Video after video began showing up on YouTube regarding how underwhelming Genshin Impact’s First Anniversary rewards are. It’s a direct extension of the official posting miHoYo made on their official community site regarding the community event perks for the first anniversary. miHoYo has been effectively ratio’d with how RNG most of the rewards are, in many of the comments. The reaction on other social media (like Twitter) hasn’t been any different, including player created videos that have been posted on YouTube.
Does this change anything that I had previously mentioned regarding the community complaints of miHoYo being less than generous with recent events? Not really. The company KNOWS their player base well with how much they can get away with in terms of just how generous or stingy they can be. They keep raking in the money from big spenders who don’t care. By big spender, I don’t mean Welkin’s or Battlepass purchasers. I’m also not talking about those who occasionally purchase Genesis gems. The whales I am talking about are the ones who spend hundreds of dollars per new character to max out their constellations. Larger content creators (including those in the official program where they receive compensation for being part of that community) who spend large amounts of money (as a business expense which they end up getting back many times over via monetized content), are also part of the problem.
To put it more bluntly, miHoYo’s executive leadership doesn’t really care about the noise because they are right to presume that the larger majority will still play and spend, regardless of how much complaining they do. My take has always been to vote with the wallet; a stance that people like myself normally end up being in the minority when it comes to effecting change at that level. It’s like Diablo II: Resurrected; the launch and viewer numbers were still in the millions regardless of all the scandal laden news surrounding Activision Blizzard and Blizzard Entertainment specifically.
Even the few larger Genshin Impact content creators that I occasionally watch videos of (dish and Mtashed), joined in the fray. I also don’t agree with Mtashed take that “players are bored due to the lack of things to do”. Why? Because content creators are the very ones who burn through content. There are a lot more players of this game who are extreme casuals or don’t play at a high skill level. They’ve yet to even complete the story quests leading into Inazuma. Hardcores will be hardcores and burn through a patch within a few days (rushing to get to nowhere fast). I haven’t even started the final archon act for the Raiden Shogun by choice.
I do know that mobile AND gacha games have these overly generous anniversary rewards that aren’t the norm in many other platform titles. Just look at Diablo III as an example; you never saw anything like this because the team felt that certain events or even celebrations of this sort, didn’t fit within the world of sanctuary. Many MMO’s are like this as well. With regards to Genshin Impact, am I surprised that what miHoYo has previewed so far, looks underwhelming? Solid NO. Sure, we’re getting some stuff which is better than nothing, but either way, it’s not unexpected, nor do I really care. I’m purposely not a big spender/whale in this game (ie. not being part of the problem as to why miHoYo can milk their own player communities the way they do) or any other because I’ve always been cognizant enough to know how much scum suckers exist at the leadership level in the gaming industry.
I will spend a little for the entertainment value, but never go nuts (like the way other folks do when they have the sort of disposal income that makes $1K per month, feel like slinging pennies into the slot machine). Game companies whose business models utilize gacha mechanics, target this whale and leviathan demographic. Everyone else is a rounding error. Want companies like this to treat their community with more respect and generosity? STOP THROWING RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS OF MONEY AT THEM! No single character in Genshin Impact is worth hundreds of dollars to pull and max out. Until there is an actual critical mass of players in any given community that votes with their wallets (and affects the revenue column), nothing will change.
Larger content creators can do their own part. Stop spending money on the game (wishing on other players accounts is still putting money into the company coffers) and treating it like a business expense, plus stop creating content for it. But is that realistically going to happen? Of course not. Some of the larger Genshin Impact content creators make their living off of it and aren’t going to sacrifice their cash cow to actually be part of the solution. And that critical mass of those exiting stage left will never materialize. I don’t expect miHoYo to do a last minute voila reveal of more generous rewards on the day of the anniversary next week. If they do, cool and yay. But if it is as I expect, it will be par for the course where I won’t feel the need to expend energy complaining about it (I’ve expended more energy writing up this “complaining about the complainers” type of post).
