Almost 19% of Japanese people in their 20s have spent so much money on gacha they struggled with covering living expenses, survey reveals : games

[–] [email protected] 74 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Sounds like avocado toast-ian blame-shifting to me. Just like the rest of these pieces, they ignore the obvious, horrible conditions of life, and choose to tut-tut at the abused for 'improperly' using their free time.

just like the avocado toast shit, the translation of these pieces is broadly:

Look away, reader, from the terrible low wages, high cost of living, and soul-crushing work hours japanese people are forced to endure. Focus your attention on these 19% of young people, who don't know any better, who you are better than. Laugh at these losers who admit that one time they almost couldn't cover their expenses!!

Let's look at the article.

Interestingly enough, while these results indicate that the popularity of in-game transactions may be increasing, the average amount of money spent on them is actually decreasing.

Hmm, could it be the actual problem is the immense increases to CoL young (and all) people have been under? I wonder why the article doesn't even bring it up? So curious 🤔

Oh well. So like, how much money are we talking about on gacha? How much are these 19% of young folks spending? Must be a ton eh?

Article doesn't say, but we do get these numbers

In 2024, young people spent an average of around 5,138 yen ($35.85 USD) on microtransactions per month while this year’s survey results state that the average amount of money spent on microtransactions is 4,247 yen ($29.63 USD) per month.

So it's not a lot, not really. I say again, this article is slop created to take your eyes away from the real problems of the world and victim blame the ones suffering under them.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago

Average spending is not a good metric for addictive behaviors - spending/consumption tends to be extremely concentrated in a small fraction. My go-to example for this is alcohol where, in the US, 10 drinks/week is the population average, but also enough to get you into the "top 10%" or "heavy drinker" bin, where the average consumption of that bin is 74 drinks/week. In both alcohol and gacha, a huge fraction of the population don't pay anything.

I mean, even if the article's $30/month average spend is entirely within their 20% "problem" spenders, it would only be $150, but it's a little easier (for me) to see where $150/month gacha habit could be a problem for young people already on the financial edge. Not the fundamental problem that skyrocketing rent and stagnant wages are, but more in the last-straw sense.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

These kids are wasting $30 on a game that they play 20-40 hours a month! They should instead go see 2 movies or go to one concert or eat at a restaurant once

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago (2 children)

concert tickets for 30$? sweet

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Depends on the scene/popularity of the band. If I have to pay more than $20, it better be a band I really want to see.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Sure, not Taylor Swift, but most shows are $30 or less

[–] [email protected] 58 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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

Wtaf

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 days ago

Problem Gambling

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 days ago

By design. That's... that's literally what these games are for. You're supposed to be addicted and frustrated until you fork over real money.

All the mechanisms that games use to make your brain do the happy juice are kept behind the part where you pay real money over and over.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago

The article admits this isn't true and the money spent on these games is decreasing.

This is another corporate article blaming individuals for systemic economic failures.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Candy crush costs money?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Source

Also look into stuff like the "booster wheel"

[+] [email protected] 23 points 5 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 31 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Completely mature in their 20s?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

It's down hill after that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

Gotcha games should be fucking illegal.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah, that's how it goes. Glad you got out when you did.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I can't fathom the idea of wanting to play that garbage, let alone spend money on micro-transactions in it, but maybe that's just me, maybe my brain isn't smooth enough to find games like that stimulating and entertaining.

Probably also the same reason all the people who have tried and to get me addicted to gambling have failed.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Nothing inside a video game should cost real money.

Ban the entire business model.

Entertainment is a tool for emotional manipulation - usually toward enjoyment. Fiction seeks suspension of disbelief and attachment to completely artificial interests and goals. Charging actual currency for anything under that fiction is an abuse. It's exploiting your brain's fuzzy separation of wants. However much you desire a goal in soccer, it's just a ball going through some posts. It has no economic utility. There is no exchange rate between score and hamburgers.

Maximizing that mistake is the entire driving force of this industry-swallowing abuse. It's half of all revenue. Boycotts don't work. It's in $70, flagship-franchise, single-player games. It costs nothing to add, even in games you already bought. Only legislation will fix this.

Now the usual excuses.

'Just don't pay them.' The entire game is expertly crafted to make you crave whatever they're charging for. Games make you value arbitrary nonsense - that's what makes them games. Gently convincing you over time is the developer's job.

'You want it for free!' You want it 'for free.' I want people to buy games. Like how it worked for forty years straight.

'But servers need money.' This shit's in World Of Warcraft - a subscription MMO. You think Blizzard is hurting?

'But arcades--' were renting someone else's machine. Your own phone doesn't get to charge you a quarter per minute.

'But cosmetics--' are still an engineered desire which can be denied until you pay more money.

'But budgets--' follow revenue, always always always. It has never been easier to make a game. Companies choose to spend millions because they expect to make billions.

'Well it's better value.' This bullshit makes them more money... and they get the money from you... so this "free" bullshit costs you more money. You get it? In no reality should it be possible to pay the price of a whole-ass game for one imaginary hat.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

I ways hate when a new game comes out and it's a gacha game. I have no self control, so I always have to keep them at arms length. 😔

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I feel bad for those young adults.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 days ago

Young people do young people shit, always have and will. I ate beef and vegetable soup for 3 months straight to buy a new engine for my race car 20 years ago...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Is this just the 80/20 rule?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Dat avocado toast excuse, every time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

I haven't heard of addictive design in the business model of avocado toast.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Based

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

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.

Still better than shitty Ubisoft products or all the other 'big' dev houses that keep pumping obscene games every year.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Are you talking about Gensin Impact?

The game that even on PC looks and plays like a mobile game? With grindiness and awful animation quality?

Surely you can't consider that top notch stuff? Or is gameplay time of 100+ hours and anime girls really that enticing to you?

Genuine question.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I never said it was a great game. In fact I literally said:

Genshin has a lot of other problems even gacha aside

I just said it wasn't garbage. There is plenty of other actual garbage out there. It looks and plays like a mobile game because it is a mobile game. It's a mobile game you can play on your PC if you want. But it's still a 5-year-old mobile game. Expecting it to look like AC Shadows or something is silly. Besides, the BOTW-ripoff-meets-anime art direction really seems to appeal to a lot of people, and art direction is much more important than graphical fidelity anyway.

The soundtrack and score is genuinely very good and varied, with each area having its own feel and sound to the music. The game is huge and has lots of different areas to explore, each with its own characteristics. The world has lots of little details and puzzles, some that are extremely simple dopamine hits and some puzzles that are somewhat challenging. There is like a hundred hours or whatever of story content to go through that at least quite a lot of people seem invested and engaged in. There are new events every month or so with various things to do.

Let be clear: I don't like Genshin personally. I don't play Genshin. I think there are a lot of problematic elements in it not just with monetisation but with grind, RNG, retention/addiction mechanics, unskippable cutscenes and probably more I'm forgetting off hand.

It's still blatantly unfair to call it "garbage".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Motherfucking young people and their fucking hobbies. How irresponsible.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Theres an actual difference between spending money on things you enjoy vs unable to pay for food and rent.