With a lot of the gacha games such as Dragon Ball Legends, Dragalia Lost and Bleach Brave Souls doing their special events, it’s quite a tough time for a free to play player such as myself. I want the units being offered but I’m too stubborn to spend a single dime at the banners. Funny enough, I’m not cheap either. I am fully capable to getting the funds needed to “properly” enjoy the game. I just refuse to do it. After a while, what started out as a way to not support a possible gambling addiction, evolved into a pride philosophy for me.
My first experience playing these gacha games came with Dragon Ball Dokkan Battle. Everyone was raving about the game and there was a ton of videos made about the game. As a dragon ball fan, it’s only natural that I at least tried it out. I swiftly learned the harsh reality of these types of game from Dokkan. Aside from the boring gameplay, the only was to get units fast in order to be viable in the meta was to become a whale (players who spend a great deal on in-app purchases—bring in the majority of revenue for the free-to-play (F2P) mobile game market, despite there being fewer of them to support a game. A better definition for 2018 is someone who spends more than $100 per month on a game). I immediately refused to participate in such activities and opted to just grind out the stones needed. Needless to say, the journey was tough.
I would see people share screenshots and video of them summouning on the banner unit and how much the spent in order to get them (often times spending a ridiculous amount). The justification has always been that “it’s people’s money so they can spend it however way they want”! I can’t argue with that rebuttal. I, on the hand though would spend an hour a day grinding it out and praying before doing any summon. Natural, in most occasion, you’re going to get units you don’t care about, however, when you do get that unit, it’s a blissful moment. I see people talk about beating the rates in the game (0.10% of pulling unit), but when you realize that they’ve bought the currency needed to get multiple summonings, of course their chances would go up and therefore, it begins to look less and less impressive.
However, when you pull a rare unit or a banner unit by just playing the gacha game as a free-to-play player, on top of the limited about of times you can summon, then it becomes more impressive. What started out as me just not wanting to not shell out money to games with boring gameplay and gambling-like addiction, turned into this gacha pride of being able to play and pull these rare units without shelling out a single dime. Of course, pulling a unit is one thing, duping them (getting multiple of the same unit to increase its power) is another thing. For me, that’s not even an issues or on my radar, as I’ve accepted that dupping is not a reality for me. Just getting the unit itself is enough of a reward for me.
The point of that I’m trying to make is that there’s more fun to be had if you play the game free-to-play, as long as you have an iron will and tenacity like I do. It’s more rewarding, you don’t feel dirty after you’ve realized that you dropped $500 for virtual units that have no monetary value in real life and as side bonus, when you flex your unit, there’s weight behind it. That’s my thoughts on it, let me know your thoughts on this topic.
