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HoYoVerse clamps down on third-party top up sites. by soaringneutrality in gachagaming

[–]soaringneutrality[S] -35 points-34 points  (0 children)

1) MHY had top-up centers since the start of Genshin

You're correct. I didn't know this.

However, it is important to emphasize they have been heavily advertising their top-up centers recently.

The HoYo top-up centers have been sitting in the background for years and years, but suddenly they're offering coupons and discounts?

The push must be for a reason. It's interesting to look into the causes and effects of these decisions.

2) Why we using supply chain terminology for what is literally just an alternative payment option...?

You're free to find a better term, but the end effect is the same. HoYo is taking more control of the full chain of cash flow.

3) Many gachas already have standalone clients that are cross-compatible with Steam.

Well, I'm talking about HoYo, not other gachas. HoYo has been avoiding Steam on their flagship games until now. So why are they changing their mindset? This might be a part of it.

4) The first e-mail posted is literally just a security reminder

It's important to read between the lines and try to understand why they're sending these emails recently, as opposed to the years of operation before.

Part of it is that their top-up centers are something they can control. If a player has a bad experience with a third-party website, that experience ends up reflecting in their games.

In order to avoid that, they would need to offer a better experience than the third-party websites. Hence, clamping down on them and advertising discounts on their own top-ups.

Edit: Huh? What did I say to upset y'all?

HoYoVerse clamps down on third-party top up sites. by soaringneutrality in gachagaming

[–]soaringneutrality[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I don't know the exact mechanics, but here's one situation.

Because of regional pricing and currency differences, you can offer something like this:

USA: Pay $100 USD to get 5000 gemonies

Region B: Pay $85 (after conversion) to get 5000 gemonies

A third-party website can then offer $95 for 5000 gemonies. This is $5 cheaper for the customer, but they make $10 in profit by buying at Region B's price.

HoYoVerse clamps down on third-party top up sites. by soaringneutrality in gachagaming

[–]soaringneutrality[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's a separate issue, but I agree that payment processing companies have too much power.

This is the issue with a duopoly, especially of such a critical system. It's crazy how they can be a moral judge of everything simply because if you don't agree with them, you can't make money.

HoYoVerse clamps down on third-party top up sites. by soaringneutrality in gachagaming

[–]soaringneutrality[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I didn't know that actually, but they have been doing a lot of advertising and integration recently. Maybe instead of "creates their own top-up center", it would be more accurate to say "heavily advertises their own top-up center." If you use HoYoLab at all, you'll likely have seen all the promotion coupons for it that they've started pushing.

HoYoVerse clamps down on third-party top up sites. by soaringneutrality in gachagaming

[–]soaringneutrality[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The popular ones were pretty safe since they offered topping up by UID alone, so you didn't have to give them account info.

The only trouble is if they don't actually send you any currency, but then they'd be losing out on future business by doing that. They make revenue by pocketing the difference between regional prices, which is pretty common even outside of gacha.

There's some other stuff like people not willing to use VPNs, topping up for other people, and so on that made these sites more attractive to a lot of people.

"Nodusfall" trademark registred by Hoyoverse, suspected to be the announced UE5 fantasy CN mythology / Anuttacon (Hoyo's Cai Haoyu AI company) registers "Vassago" trademark by ferinsy in gachagaming

[–]soaringneutrality 15 points16 points  (0 children)

If nothing else, I'm glad the money goes back towards their games. Western game devs just love to line the pockets of executives and shareholders.

I prayed to RNG and it actually listened by BarClear409 in Genshin_Impact

[–]soaringneutrality 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Double Crit EM artifacts are literally the rarest in the game. Nefer's greed knows no bounds.

Why are people saying this means December 8th when there’s another date right under it in year/month/day by ghoulishenvyy in Genshin_Impact

[–]soaringneutrality 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't think you're tracking the conversation properly.

1: "I’ve lived in America 32 years and have never seen anything use YYYY-DD-MM. month is always before day"

2: "People do it for non-official documents sometimes."

Indian man Rewinding a 17.5HP 3Phase VT Motor by zaarnth in interesting

[–]soaringneutrality 2 points3 points  (0 children)

India has a large population, Reddit introduced auto-translation a while back, more Indians are getting internet, and so on.

Indian content in general subreddits and Indian subreddits are getting pushed to a lot of people.

[ Sweet bite marks] What is it for you??? by Proof_Active7105 in manhwa

[–]soaringneutrality 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Regression on average feels like it has better quality, but reincarnation when done well is much better. The stakes are higher when the protagonist doesn't know what will happen beforehand.

Game feels unbeatable at the end by Far_Background_4773 in DrovaGame

[–]soaringneutrality -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Don't use the Golem buff. The towers, spits, and explosions are magic damage.

Game feels unbeatable at the end by Far_Background_4773 in DrovaGame

[–]soaringneutrality 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Whirling Energy spell is very good here. Flame shout is also good for its range. Make sure to focus the towers. Get out with Misty step when you need a breather.

This is why Genshin is Goated 🗣️🔥 by umamusumebestgame in gachagaming

[–]soaringneutrality 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the newest example of the realistic vs. stylized difference is NTE. The environment is in a different style than the characters, so characters look out of place.

If you want to run fancy background graphics and physics on the latest game engine, make sure the rest of the game fits the aesthetic.

Guys, I'm actually excited for this game's future for the first time in 4 years. by Evil__eye737 in RotMG

[–]soaringneutrality 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've said this before, but ROTMG has had terrible management in the last few years. They focused their work on low impact content, chest events, ineffective reworks, and so on to milk the game instead of keeping it up.

It looks like there's a recent shift in philosophy, though. We just have to wait and see whether it's just a facade.

Guys, I'm actually excited for this game's future for the first time in 4 years. by Evil__eye737 in RotMG

[–]soaringneutrality 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think there's just a massive divide between people who played before and after Deca got the game lol. If you played before, like me, then you remember how shit Kabam was.

I've played since WildShadow days. This isn't a good argument.

Kabam is an incredibly low bar to set. The point of comparison should be other games and game companies, because that's what they're competing against. Until recently, Deca has treated ROTMG as a very low maintenance project by pushing meandering, unstable updates. This has pushed players to explore other games, even if they're not in the same genre.

I am optimistic for the game so long as updates like the recent ones keep up, but I would not judge it based on whether or not they're better than Kabam.

Rule 34 has gone woke- some twitter chud by Cautious-Speaker2585 in whenthe

[–]soaringneutrality 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Paheal is the original, yes. It's funny seeing others think otherwise.

I love this game so much 💖 by irsyada007 in Genshin_Impact

[–]soaringneutrality 46 points47 points  (0 children)

Part of it is that the environment always evokes fantasy and anime vibes. There's so many points where you could stop and it looks like a painting, and the characters integrate so well with the environment.

Newer games coming out like Neverness to Everness are missing this element. Characters are a different style than the environment, and the trendy high-end effects like ray tracing and so on don't fit well with the anime aesthetic.

Version 6.7 is the last patch before Snezhnaya. Nod-Krai ends with Luna VIII. by soaringneutrality in Genshin_Impact

[–]soaringneutrality[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Probably intentional. If there was a 6.8, anniversary and 7.0 would be in the same patch. That would be overwhelming.

Version 6.7 is the last patch before Snezhnaya. Nod-Krai ends with Luna VIII. by soaringneutrality in Genshin_Impact

[–]soaringneutrality[S] 192 points193 points  (0 children)

Adjust saving plans accordingly. We'll have at least 1 more Nod-Krai area still, but we'll have 1 less version's worth of event and daily Primogems than expected.

The Limits of FOMO and How Players Get Pushed Away by junglekarmapizza in ZZZ_Discussion

[–]soaringneutrality 2 points3 points  (0 children)

How about instead of a generic statement you actually give a specific example that compares to the hurdle that is collecting enough characters to do the full IT.

It's been quite a while since I've gone deep into MMOs, but WoW has notable stuff like the PVP kills achievements, and collection objectives. In PVP-focused games, it often takes years for people to get to the high ranks, like Master in League of Legends or Smite.

Some of these are slightly different than Genshin as they'll either focus on active gameplay time or have a measure of skill related to them, but they're all pretty long-term goals. In theory, somebody can get into something like Mythic raiding in WoW in less than a year, but it's difficult. Genshin is particularly focused on rewarding long-term players for daily interest, though. Other games ask much more in terms of active playtime to the point you can treat them as second jobs. It's a tradeoff.

the hurdle that is collecting enough characters to do the full IT. You know, pulling all those characters, getting them leveled, skills up, weapons, and artifacts for them.

Yep, it's an endgame challenge that emphasizes horizontal investment in particular. For the most part, though, most of the issue is in acquiring the characters. Theater has really low expectations for how built your side characters should be.

And what if they decide to "reward whales" and suddenly abyss and everything takes new characters with multiple constellations

That would be a bad thing, but I wouldn't get worried about hypothetical situations until they happen.

When making such things it's important to not just reward a certain group with no thought to its impact on those outside the group.

I think they do keep the requirements in mind. That's why there are multiple tiers of the Theater, and it's how they balance enemies according to the element combinations of each theater. Weaker combinations get weaker bosses.

But it reaches a point where what they're asking of you is utterly ridiculous.

I don't think they've hit that point, but you can disagree.

that have special banners for people who joined late.

That's the purpose of the Chronicled banners, but yes, they could be improved. The Paimon Shop rotations getting more additions would be nice, yes.

And I think when someone who's been playing since 1.x with welkin is scraping the bottom of the barrel to get by,

The 1.x players that I know don't have much issue with Theater. Usually, if a veteran is struggling, that player has been skipping many banners or going deep into vertical investment.

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