#As much as i really enjoy arknights i also don't like to bring it up to talk about with random people because it is a gacha

[yoiku]

So I played through episode 12 yesterday and episode 13 today between my cleaning sprees and i only cried a little maybe dozen times through it all, so all I can say is that the main story continues to deliver. Wasn't very keen on the storytelling style of ep13 at first, but definitely warmed up to it along the way. Getting scenes from the wiewpoint and in the thoughts of so many characters in just one episode turned out to be pretty refreshing. I did feel a bit overwhelmed as well but i'll put that on me chewing through it all in one day. Sometimes I feel a bit worried that where is the main story going to go after a huge chunk of it comes to a conclusion, but at the same time... If the side stories have proved anything, its that there are so many things about the entire world and lore to explore. And I have to admit I'm still getting more curious about it all. if you told me 5 years ago that the story and universe in a gacha game(derogative) is going to be something i'm obsessing over, I would've been so pissed at you even suggesting that. Anyway, its a nice feeling to be so interested in something. I've lost interest in so many things and i feel like over the years its getting harder and harder for me to really get into something.

[cerastes]

With the exception of Arknights what are your thoughts on gacha games?

I don't feel like I need to exclude Arknights from the statement, I can criticize things even if I like them.

In general, I don't like that their widely accepted and even defended business model is "Capitalize on FOMO, exploit gambling addictions, create dependent users". I also think that the use of the "game as a service" model, and one that needs to keep pumping content forever and can't risk to alienate the player, severely limits what can be done with the medium in terms of creativity, because you can't kill off playable characters nilly willy (I actually think Epic Seven was cooking with this, Epic Seven will kill off playable characters and remove them from the plot if it feels like it, or at least used to back when I played, don't know nowadays), relationships and dynamics with characters tend to be limited because otherwise your audience can feel like you are cucking them, and I wish I was kidding but just look at the absolute dumpster fire of a drama going on as we speak (22nd of January, 2024) in Girls' Frontline 2 over in China over one of the characters having interactions with a male NPC, and you can't ever bring a true sense of finality to any given arc because everything ends up having to be foreshadowing, set-up, build-up and so on and on and on. In many cases, you also have a mold cast of Must Have tropes in your playable cast: The Maid, The Idol, The One That Worships The Ground You Walk On, The Underage And Underclothed One, The Underage (But We Treat This One As A Precious Child!) One, Foxgirl, The Cold And Highly Analytical One (But Actually, Loves You), Chuuni, etc, so it feels like in every game I kinda already know at least a third of the cast minimum already and I'm kind of primed to not really want to know them, even though there's subversions I end up liking sometimes (Fenny from Snowbreak is an example of an Idol-type I ended up loving despite not liking Idol-types).

On the other hand, even with these negatives in mind, having a game that periodically updates and adds content, and that you can discreetly play pretty much everywhere on the go due to smartphones being their main 'console', games that foster community and something to talk about with your friends that also play and that will always have something new every couple of weeks, as well as inspire fanart, fanworks, analysis, and commentary, and that tend to be more risque and interesting with their designs is honestly good to have. I personally enjoy the community aspect of gacha games, I consider it one of the two most important aspects for me, because I know I can come here, for example, and see people talking about the story, the characters, the music, the gameplay, and more, every day, and the other important thing to me is how discreet they are, since I can just play a few maps or stages in my phone real fast midst a social situation at work, and then hop back in with a renewed social battery or when a topic I like comes up.

I fully get when people showcase their disdain for gacha, yeah, but if we really want to be nitpicky, the majority of the game industry is kind of a cesspool of toxicity, which is not to say "stop bashing gacha" and instead say "bash the whole thing if you're going to be bashing it anyway" (and we should! Game devs and other personnel in the industry have been crying for better conditions for years now!). Either way, if someone decides to sit at the gambling den, it becomes their responsibility. I want there to be more safeguards for people with actual addictions and to protect them, but with this in mind, if anyone still decides to sit at the den, it's assumed they are going to take responsibility for their actions and financial decisions.

So all in all, yeah, predatory games that suffer in quality due to their own trappings, but also good sources of community, inspiration, and effective at being discreet games you can play anywhere and that get periodic updates (this isn't necessarily exclusive to gacha but it is an aspect of them that bears mentioning, which I point out since no doubt people will want to point out there's good non-gacha smartphone game options out there)

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[yuseirra]

Hello~ I have something to say because there's been something that's been on my mind, leaving me very depressed and concerned for the past couple months. I've been trying my best to be cheerful and uplifting but it's hurting me so much I just can't stand it...I have to be true to myself and let it all out, I feel like a stone's being pushed onto my chest, and I won't feel better without addressing it somewhere, so please pardon me, okay?

I'd been drawing a lot of project moon's fanworks earlier, remember how there's been an incident regarding limbus company and the artist being fired and whatnot? and then there's this stuff going about how fingers are drawn in maplestory, I have no idea about the details but something happened in arknights?? too? I don't play that game but still, well I'd been seeing a lot of these stuff happen for the past couple of months and since I come from a country where that's directly being taken place, I saw a lot of it happen firsthand except for some recent ones, it made me to go terminate my twitter which I had for a decade (I think I had it since 2013 or 2014. not that it matters now anyway, but I miss my friends I had there so much.)

I'm really hurt. It pains me so much to see people dig up a tweet someone's made several years ago using some kind of data crawler or archive and decide to get the mass to bring down a person over it, a person has many sides, how can you determine how exactly someone's feeling about something? and how can it lead to things like death threats, how can people be so eager to make someone "pay", I understand that people can be frustrated over some things, but where's the limit of these things? I felt so threatened and scared and upset, nothing bad's happened to me in person. All I've experienced is kindness and I am very grateful about it, but I can't say I'm not affected. Seeing a lot of things going around secondhand's been enough to put me through a lot of stress.

Some of my videos regarding projmoon's works had been very popular, you may have seen them if you're in the fandom! I used to be very proud of it. Now I'm upset and scared and I am pained, why can't I be as proud of them as I used to be, I put all my love into it back then. It's a terrible feeling. I have mixed feelings about having it up on my channel.. there's a part of me who love my works a lot.. and is happy about it having been able to give a lot of people joy. People have been enjoying it, and they've all been so kind about it. And then there's another part of me wishing I never made it in the first place because it really hurts and I'm reminded of these incidents whenever I see them. Which is such a pity, since I did a really great job with those. I'm still getting new comments with people telling me they are so impressed and all I could think about now is the.. all the, I don't know what to call all that..,

I'm scared that people might come after me and accuse of me being someone I am not, try to dig up my old tweets and find me problematic for doing something unfavorable for the fandom(not that I've said or done anything harmful in the past, I'm sure of that..I've ALWAYS tried my best to spread love when I could. I am confident about that.) maybe I'm being full of myself. Maybe people don't care about me or my works as much and I'll be okay but I have no idea how things will play out. I've been holding out till now, no one can say I didn't try..the fact that I've been keeping my works up there, I've been trying very hard to be strong in my own way (but at the same time I also felt like a coward for remaining in the status quo)

earlier I saw yt recommending me that library of ruina is getting a switch edition and I get reminded of all these stuff, I can't bear it. It hurts me so much. I've been holding this all in by myself since last july, maybe I'll have to take the videos down to make me feel better, but I'm not sure if I'll be safe that way. I deleted my twitter and now it comes to this, I won't delete my tumblr though. I love my experience as yuseirra and I'm happy for all I've received. I wish I could continue feeling that way, I want to believe in people, I want to care for them, and I don't want to think people will try to come after me and hurt me over the choices I make. So let me be strong, whatever I do, I'll do my best to be that way.

Thank you very much!! Lots of love!!

[waheelawhisperer]

(1/3) Ultimately, I can't tell you what to do, but just based on personal experience from hatewatching another show I used to love to try to find some sort of catharsis; you're probably not going to get it. If you're going into RWBY episodes with the explicit thesis statement of "Volume 9 bad" then that's all you're really likely to get out of it.

I don't know why this is 4 separate asks

To start with, this is all valid advice, and while I still intend to finish Volume 9 and then drop the show (haven't decided if I'll also scrap my fanfics yet but it's very much a possibility because interacting with RWBY does not bring me joy anymore), I am going to take parts of it into account.

Basically, I'm going to try to be less miserable while watching it. I don't really enjoy being angry (and admittedly my critical style can get pretty abrasive even when I'm not highly emotionally invested), so I'll try to tone that down a bit. That said, I'm still committed to finishing it because I'm 7 episodes into the season and it's going to bug me forever if I don't watch the last 3. I'll put up my review of Episode 7 at some point, but I'm not sure when yet.

Taking a break and focusing more on Arknights definitely helped. It wasn't something I did intentionally, I just had stuff to do and wasn't super interested in RWBY over the available alternatives (watch a show I don't like or play IS3? Real difficult choice there), but I do think it helped to just not engage with RWBY for a bit. I still stand by my opinions of this Volume so far, but at least I'm less emotional about them at the moment.

I will say I appreciate the concern, and I mean that without any shred of irony. Thanks for caring. I mean it sincerely.

[icharchivist]

Not to be that person, but I think for all its faults, Gbf still has more body diversity than other Gacha games

One of the reasons I couldn't really get into Genshin Impact for is that they have a total of three body types and one of those looks like small children, which I'm not interested in

All the dudes are total twinks and all the women either come in small tits or big. It's annoying to me, which is why I'm not playing. No judgement on people who do enjoy the game

So imo Gbf is at least passing this bar, even though it is on the floor

And yes, they should do more in terms of muscular women, but at least we get buff men and not twinks exclusively. Or, thinking back to the four dragon knights with their different body types

Until then, Fediel will always have abs in my mind

oh no i agree don't worry about that

it's like, both "Granblue still falls under the trap of not trying more "risky" bodytypes" and "still, Granblue actually makes a lot of effort and care which is appreciated" are things that can coexist.

The comparaisons are with BG3 rn bc the anons brought it up but tbf those are such drastically different games in term of production and medium that it just highlights the general issues with any medium. i think BG3 could more likely be compared to other games of similar genres with what it tries, and doesn't try.

But Granblue should be compared to other gacha on that level and, on that level, Granblue actually probably puts the most efforts i've seen in a gacha game in term of diversity.

it just sucks because it still isn't nearly enough and it still falls into the common trap of some beauty conventions.

But it's still more efforts than a lot of others games.

Genshin's stuff is kind of in its own area for me bc it's stilla 3D game and 3D game requires new models for new bodytypes. Like i said in the previous ask, i still think it should be an effort to be made -- but it's also clearly at a disadvantage compared to games like say, Granblue, Arknights, a3, or stuff like that, who are fully 2D and therefore don't have to rely on any restrictions.

Granblue has a huge cast, and a lot of diverse bodytype. conventionally attractive bodytypes, but still more diversity than not.

in Granblue there's already the different races that already have some bodytype associated to them, which is especially visible with the men, so the bodytypes end up diversified just on this basis. Then, most of the time, at least for men, there is an effort to have the bodytype/the muscles placement to make sense with the era of expertise of those characters. Nehan barely has any flesh on his bones due to decades of abuse. Lancelot's body is slender and not too muscular because everything about him is about being nimble on his feet. Vane is a powerhouse because he's a tank. So on and so forth.

when it comes to women (who aren't Harvins at least), muscles aren't taken into account at all, which is peeving. There's diversities on different level, boob sizes, waist, thighs, all that jazz. It's eyeroll worthy that the diversity for women in Granblue is still fully based on conventionally aesthetic ideals. But at the end of the day it still means you can have many women with different bodytypes. Not *extremely* diverse one, but more than some gacha which have a same body size fit them all.

but there is other levels of diversity in appearance Granblue has an advantage on. while it's not the majority, there are dark skinned characters, from darker shades than some gacha would even dare to explore. There's the trans characters. There's different level of reading to it all.

it could be so much better, of course. Granblue's shortcomings are shared everywhere in the video games industry because of basically beauty ideals.

At the end of the day a Gacha especially is relying on people being willing to spend money for one single character. It makes them more scared to experiment with different type of characters because each character has to be bringing money in some way. It's different than a big AAA game that you buy once, and that shouldn't have to convince you to spend money at every character it introduces.

So the fact Granblue does take some risks is appreciated. It makes it one of the gacha that does try the most.

but it's still trying into a comfortable zone that still doesn't acknowledge """"""less desirable""""" features. Which sucks because it's not even true, and the less they're willing to take risk the less they'll be able to see that.

[coldgoldlazarus]

I Ask Respectively for

Aak from Arknights

Krika from Bionicle

Maria Calavera from RWBY

Heimerdinger from Arcane

Rarity from My little pony

Quite the group of character. All people who witnessed dire situations and came out of it defeated in some way.

Except rarity. She is just goals.

Oh dang, that's a lot. Lemme put this under a readmore:

Aak:

I don't really like Aak all that much, but I'll also freely admit that I don't really have a good reason for it? I just didn't care for his vibes from the outset, then people paying more attention to him over Nian during their shared banner soured me against him further, and then people shipping him with Warfarin over their genuinely hostile rivalry thing made me actively hate him for a while.

Nowadays, my opinion has eased off considerably; I find his gimmick of attacking other Operators a hilarious expression of his character even if it ensures I'd never, ever use him even if I had him, and the Lee's Detective Agency animated short made me reluctantly admit that he does play off of Waai Fu and Hung well, and so I can kinda enjoy him in that context. I don't know a lot of his deeper backstory, so idk how he connects to the "defeated by a dire situation" motif, but that does sound intriguing.

In short, I don't think he's ever going to be a character I come to like, per say, but he's at least grown on me enough for me to enjoy what he brings to the table, in small doses at least. Still not a fan of him and Warfarin, though.

Krika:

Krika is in kind of a weird spot for me. I really really enjoy his character, he's definitely up there among Bionicle's wide cast, and one of the genuinely compelling and well-written villains during a period where most of the others were stuck in Greg's cookie cutter mould of edgy gleeful mass murderers, and also he was the first set from the 08 waves I got. I really do love him.

All the same, he kinda fades into the background for me a lot of the time unless I'm actively reminded of his existence. This is probably partially because, as I've said many a time before, the Ignition Trilogy just isn't exactly my favorite era of Bionicle, but part of it may also be that he was there and gone so relatively quickly that I didn't really get to form as much of an attachment before the inherent tragedy of his character role and arc struck. The fact that his death happened only a year after Matoro's didn't help any, even if the contexts were radically different.

I wouldn't necessarily call him overrated, strictly, but it does feel sometimes like he's rated juuuust slightly above where he actually should be, if that makes any sense. Also, I'm a hypocrite who will woobiefy and excuse him plenty, but then get annoyed by others doing it, when part of what makes him interesting to me is that his long cricket leg pincer things hands are no cleaner than the other Makuta; he's just the only one that actually cares about how awful they've become.

Personally, I feel like if he'd been given earlier appearances and more set-up in the preceding years, (not that that could have really happened given the course of the planning and development cycles for the toys) or some form of retroactive further development somehow, (either through a ressurection or a flashback serial or something) then he would more fully earn all the praises he gets. As is, he's still a fantastic character, just lacking the kind of staying power he deserves.

Maria:

I don't have a whole lot to say about her. She's a great character, especially for such a late addition, and fills her mentor role really well, reflecting off of both Ruby and Qrow really well. (It would be cool to see more of her younger exploits, but at the same time it doesn't feel necessary, you know?) Plus, she's just amazingly fun to see in action, bantering with the kids, being the perfect matchup to give Neo a much-needed asskicking (I say this as a Neo stan) and also imparting the genuinely wise insight at just the right times. I understand why she got Put On The Bus early into Volume 8, but I still really miss her and want to see more of her.

Heimerdinger:

I really like this guy.

Setting his specific character aside for a moment, as a Yordle I think his inclusion as a main cast member for Arcane was pretty genius, honestly. It establishes early that Yordles just Are A Thing, and that even with the adorable chibi proportions and furriness, they are still just as valid as serious dramatic characters as anyone else; had they had Ziggs instead it would be harder to take them seriously, and had they just waited until later altogether, introducing them would feel too dissonant and out of the blue. Establishing right away that this cute guy is not only a leader on the Council but a revered founder of the city, makes telling any other stories involving yordles they may choose to pursue far easier from the outset, at least from an audience perception/suspension of disbelief standpoint.

And then as Heimerdinger specifically, I think he plays a really good role in the story, even if I do sometimes overlook him in favor of the more prominent cast members. His presence as the small-c conservative authority figure in Jayce and Viktor's lives; simultaneously too stuck in the past and ignorant of the present, deeply alien in his perception of time and human mortality, yet not completely unjustified in his fears of Hextech and magic, and being ultimately well-meaning despite his impotence; is as refreshingly nuanced a portrayal of his archetype as the others are of theirs.

I feel like he and Ekko did kinda get the short end of the stick in the finale in some ways, but all the same we didn't necessarily need something bigger and more dramatic when the important part was that they met at all to begin with, and we can see them starting to learn from one another, while any more specific developments are ultimately best saved for season 2.

Fun fact, I initially mistook him for another Yordle character from the game, called Corki, and spent a while during my first watching of Arcane wondering when he'd get his biplane. Turns out that's not really a thing, but all the same, I have to wonder what will lead to him going all-out with the turrets and bombs after the way his character's been developed thus far.

Rarity:

I love her. Favorite of the Mane 6 (even if Twilight and Applejack are close behind) and just, an absolute icon. I support women's rights, and also women's wrongs, etc; even at her most ridiculous, I would cheer her on. Tabitha St. Germain's skill for whole-heartedly chewing the scenery is like, half the reason she holds up so well in my mind, but even without that, she just lives at a kind of extra I can only aspire towards.

She's also rather personal for me, since her becoming my favorite not only coincided with, but both fueled and reflected my coming to better understand and accept parts of myself. Even aside from that, her struggles as an artist on the show were extremely relatable to me as a writer, (and as it later turned out, also me as someone with adhd, lol.) and sometimes I still invoke her as a Muse when I'm struggling. I own a plushie of her. I miss her, Tails, I really do.

And I'm kinda salty she did't get to marry Applejack in the series finale, losing out to Rainbow Dash??? Just another reason to be glad I stopped watching after Season 6.

But dang do I really miss her, and one of these days I want to go back.

[demansiabites]

The culmination of my CC efforts, risk 16ing it. I'm sure someone even a little smarter than me could use my team to full on risk 33 this, but I am not That Smart, so I am perfectly content with actually getting SSS. I don't know, I'm really just not That Good at the game, I highly doubt I understand the more basic strategies that would make the game much easier, but whatever. I don't mind, the game is fun as is.

So what have I learned? Well, Eunectes is still really fun, I love getting to bring her along. Surtr is annoying, definitely not my kind of playstyle but a bit too useful for me to pass up. Ch'alter is a Bit Much in terms of ease of use compared to overall efficacy, but I can't help but love it because she's fun as hell. I love pressing a button and just seeing the carnage of her S3, she's fun. I'm probably not using Kal'tsit properly, but I also do not care.

More importantly I think I've learned another reason that I think I don't often perform as well, and that's that I greatly enjoy playing defensively. I find it a lot of fun to set up a defensive line with a backup of supporters (snipers, casters, medics, supporters) and wait for the enemy to come to me. The early game is very heavily about playing defensively and I loved it, I wish I could go back with the knowledge I have now and start over just so I can enjoy getting to be defensive. As time has passed though, I've realized that I don't think that's the point anymore. I think that Arknights has gotten to a point where strong defense isn't always possible, and that kinda makes me sad.

Now, let me explain, I am not saying I am correct about this. My only 6 star defender is Eunectes, I am NOT stacked in terms of defensive units, and my only 6 star medic is Kal'tsit, everybody's favorite Harmacist, who as it turns out isn't the best as just a healer. What I am saying is that's how it feels to me. A lot of chapter 8 missions needed you to take the fight to the enemy, thematically a very correct thing to do, but it's not necessarily a playstyle I enjoy as much. I don't like retreating and redeploying, I'm not fond of having to quickly take down a drone that casts Orbital Strike, I'm especially not a fan of JT8-3, a mission I've yet to beat.

It's kind of sad in a way, now that I'm capable enough to strategize on my own, I've realized that what I enjoyed the most was what I did when I wasn't strategizing on my own.

On the other hand, I love what I HAVE been able to do so far. Like I said, I like playing defensively with what I've got, and so nothing is more fun to me than doing these missions full on defensively when that probably isn't the best thing for me. I mean, Howling Desert essentially puts you on a tine limit, the time isn't on your side, but I still just let the enemies come to me and figured out what to do about it.

Infiltrators were the most annoying, probably an intentional thing, but I managed to figure out a way to handle them that really satisfied me. There's two, so my eventual strategy was Just Use Surtr. Surtr can easily handle the hologram of the first Infiltrator as well as the Infiltrator, but she won't survive to the second one, and her redeployment timer takes too long for her to come back in time. Turns out, Mon3tr with S3 active can one shot the hologram, so activating the skill as soon as its first attack lands means the Infiltrator isn't even a problem.

It was fun to figure it out! I just kinda wish that the insanely strong units weren't so focused on offense. Eunectes is so fun to me because she's really good defensively apart from her block-1 stat, which means I have to plan around it. Idunno, I could go on for a while.

Actually I do have one last complaint, but this isn't really about the CC season. Why does silence getting removed happen so often with challenges? I understand that it does add challenge, but god I hate adding challenge by removing full tools. Maybe it's just because my favorite operator in terms of gameplay is Lappland, but removing silence entirely and then going "that's the challenge" feels so boring to me. This is like, a nitpick by the way, it's not even as common as I'm making it sound, it's just something I've noticed a couple times that's always annoyed me. No other statuses you can inflict ever get this treatment other than stun, which I'm kind of okay with due to the immense power of stuns. I think my only real issue with it is just how silence doesn't seem like it's useful THAT often, and then when it is the challenge mode is "don't use it". I'm going to bed, I have a doctors appointment in 6 hours.

Contingency Contracts hard, me not big brain, me like big wall. Please sign my petition to make it so that if you silence enemies they get deleted from the game's code for everyone, I think that'd be a fair and balanced buff.

[yoiku]

OK. Gameplay wise, how is Arknights. I've seen it everywhere but I've never seen actual game play, just the animated ads. Is it strategy, turn-based, tower defense, etc? Is it easy enough for us non- smart folks to play?

It's 2D strategic tower defence.

Well, I'm dumb as a rock with strategy games even tho I enjoy them, and I find the difficulty level in Arknights overall: fun! (I play games like civilization on the easy difficulty and still lose 50% of the time for reference lmao) Occasionally get stuck on a stages for a while, but depending on how I'm feeling I'll either keep trying at different tactics, or just pull up a youtube guide. (which there are several great channels for) Story related events always have easy stages and more harder ones if you want challenge. There's also events that utilize roquelike gameplay or "pick your poison" kind of deal where you can make a map harder and harder with limitations and rules for more rewards.

Generally the game has you reading quite a bit, especially the early game felt like lots of text, little action. But they've gotten much better with that over the few years I've played on/off. The story can be pretty dark and generally feels melancholic to me, which I personally really like, but is probably not for everyone.

I put maybe ~50€ into the game when I started out of hype, but after that I haven't put in a penny and I don't feel like the game hates me or holds me back for not feeding it more money, unlike every other gacha I've tried. While the rarer operators are cool and bring more flavour to your tactics, even the difficult stages can absolutely be cleared with the free low rarity units the game gives you. Fairly often lower rarity is even preferred for they cost less points to deploy, which lessens the feeling of "meh I wish I had better/rarer operators".

Anyway I hope that cleared some stuff out? My arknights moots can reply to this if they wish to add something I might've missed.