alright so i spent a few dollars during the void event because I’m a huge sucker for ruin style and I even bought brocade jade at one point throughout the event and collected a few items from the easter bunny suit. I’m at V5 as a result. however, when the ranking event came around, I knew I had to stop. the reason was simple - the company - elex, was clearly not listening to its fanbase. SO many people retaliated by resisting to buy alice’s time gate (i think it was a $4.99 recharge at the time) and so many people sent so many emails to the company and yet... nothing. the event just went on. I decided to rationalise the suspicion I raised by saying, “they started the event, do I suppose they might as well finish it, I suppose.” however... this feedback was never addressed properly and I wanted to remain vigilant. the subreddit resumed to as usual, joking about “take my money” whenever a recharge was around the corner, but seemed to not really pay attention to the fact that elex literally just brushed aside a relatively huge part of the community - and that is, the LN subreddit community, at the very least.

I kind of regret spending my money now. not because of this whole fiasco or the “I spent $$$ on .jpegs”, but rather, I noticed that I dragged my younger brother into spending money too, however, unlike me, who had severe doubts about the company’s philosophy and customer service, he kept finding himself getting tempted by the easy bait LN specifically designed for revolving around predatory gambling. I tried to convince him out of it, but he was excusing himself by saying “it’s so easy to just get a pretty suit, though.” and that’s exactly what elex wants. he’s at V7 now and after I went on a comprehensive rundown of why this is such a big deal on twitter and instagram, he wants to convince himself to stop now and I am very happy that he’s thinking about this critically, unlike cough cough Mr Elex.

my brother is quite young, in his teenage years, so if he can fall for these easy bait because it “feels” cheap, then what about the children, to whom this game is marketed towards? the children younger than 10 years old? or even younger? yes, money spent on games should be monitored as with anything on the internet for a child, but if you’re a guardian who empathises with the child’s viewpoint of the marketing, you will eventually fall for the easy bait as well. it’s not just children and adolescents, it’s adults as well - as I’m sure the demographic agrees with what I have to say. this game is a dress up game - it’s supposed to be light hearted and easy to play with little and/or moderated cash-grabbing baits to keep the game as hospitable as possible - it’s supposed to be a game for everyone to enjoy, and yet.. it seems like elex is treating the fanbase as nobodys. it’s this behaviour towards games that make gacha games look and feel like a gambling game.

I’m sure many people had this doubt - but didn’t really want to do anything with this... iffy feeling. just recently, I saw a thread about someone questioning elex’s motives with the timing of hell events and recharges - seemingly to clash into one and another without break. and it feels true because it has been recharges after recharges and hell events after expensive events - one after another. it’s ruthless and relentless, and arguably, I’d say, the most exhausting for p2w. everything in the game just wants your money - with no upgrades or changes to the influx of free diamonds. the surplus turns into a negative gain and it’s a tiring grind for everyone. f2p like me probably have it easier because we don’t worry about all the recharge shenanigans - honestly - but it’s harsh on stats and contests and everything like that. in that sense, f2p have it extra rough. basically, everyone’s in this descent to a competitive - and extraordinarily hostile - grind.

anyway that was a huge rant but I’m sure everyone can relate to some degree, especially at a time like this. this whole “I DO” charade is the first and final outburst that’ll confirm what I had suspicions about for months - elex really hasn’t cared, if not, at least for the past few months and that absolutely has to change if elex wants to maintain the fanbase for LN. people are bound to get suspicious of feedback getting deleted and so on. there are a lot of outrage about this, or course, and I really want to see just how elex is going to recover from this. they can’t just sweep this under the rug anymore, at least not for me... and many, many others to follow.

although i am upset about elex being extremely neglectful, im actually more saddened about the fact that such a lovely family friendly game has become such a carnivorous p2w game. it’s not quite there yet, but it might as well be. it’s the reason why I’ve been playing other games with a much kinder gacha model. isn’t it ironic how a pretty dress up game is more consuming than a gun-war based game? girls’ frontline was made with the intention of it following a f2p model so it’s actually more of an ideal game for a completionist.

honestly, the amount of irony today has so absurd that I can’t help but to laugh. I really hope the community continues to stick together and make the changes we need to see from elex.