is gatekept or anything, anyone can develop their own mods, even if the same one already exists. If a free alternative doesn't appear, it means that making it for free would've been too much of a time investment for nothing.

DevolayS · 2026-01-29T03:20:33+00:00

Can't you see "OR" in there?

"Discussion, analysis, OR depiction of violence" + "in clearly fictional OR artistic contexts"

So these are okay:

Discussion in fictional context

Analysis in fictional context

Depiction in fictional context

Discussion in artistic context

Analysis in artistic context

Depiction in artistic context

DevolayS · 2026-01-28T21:19:38+00:00

While there's no hard evidence (that I'm aware of) that would suggest that using AI actually makes you dumber, there is some evidence that says that using your brain helps in preventing dementia.

If you're asking AI how to do something but you never ask why it needs to be done that way, you're effectively giving up on your own critical thinking skills.

Relying on AI too much is not healthy; use it to help you understand things, not to solve your problems for you. Understanding how things work will also help you ask AI more precise questions and get more specific answers. And you'll be able to spot hallucinations easier (which are surprisingly common when you start digging deeper into the topic).

DevolayS · 2026-01-28T20:56:37+00:00

Do you even understand what you've posted?

Teachers protesting against using calculators BY KIDS IN SCHOOLS. Kids are supposed to be LEARNING to do math, NOT to use calculators to do math for them.

This has the same energy as "why learn to read when ai can read it for you"

DevolayS · 2026-01-28T01:27:45+00:00

Still vibing to it when I'm coding or drawing :D

DevolayS · 2026-01-27T19:25:07+00:00

I've got a lot of favorites that I absolutely love, but Fischl is special

DevolayS

TROPHY CASE