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Pokemon Masters EX Delivers on 25 Years of Nostalgia

It's easy to be sceptical about gacha games, but with events and challenges being added frequently, Pokémon Masters EX can be rewarding without spending a single cent.

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It's easy to be sceptical about gacha games, but with events and challenges being added frequently, Pokémon Masters EX can be rewarding without spending a single cent.

This is what nearly everyone says about their favorite gacha game and it's this reasoning that's made my distaste for them even stronger.

How are most people able to play without spending anything? Because someone is paying for it. Who? How much are they spending? Five dollars here and there? 10? 100? 5,000? More than they should?

I don't know, you don't know, and so it almost seems unfair to bring up when we don't know. But we know the stories of how people can get addicted to these and spend too much, and we know these games absolutely go out of their way to twist the arm at every turn - maybe not your arm, but someone's.

"Who's paying for it? Who cares? Look at all the free stuff they just gave me!!"

I'm not saying anyone's a jerk for playing these things at all (I feel this way from playing them), but I'm just disturbed how much handwaving is done these days.

Admittedly, I nearly didn't post because that's the exact same response I always get. "Well I spend money just because I like it!", and some form of "you don't understand how it works" or "you've never actually played a gacha game", etc.

None of that means these games don't specifically profit from methods that encourage people to spend well beyond what is reasonable for them. That's the thing of it: as I've said, neither you nor I can see directly how other people are spending. We don't know how much your favorite game benefits from individuals who are susceptible to the tactics these games use to keep them spending, to the point of unhealthy addiction.

I think not knowing can be comforting, because then you can assume whatever you want. "My game is one of the nice ones, I spend a smart amount (or nothing at all), so there's no problem". In my case, without knowing and seeing how these games operate, I can't help but be skeptical.

It's great you're enjoying the game you like. I am not attacking you for playing it, or even for spending money on it. But I do not like how easily people dismiss what these games can do to certain individuals.

Kicksville wrote:

It's great you're enjoying the game you like. I am not attacking you for playing it, or even for spending money on it. But I do not like how easily people dismiss what these games can do to certain individuals.

Hm, I can see your point, and it can lead to unhealthy addiction as you said, there's also a lot of dangers of sending money on things that won't benefit you directly, like it won't earn you money or gain you something that will have worth in real life, but that's mostly with any purchase you make, whether it pay to see a movie, buying some of kind of toy, of course those will have more effect in life than a gacha in app purchase, but you can see where I'm going with this. And games that are f2p are much more popular (unless your Genshin) since they feel more free to have the person buy in app purchases or not, and games that try to take advantage of you or force you to have the most overpowered equipment or people to clear something, don't do as well, since when both are money wasted, at least the f2p type game feels more fair.

I had a really fun time with Pokemon Masters and honestly I'd probably still be playing it if I didn't lose my account when I switched phones.

So this game isn’t canon