Touhou

Ebisu-san Getting the Blame

Man, I just cannot get over the fact that Eika is the spirit of a dead fucking fetus. That's, like, genuinely upsetting.

Edited by PhysicalStamina on May 22nd 2019 at 6:19:38 AM

On the bright side she herself isn't too distraught over it, in part likely because she never got to enjoy life in the first place.

You just made it sound even more depressing.

I dunno if anyone's been following this at all, but there was a big splash a while ago about ZUN giving permission for people to make a Touhou mobile game (Touhou Cannonball), and I guess it's been a little confusing exactly what kind of game it is? Board game? Turn based RPG?

Anyway, recently on their website they've announced pre-registration rewards, ie: rewards that all players get if there are enough total pre-registrations, and one of these is a "gacha ticket with a guaranteed 4 star or higher pull" which basically confirms that this is a standard gacha game. Although we still don't know their precise monetization model, I guess.

So... high budget Touhou gacha.

Thoughts?

Edited by Clarste on May 22nd 2019 at 3:21:28 AM

nooooooooo

Japan can keep this one.

Eeeehhhh

Does this even count as a doujin game anymore?

Probably, though I do have trouble seeing the distinction between Doujin games and other Indie games beyond geography.

I'm not really familiar with "gacha games", but after looking it up on Wikipedia, the closest I've come is Magic: the Gathering Arena, and the physical Trading Card Game it's based on. Cards come in preconstructed decks and randomized booster packs, but with those, you can always trade the cards you don't need for ones you do with other players or just buy and sell individual cards on the secondary market.

And Arena is Free-to-Play, and besides the starter decks, there are two types of in-game currency to buy booster packs and cosmetic items with; one earned in-game through winning games and completing quests, and another bought with real money. Packs also sometimes contain "wildcards" that can be traded in for any card you want of the same rarity.

Either way, there are some methods of mitigating the randomness so you aren't at the complete mercy of the Random Number God. It remains to be seen if this game will have anything like that, but I never explored Touhou fangames in general and have no real interest in starting now anyway.

Edited by Lightblade on May 22nd 2019 at 9:51:16 AM

Ever heard of Pay to Win Loot Boxes? Especially after that mess with Star Wars Battlefront 2. It's kinda like that.

Just a bucket load of random chance to get even the most basic of stuff with drop-rates that are designed to drive you towards the cash shops to buy more. Basically gambling. Something that should be classified as such. The problems with Gatcha Games and Loot Boxes have been kinda a hot topic this past year or so.

Edited by matteste on May 23rd 2019 at 9:41:06 PM

Magic the Gathering is actually way closer than lootboxes and serves as a great comparison. You need cards simply to play, and while starter decks exist they kinda suck so you really need cards to play. Similarly, in gacha games you basically can't do anything without pulling something good from the gacha.

MTG actually kind of pioneered this business model back with physical card packs, decades before this became a video game thing. The whole concept of rarities as well as their distribution (and the idea of guaranteed 4* pulls) can all be traced back to MTG.

Edited by Clarste on May 23rd 2019 at 2:32:20 AM

Gacha is big business, with the potential (and the intent, really) of getting whales to spend thousands on the game. At that point (assuming gacha tickets can be purchased with real money instead of just being something you can only obtain in-game... the latter of which is never the case to my knowledge) with something of that potentially large a scale, I too would question if that counts as a doujin game, myself.

Edited by TiamatRoar on May 23rd 2019 at 9:17:16 AM

That said there is one key difference between CC Gs like MTG and YGO and Gacha games like FGO and FEH: the cards of physical, whatever you get in gacha games is digital. If a CCG collapses, the cards still exists, if a Gacha game or lootbox goes offline all your stuff gets deleted. You can trade or sell physical cards, but you cannot do the same with the stuff you get in Gacha Games (which is for the best depending on the game).

This meaning that gacha games (and lootboxes) is gambling for goods that will inevitably fade into the ether. Which will mean that any money spent there is as good as any money wasted at casinos.

Well, technically there is also no point in buying magic cards because you could just print out your own (or use tools like Lackey). The only reason to have official cards is if you want to participate in an official tournament, which is certainly something the company will stop supporting eventually.

Not to mention how MTG is literally moving into the digital space with MTG Arena.

Edited by Clarste on May 23rd 2019 at 6:06:25 AM

Personally I kinda think MTG Arena, Pokemon TCG's Official Simulator and Yugioh Duel Links are likely going to be special cases regarding the lootbox discourse due to them being based off the respective card games. With that said, DL has something of a guarantee with getting specific cards and Pokemon's case is tied to buying the physical cardpacks themselves, so I certain they might have a side discussion for lawmakers.

Slightly more On-topic, I'm curious as to Touhou's copyright status given the fangames.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 23rd 2019 at 7:25:49 AM

I was at a convention recently and took the opportunity in artist alley to get art of an obvious yet unexplored grudge match.

Rodent rumble. Squirrel Girl vs Nazrin drawn by Kelly Latham.

Whichever way this goes, someone is getting befriended, hard.

But will the squirrels and mice fight for them, or join paws to overthrow the tyrants?

The latter is unlikely since Squirrel Girl pays her squirrels and she once convinced someone's rat army to unionize.◊

Of course Nazrin's mice seem to get a cut of the profits in that whatever they eat they keep. So that particular trick probably won't work.

Edited by Bocaj on May 23rd 2019 at 12:32:22 PM

Whoever wins, Doctor Doom is screwed.

Koishi, Kurappi !!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️, This is the entrance to hell.

this was just pointed out to me

i don't get it