It’s pretty obvious I’m not opposed to gacha machines when I create gacha sets myself. Recently, however, Gogo brought up a pretty interesting conversation on Plurk about what’s okay to include in a gacha and what isn’t.
By the way. Is it gatcha, or gacha? How do you spell that? Because I’m pretty torn on that issue.
Anyway, here are my personal rules for content creation when it comes to Random Stuff You Stick In A Machine In Order To Get Money:
- Don’t set the playing price too high. I’ve seen some gacha machines charging 75/play or higher. Are you crazy? The only way I would play that is if there were relatively valuable items for commons, or if I truly wanted to win the rare.
- Don’t bait-and-switch your customer. Some machines show rare prizes on one sign, then farther below are the common prizes you’re more than likely to win. Come on, you don’t have to trick us into paying you for anything. If we want your rare prize, we’ll play anyway, right?
- Don’t use mesh templates for gacha prizes if you aren’t going to add unique textures to them. WHY? Why do this? For a few hundred more Ls, we can snag the original, full-perm item on Marketplace. It would be one thing if the art you add to the template were outstanding and worth it alone, but an everyday item with forgettable textures? That’s rude. Make it truly unique if you want to use mesh templates.
Gacha(gatcha?) machines are supposed to be fun to play. The dress I’m wearing in this picture, for example, is from Junbug and had reasonable common prizes to win on top of the rare corset I wanted as well. I was fine with playing the machine over and over in order to obtain what I desired. It’s an even deal when your machine is set up that way; both creator and customer walk away happy.
But when the practice gets out of control, it’s giving your client base the short end of the stick. They aren’t your enemy and they aren’t obligated to be your source of income. Treat them with respect when you create your machines, and they’ll come back to play again and again.
What I’m Wearing
Pink Fuel Skin
Junbug – Madame Corbeau’s corset (rare)/silk ruffles/split silk skirt (Ivory)
Blueberry – Tiara (hair fair gift)
Dura – Girl’s hair 51 (Strawberry)
Location: 005: Dreams of Secrets
About Post Author
It’s gacha. In Japan they have vending machines that give you a toy in a capsule. Gacha machines.
Thank you! I’m glad to know my instincts on spelling it were right.
I think one really important one that should be included in this list of Gacha Etiquette is this:
Do not ever sell gacha items seperately at regular store prices outside of the machine. If you sell it after the event, it needs to stay in a gacha machine with the same probability of getting rares. The ONLY exception to this is if you made the option to BUY ALL- from the very beginning that the gacha machine was presented to the public, then you can continue to do that as well as the machine (as long as the prices stay the same).
Yes! I can imagine that would make a lot of people angry, especially if they spent a ton to get the rare they wanted.
Oh yeah and I think someone in Japan should really answer this, but it comes from their word which in English sounds like gachapon (ガチャポン). Due to this, I think the appropriate English spelling of this is commonly Gacha.
I can’t agree with you, Kirsten. My inventory is full of past gocha items, but I got fed up with gochas where there were 30 or more items and the chances of getting the few rares was next to none. I just went on strike and refuse to play at all. The ONLY way I will buy a gocha item is at a market where I pay for only what I want.
Regardless of one’s opinion of gachas, I think it’s highly unreasonable to expect people sell their extras by setting out another gotcha machine instead of putting their items up for direct sale at one of the many markets.
Sometimes I wait for a creator to put their gacha machine out at their store instead of an event, and then I go by and play the ones I really like. If I want a rare, I go buy it on MP.
I disagree that Junbug’s gachas are reasonable. Usually the common prizes are ones that I don’t want, so I end up not playing at all. I don’t want a couple dozen of a common item I never wanted in the first place to try to get the rare item, which for Junbug, is generally a dress. The best gacha machines, IMO, are the ones where there is one prize, but maybe in different colors. So you get the thing, though maybe not in the color you wanted with the first few plays. I dislike the gacha machines that have a common prize that no one wants. 🙁 Then it feels like what you described…the customer is the enemy and is being played.
Some of Junbug’s machines I don’t play for that reason. A few of them, though, every item served my needs so I played that particular machine a lot.
Also, 75L per play or more seems to becoming more and more common. I think that’s unfortunate, and it makes me avoid those gacha machines. I think 25-50L should really be the limit since it’s gambling. And if you really want something, you end up having to play 5-10 times, so the creator is getting about the same as a customer would play for a full price item.
Exactly!
I don’t do gacha. http://ccslfashionista.blogspot.com/2014/03/just-say-no-to-gacha-and-few-more.html
I totally agree with your entry.
what bothers me is when they have two or maybe three rares, but then they have something near 40 other smaller prizes that might be worth the pull price, but makes it almost impossible to get the rare . there was a beautiful house i was trying to pull for at the arcade. but because of the other 30 or more prizes in the vendor too,i got only the same small items over and over and gave up. i paid around 500L and gave up because it seemed unfair. in the end, i ended up buying it from a gatcha reseller for around 1500 per peice (yes! not all cottage house peices came togather. there were two major peices. which in total cost me 3500.)
i really wish they made the rares easyer to get, i might have paid more directly to the creators gacha vendor if they had made it more fair.
i will mention one brand which was more fair rare wise. Anc. they have rares and commons, but they dont have many many small common items to wade through in the hopes you will get one rare. i paid around 400 or 500 for example at there gacha vendor. after three or four tries i got there moonboat rare. it was wonderfull! and just want i was after. but after getting it i realized the other items, though not rares were equaly beautiful, so i spent another 500l or so for more from them. i got allot of the same, but because of lovely rare like items like there glitter balloons i didnt mind.
Thank you for visiting the blog! I agree. When I see a gacha with a ton of commons, I don’t play it at all. I’d rather go buy the rare from a reseller.
It has been a very long time since I played an actual gacha, mostly for these reasons. I haven’t been to the Arcade in over a year because I always left feeling swindled even though that seems to still be fairly popular. Any gacha item I actually want I just search for re-sellers now on the market if I _must_ have it. Feel funny saying it since many enjoy gacha events but I’m pretty much done with them, event or in the creator’s store, even if I really like an item that is in one. I mean if you go to gamble, I get that, I suppose its just not my thing.
I think Junbug gachas are a rip off with far too many items and too many colours. I know it’s chance but once I got the same colour set of sleeves 4 times in a row and a whole bunch of other items that matched nothing else I won! I refuse to play her machines anymore.
But for most gacha things I go to resellers to get the items I want and if the rare is really worth it then I’ll pay the price to a reseller.
Yeah, I got this dress when she had a gacha sale, I wouldn’t go back now.
These gatcha remind me rng-boxes from mmo games. It really pisses off that you have to gable to obtain the desired item with no other way to get it. They should realise that not everyone loves gabling. I think gatcha creators should leave the opportunity for direct purchase without having to deal with rng. Another option is to include some sort of rare version of the commonly available item to gatcha, e.g. with unique color or some minor changes in geometry.
I think I was not understood. I meant a CREATOR selling the items in their stores after the Gacha event, not regular people that are re-selling their gacha items at a yard sale. I sell my items at a yard sale also. I was talking about the creators selling their gacha items in their stores after the event like regular items so that you can just go in and buy the rare item. I have seen it happen a few times and it is wrong because other people spent a fortune trying to pull for that rare item. They would not have done that if they had known the item would be for sale later.
I think creators should be allowed to sell the item, including rares normally after the event. It’s their item in the first place, why should Gacha event organizers get so much say? Now maybe they should have to wait a while, between 3 and 6 months, but still…they should be allowed to sell the gacha item in non-gacha regular form eventually.
I hate gachas. It’s become the cool thing on SL though it has seemed to be fading a bit. I too refuse to play because I find it greedy and obnoxious.
I lived in Japan for 22 years and I still go back. Gacha became illegal in Japan and it’s gone now. This Gacha stuff in SL needs to end. I rarely even go to creators stores now and the worst part is the prices and everything said in the blog post. Also things are no copy and lots of my friends rip the meshes right out of the cache now because they lose things and after paying 3500 for some rare that took 45 tries to get, you want insurance on it.
I love C88, Fameshed, N21 and Uber and love going to events like those – but any that have gacha machines need to go. Most of the people I know avoid gacha now because it’s a terrible, greedy and overpriced trend in SL that I wish the Lindens would put a stop to.
The Buy All option would be good as long as it’s priced at something reasonable. Not 10 or 15 dollars for a set of things, prices that are half the price of a retail PC games that has more content is crazy in the brain.