Being an actual “JAFO” in both of these has really left me with an even more disgusted view (of the gaming industry and with this type of gaming community).  While there are those nuggets of positivity in online gaming, it’s the rest of it that is energy sapping where I feel like I am back to being done with this as an entertainment avenue.

Some folks have never grown out of the “high school” clique/drama mentality unfortunately.  That is what happens when some of these younger content creators became huge by being part of the “first mover” crowd when the game launched during COVID.  The only two Genshin related content creators I followed that also played the game while streaming, were Mtashed and dish (I eventually unfollowed both since I just didn’t want to see any Genshin content period after a certain point; it had nothing to do with either of them).  But back then, there were also other large Genshin content creators (who streamed the game) that I didn’t care for.  I don’t have to name them because the two who I followed, should make it obvious of just how many did not resonate with me.  Oh, and regarding Tectone, his style isn’t what I enjoy (part of this is also the whole internet personna which many have trouble filtering out), but he often times calls things out for what it is (often times stirring the hornets’ nest) because he doesn’t have a contract with miHoYo (effectively black balled) where he doesn’t have to walk that fine line like those content creators who are partnered/contracted with Hoyoverse.   But like everything else, I’m also not the “I agree with everything” sort of viewer when it comes to these content creators (and where I feel that Tectone does need to tone it down/put a self-filter on it because there are way too many people who take things literally/believe everything they see/hear from those they follow like an internet groupie).

Now I left those content creators who focus on guides out of this (for the above) because I don’t tend to follow these folks (since as I explained before, I prefer the old-school approach with trying to discover stuff on my own).  But this new drama included a fairly prominent guide maker (one who says he has social anxiety).  Out of curiosity, I decided to watch some of his content (logged out via Incognito mode), and I would not have ever guessed he was an introvert or suffered from social anxiety.  But I understand where he is coming from.  Then I considered what he wrote in his twit-long posting (regarding the other Genshin content creator), and I also understand how Asian’s can be reserved/cautious (I fall into that category myself).  I also grok how some have this over-the-top cliquish mentality when it comes to social circles (something I personally despised/never subscribed to during high school) where drama comes with that territory.  This is why I despise gaming drama because I play games to get away from that stuff (which is why I prefer being socially distanced in-game and playing the way I want to play when I want to play it).  But I digress…

Back in the day, many of these folks had to learn how to act as an adult post-high school because there was no internet with social media amplifying communities that could lavish a financially freeing income on those who were fortunate/lucky enough to get onto the higher rungs of that ladder early on like over the past decade.  So there are some who haven’t actually experienced the hard knocks of real life (which teaches those important life lessons of how to act like an adult when dealing with others in real life situations).  Without naming the actual names, let’s just say parts of this is misunderstanding from the lack of communication while other parts is also ego/narcissism and manipulative behavior.  If you go to an IRL social gathering and have photos/videos being taken at that party, if you don’t want that photo/videos to be made public, you need to make that clear (I believe that part of this involved the VTuber who was there).

Eg. In Japan, there are many YouTube content creators who choose not to reveal their face.  So when they do collaborations, they also make it explicitly clear if their privacy can be respected.  Given how image rights and privacy are sort of ingrained in most parts of the social cultural structure in Japan, most will tend to respect that simple request.  In the west though, it’s not the same (you really do need to make it clear and may get some weird looks/reaction in the process) so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to just post such a photo (which is probably what happened, where the other content creator felt that it was a violation of trust).

In the end, I see one person (who has social anxiety) trying to reach out to find out what it is they actually did wrong, while the other party has chosen to avoid/block that individual (while writing twit-long’s about said person).  We’re not talking little kids here; we’re talking fairly large content creators who are grown adults having a lot of this spill out into the public domain, where you’d think you’d want to at least try to have an adult conversation (versus continually posting long tweets).  It’s like the time I had to learn from others about the lies being told about why I was removed as one of the guild leaders in a game versus communicating it directly with me like a mature adult.

 Let’s just say I believe the guide maker (who gave me positive vibes just watching some of his guides) versus the other guy who previously gave me “meh” vibes when he streamed Genshin (during the period when this whole content creator space for the game was in its early stages).  As I stated back in 2021 (during the first rewards drama), this Genshin Impact/miHoYo/Hoyoverse community needs to grow the hell up (it’s why I’m constantly trying to keep my recommendations feed sanitized from anything related to miHoYo/Hoyoverse) but find the stuff unfortunately still popping up.

I’m just glad I am not an actual content creator (I’m just a random who freely blogs with no monetization intentions) since seriously, why would anyone want to be part of this cycle of negative drama as part of their livelihood.  It’s why I view the entire gaming industry and its various ecosystems the way I do to the point where I am seriously looking at moving on from it as the hobby that I dedicate my free time to (and that is being helped by discovering and finding more fun/positivity in the IRL streaming community).

Years after such official merchandise has long been sold domestically in China, miHoYo (HOYOVERSE) has finally opened a merchandise store on Amazon’s US site for some of these physical collectibles.  Until the 24th, they are running an “event” which will offer discounts on many of the items.  It remains to be seen if they will expand this to other countries or partner with retailers more specific in those countries.

The caveat since the opening on the 15th however, is that “technical difficulties” have plagued the sale of any item (everything has shown up as unavailable and remains so as of this posting).  I am expecting them to make a good sum of money from this.  The positive is making this stuff more easily accessible/available outside of China/Asia (true, for those who were previously buying/importing/selling this stuff on eBay for a huge markup, this will detract from their cottage market).

UPDATE: merchandise is now online.

The only official merchandise I had purchased previously was the Paimon figure (box pictured below) since I was able to get it back near release at a reasonable cost (everything else tended to be outrageously marked up though).

The only times I logged in almost everyday was early on (during the 1.x era), and especially during that short period when I had an active sub (Blessing of the Welkin Moon) in the 2-3 months leading into Inazuma (since I wanted a buffer to pull several characters).  I also stopped doing daily commissions before Tsurumi Island was opened (whenever I did play, I would occasionally do them like when they were tied to a web event).

Additionally, I stopped doing Spiral Abyss (the only real end game in Genshin) since the carrot that is dangled, isn’t really worth it (plus I know from my other uncapped account that I stopped playing after Inazuma opened, was to just keep my main one capped at AR45 where I don’t have to grind to get better artifacts).  Remember, it’s all relative because while my characters end up capped at level 80 (and I cannot attain the highest talent levels), monster damage and hit points are capped well below my character level.  In a game like Genshin, I’m not looking for constant challenges (more so as I’ve become more comfortable being ultra casual).

I bring this up since playing the game this way has prevented me from encountering the sort of burn out that many OG Genshin players have been experiencing.  miHoYo/Hoyoverse isn’t going to change their existing formula for the game because they don’t have to (whales still throw money at it while the competition hasn’t been able to steal away enough players to make a dent in the engagement metrics).  So their updates follow a fairly predictable pattern when it comes to major/minor content patches, filled in between with events (I also don’t try to do every single one of these events either).

I did clear some archon and story quests that were beginning to really pile up though since even though they implemented a way to start some event quests that had pre-requisites, there was beginning to be a lot more of them where a required NPC character was “busy” with one of these yet to be completed story quests (whatever backend design they had to block NPC’s this way, really needs to be undone like how it is in Honkai: Star Rail (HSR), where all it takes is changing the navigation to temporarily unblock that condition).  To be even more blunt, a lot of these issues including the streamlining of dailies that is in HSR, really needs to be implemented in Genshin).  I haven’t yet completed all of Sumeru’s story and world quests yet either (it piles up this way when I play this as a filler title that I have no desire to play every day).

With 4.0 and Fontaine, they made a big change where players need to have only completed the Mondstadt story quests in order to unlock the Fontaine MSQ.  If not, an actual new player would face a multitude of hours playing through Liyue, Inazuma, and Sumeru.  Yes, that means they need to stop having way too many references for prior areas being major parts of the lore/MSQ in these newer continents going forward.  As it stands, there’s already a lot of details that I’ve shoveled off from all of the prior continents (and as each new zone is released, this is only going to get worse to keep track of).  I know there are some lore focused players who do keep track of this stuff in detail, but I’ve personally reached a point where I don’t want to have all of that stuff cluttering my mind (this is another change as I’ve gotten older).

With that said though, one of the biggest exploration components I had previously mentioned (as something that would be great for the game), has finally come to the game; underwater exploration.  I’ve long compared and given Genshin a lot of high marks for its exploration when putting it side-by-side with Guild Wars 2 (which I really enjoyed when I leveled via exploration).  The verticality in Genshin is excellent with physics to match.  The only thing that was missing was being able to dive underwater.  With Fontaine being the land of hydro, they finally delivered this game play.  It’s only available in Fontaine though (I don’t see them changing the rest of the world though similar to how they haven’t made the Waverider system available for Mondstadt and Liyue except for some temporary events).

Digressing, this is actually the mindboggling part about the game; there’s so many one-and-done content they make (prime example was the initial Golden Apple Archipelago or this recent summer event with the temporary Veluriyam Mirage zone).  I wrote about this before (where a lot of this could be repurposed as game systems that could be used to obtain materials via alternative means) where the game play loop could be really expanded (but it is clear this is not their objective).

Nonetheless, it is still impressive what their designers are able to come up with for new game play elements that even if they are mostly one-and-done, makes the game play loop intriguing.  Sure some puzzles can turn into annoyances/tedium.  However, most of them tend to be well done (and since I just started Fontaine, haven’t really encountered many of them yet; I haven’t even unraveled most of the ones in Sumeru yet).  Additionally, while I’ve unlocked a lot of the Fontaine waypoints and completed several world quests, I’m still part way through the MSQ on Sumeru that opens the Fontaine story line.  Yes, there is some disjointing aspects like this given the change they made to access, but I don’t mind that you can play this way either.

I sort of expect to begin falling behind on the story quests again (I haven’t even mentioned the various character story quests since I haven’t done most of them due to their contingency on having completed the prerequisite ones) unless I hit one of those points where I am in the mood for lengthy story/lore sessions (but I also don’t want Genshin to be monopolizing most of my time either).

I also managed to get Seele’s Light Cone on the “weapon” banner around 70 pulls in (in Genshin, I never pulled on the weapon banner since I prioritized the characters I wanted).  When I look at my account now, if I hadn’t pulled Seele early on, I doubt I would be as engaged with the game over this initial 3 week period.

I also finally pulled my 3rd 5-star character (Himeko) on the standard banner and will be building her for my second team.  Right now, the largest constraint is resources (XP books, ascension materials, Trace mats, etc).  My primary team right now is the Trailblazer (Fire), Sushang, Natasha, and Seele.  I used this team to clear Simulated Universe 4-6 (4-5 utilizing The Hunt resonance while 6, I used Abundance and mostly auto battled the fight).  The Abundance path is actually OP since you can get consistent healing, ability to remove debuffs, and a buff to DEF.  The main character trailblazer was also crucial since it is able to provide shielding (in addition to the shields I selected from some Preservation cards), taunt and tank a lot of damage in the process.  Natasha (healer) was wiped in the final phase (with Cocolia under 37%) but I got the necessary healing from the Abundance path of resonance to close out the fight.

Note: This was with a lot of 3/4-star relics that aren’t optimal (relic quality, properties [subject to RNG], and level add a lot of power/defense mitigation to a character), nor fully leveled (without a lot of swiping, relics are currently the most resource intensive to level up at this point in the game; like Genshin, you eventually accumulate enough fodder pieces for leveling up the better ones; I have only a few 5-star pieces and those are really “costly” to get leveled up at this time).  This is fine for difficulty 1, but as you push difficulty levels at higher Equilibrium (world) levels, 5-stars with the optimal properties fpr each character is going to matter.

I will say the turn based combat is beginning to grow on me primarily because with most fights, I can set it for auto and farm for materials that way (while I do something else).  It’s a feature that makes casual game play even better since I can pay attention to other things while farming materials.  The fact that I am still playing this 3 weeks in, signifies a win for miHoYo (because yes, I am now curious to see how the story progresses).

UPDATE: Due to how well the healing/defense buff worked with the Abundance path, I switched out Natasha with Bronya (for her damage/crit/speed buffs), and that shortened the boss fight by over 3 minutes.

My first 5-star came via the guaranteed one at 50 pulls; that was Bronya.  My next 5-star came at the 10th pull on Seele’s banner where I got Seele.  So having these two strong 5-stars early on (and my only 5-stars to date) as part of my main team, made lot of the combat easier.  Since then, my RNG with pulls has gone flat (outside of the characters you unlock for free from the story/events, the only other characters that I’ve gotten from pulling are Tingyun, Sampo, and Pela).

Additionally, I recall the following cinematic trailer for Honkai Impact 3rd where the younger versions of Seele and Bronya have this strong friendship in that universe (so it was sort of nice having these two characters from nearly the get go).

A lot of the other systems in Honkai: Star Rail already borrow heavily from Genshin (like portions of the character progression and development, the store and currency with just different naming, the gacha system, etc).  But depending on your perspective, the combat being turn based (while enjoyable to a degree), left me feeling flat after playing through the early MSQ.  There was a time when turn based RPG’s were my staple (Wizardry I-V for example).  But the entire real time combat that came with the first Diablo, forever changed my preferences (where every turn based game I tried after, failed to hold my attention for long).

Maybe Honkai’s already deep story and lore (which Star Rail will likely have different twists compared to 3rd which from my watching of many of its story trailers and cinematics, has a lot of tragedy with the main characters being killed off), might be able to keep me engaged despite the turn based combat.  But parts of me are saying probably not since even with Genshin Impact, I’ve fallen way behind in the quests department (there’s a lot of archon, world, character, and main story quests that I’ve yet to even start, let alone complete).

I remember how I similarly went into Genshin Impact “blind” (expecting the gacha aspects to turn me off early on), but ended up being impressed with the fun and hook of the early game play and exploration (that worked along side the story).  Portions of that hook I find are missing in Star Rail (and while some of it does have to do with the turn based combat aspect, there are other elements that are missing); I’m not sure if it’s because a lot more systems will open up (since I stopped at around Trailblazer Level 7; this is the equivalent of Genshin Impact’s Adventure Rank) and I am still onboard the ship (which limits the exploration aspect).  Nonetheless, my initial impressions so far is it’s ok, but nothing earth shattering either.  I plan on sticking to it for the next week to see how the systems and environments open up past Trailblazer Level 10/20.