Capitalism & Powercreep (Discussion for the Queens)

I just caught up with all the gacha drama involving powercreep. I want to post this here bc I trust the queens judgement more than the general HSR public. Please lmk your opinions or disagreements, but Buckle up bc this will be a long rant.

Honkai star rail does have a powercreep problem. But also, ALL gacha have powercreep problems.

I don’t know why we have gotten to this point where I feel like a lot of the community has forgotten what kind of game we are playing. Despite my love for the game, it does not distract from the fact that I am playing a GAMBLING game.

Gambling by nature can not be ethical, and cannot be reformed, and is predatory by design. You can walk into the casino, and no matter how much you leave with the house will always win. HSR has always been predatory, and will continue to engage in predatory practices because they have no incentive to stop under capitalism.

From a capitalist business perspective, they are making the absolute right moves to get players to spend money so that they can continue development. Yes, they feed off of FOMO, yes they are banking on you caring so much about clearing this 1% of content that you are willing shill out money. No, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. This will not stop, and it has always been this way. No amount of bitching online will reform this.

This is why it is up to players to decide how much they allow themselves to be preyed on. If you CHOOSE to engage in a gambling game, that is widely known as a genre to be extremely predatory, it is your responsibility to be a smart consumer and to protect yourself.

I’m not saying it is ethical, I’m not saying it is right, what I am saying is that that is the truth and the reality of this type of game. Under capitalism, they have no reason to not be predatory. So we must be smart consumers.

That means if being f2p, clearing every single bit of content, and clearing it with your favorite units is important to you, you need to be able to operate under the knowledge that the cards are stacked against you, and they are by design, and you need to invest in the character you want to use, instead of pulling for every shiny new toy.

That is the nature of these games. I choose to engage with it, so I am realistic with what I will get out of it. If that’s not for you, that is valid, there are a lot of great JRPGs that I can recommend playing instead

I just don’t want us as a community to forget what content we are choosing engage with. I’m not saying this to be harsh, I’m saying this because I feel like sometimes we need a reality check (I know I do) that reminds us that we are gambling at the end of the day, and there’s no way to win in gambling. PLEASE protect yourselves as consumers if you are also choosing to engage in this form of gaming.

As long as capitalism stands, HSR will not change because there is no incentive for them to cater to f2p, because they will always cater to the people willing to shill out money. We need to be realistic with what we are engaging with.

Thank u for coming to my TED talk.