Depression due to Gacha Games?

Depression due to Gacha Games?

By TReina - Wednesday, May 17, 2017 - No Comments

Have you ever gotten a bout of depression? How about depression due to a game?

For those who follow me, you'll know that I play Love Live School Idol Festival (SIF) a lot and even now when I'm half-out of the fandom, I still enjoy the game and being competitive on it is really fun for me. I have met many wonderful people on the subreddit as well as in the game itself and still keep in contact with them over Discord. And recently, one of my longest friends on there told me she is going to quit the game.

"I think it's giving me depression. I have been getting 1 SR scouts since the new update and now even looking at the scouting page gives me anxiety. It gets difficult to breathe and my vision goes blank... it lasts for hours on end and sometimes I get so depressed over my scouts that I can't bring myself to go to class for days."

Wow, that's...serious.

It isn't difficult to recognize the symptoms of depression, especially with my minor in Psychology, but it always hurts to see friends succumb to it and leave a game they love for that reason. And for the record, this reason isn't rare for gacha games since these gambling types of games really tear away at your mind. Imagine saving for months and getting something crappy for all your scouts... it feels like all your efforts just went down the drain.

And it's not just for games. It's so for kuji as well. I mean... though it is advertised as "winning a prize no matter what you get"---but face it, getting a keychain or stickers (Prize I, H, etc) as opposed to a figure (Prize A, B and the likes), especially of a character you don't fancy... hurts. For a figure collector like myself, at the very least.

As a player of so many gacha games and the occasional kuji, I have had my fair share of disappointments. For instance, scouting 350 gems and 15 tickets for Ball/Victorian set and ending up with neither of the URs. And let me get this out there because both UR Kotori and Nozomi from that set are my dream URs of them.

Despite so, I have never been into depression due to SIF, however I do go into some low moods due to hormones. For those, I get considerably worse due to stress over school and it feels like the worst thing ever on the surface on Earth that can happen to me then... but in hindsight, it's nothing on the level of my friend. The motivation to do things (like getting to school or completing an assignment) would be super low, but I'm still able to get work done despite spending like 30% more time on it than I really should. Going by that, it's probably just mild depression at best so to consider having depression on the level of what my friend is going through -- like I don't want to get out of bed today, I feel like I should just cry in bed because I suck and the world sucks and why do I even exist because I'm just wasting space and resources on this Earth and heck no one wants me to be here either, or even suicidal -- for days on end is simply unthinkable to me.

So are gacha games good for you and when should you take a break from then? From spending?

I'm a fan of gacha games because it is something that keeps me pinning for more. It keeps me thinking that I could have gotten better stuff if I scout several minutes later or scouted more... it's things like that that keeps me playing, and also these same things that tick me off. SIF has more of such salt due to the friend notifications system that gives notifications to all your friends when you get a UR, SSR and SR, which is cool when you are the one who gets the UR but not that cool when one of your friend just scouted 2 copies of your dream UR. I'm serious.

And in addition to that, we also have the lovely subreddit that can be this salty sea at times with the 2 UR (or more) scouts because we all like to pine after what we could have but didn't get.

Gacha games run on the genre of gambling and being addicted to the gacha parts of games basically means you are addicted to gambling. Given, with each 50 gems pull being only 40-odd dollars, the stakes aren't that high as compared to gambling in casinos, and you aren't doing more dangerous stuff like drugs... but you can use that argument almost anywhere are so it doesn't really hold. Hm.

So is being P2P healthy? Why not? I think if you are loving the fun of slight gambling and spending a little to make your gaming life fun, and especially if it doesn't interfere with your life and savings. And if you don't regret spending on a game that will most likely shut down their servers someday... so much... then go ahead!

However, if you ever feel like you need a break or if you get too heartbroken over the gacha aspect, do take a step back and reweigh your options just as my friend did :)

~ Reina-rin

Share This:

• Like
• Tweet
• +
• Pin it

Post Tags:

Games

• Prevoius
• Next