Genshin Impact is a free-to-play action role-playing game set in a fantasy world. It features a wide array of playable characters, an anime-inspired art-style, and an iconic soundtrack.
The game is developed and published by miHoYo, a company based in China. It was released near the end of September 2020, and is available on several platforms, most notably on PC and mobile.
Genshin Impact was an instant hit upon its released; just within a week, it garnered massive audiences with millions downloading the game and over a hundred thousand viewing it on Twitch.
Much of its popularity can be attributed to the diverse range of gameplay resulting from a wide cast of different and playable characters, as well as the vast, explorable world it is set in that draws much comparison to another game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Despite all this, the game has begun to receive backlash. This is mainly due to implemented features that some of the playerbase perceive to be “predatory” practices. There are two main points of contention: the “wish” system and the “resin” system.
Genshin Impact is also a “gacha” game, meaning it allows players to spend currency to roll a virtual slot machine, often with incredibly low chances of getting what they want. Gacha systems are very similar to loot boxes, which are heavily looked down upon in the gaming industry, although slightly less so in mobile games and in east asia, because they are analogous to gambling.
In Genshin Impact, the gacha system comes in the form of the “wish” system, where it is almost the entire list of playable characters, along with an entire database of other in game-items such as weapons and artifacts, all of which significantly influence the user’s experience in the game, that can only be obtained randomly though this slot machine. The best items and characters, 5-star items and characters, only have a 0.6% chance of dropping. This makes it almost impossible to attain the characters you want, let alone all the characters without spending money. It also comes with the same problems normally associated with loot boxes.
The other issue is the “resin” system. Genshin Impact, like some other gacha games, implement a kind of energy system where players must spend a resource to be able to participate in some of the game’s activities. This resource regenerates slowly over time up to a cap. The activities this resource are used for are the only ways to attain resources in the game, which are used to progress by upgrading characters, weapons. Although miHoYo has increased the cap, the amount of resin a player is alloted is not nearly enough to be able to progress of their characters any significant amount. Many feel as though they are forced to spend money to progress.
These two problems combined already worsen the user experience of players significantly, but what makes it worthy of controversy is the fact that a game as popular as genshin impact, with as many players splurging on this monetization system normalizes these practices in an industry that otherwise would immediately reject them.
These issues, however, are not completely one-sided. While most of the western audience believe these practices encourage gambling in minors and adults alike, the game also has a very large audience in east asia, most notably Japan, China, and South Korea, a region where gacha systems and paying to be able to progress in games are relatively common and considered normal.
Story by Samuel Vincent Cheng
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