Games are an extremely powerful art form, and giga companies know how to exploit that power to be absolutely parasitic. Please avoid gacha if you can. You're not wrong for engaging in it, the company is wrong for creating it, but please recognize who makes gacha games and why

I hope the broader conversation doesn't stop at gacha and we can start to examine all sorts of games under the lens of whether they benefit players more than they take away

This may be a controversial take, but I believe it's important to examine whether what you're playing hinges more on extrinsic or intrinsic reward. In other words, is more of your playtime spent doing things you enjoy, or is it spent focused on what the next reward is?

It's much more nuanced than just "intrinsic good, extrinsic bad," but in general, I believe it's important to keep a critical eye open when a game is showering you with rewards for doing things you don't care about on their own terms

One of my favorite examples of a game that uses extrinsic reward super well is Pokemon Go. While the fantasy and the throwing mechanics can be engaging on their own, the reward structure encourages players to get exercise and socialize in their local community

The takeaway, for me, is that a good reward structure will encouraged you to do things the devs truly believe you may find worthwhile. Taking walks is obviously worthwhile for almost everyone, but so can just, say, learning a game's systems well enough to get an S rank