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Reddit genshin impact11/10/2023 Instead of trying to hide its thirst for these characters, the community openly embraces it-it's fun for them, clearly, but also represents success for a carefully manufactured monetization scheme. A lot of subreddits are keen to draw a hard line between suggestive and NSFW fanart, but the Genshin Impact community seems perfectly happy to put their stocking-covered toes right up to the line on a daily basis. The result is that, for a lot of us, browsing the Genshin Impact subreddit in public is a risky venture. For better and for worse, it has succeeded. MiHoYo wants players to desire its characters. But it's fascinating how the Genshin Impact community has embraced this relationship so openly, and how it's created such a vibrant and lively subreddit. I don't point this out to shame or condescend to the artists and players who contribute to this cyclone of lust. It probably won't surprise you to learn that there's already mountains of Genshin Impact porn, too.Ĭredit: KeboHan on Reddit. That might also help explain why Overwatch, a game that didn't do much to sexualize its characters, spawned an entire cottage industry of high-quality porn. It's all offloaded into the player's imagination to be turned into fanfiction, memes, and, yes, pictures of girls wearing little more than stockings. The game itself is mostly about beating up monsters and grinding for loot, not building relationships in the same way you do in Mass Effect or Dragon Age. When it comes to Genshin Impact, though, that attachment isn't experienced by proxy through a main protagonist (there is a main character in Genshin Impact, but they're silent and can even be taken out of your party altogether). That emotional connection is a core part of what makes a game good, but it's also a commodity that can be repackaged and sold to you again and again. It's the fuel for an entire merchandising industry that sells DLC costumes, figurines, and $1,500 clothing apparel. RPGs like Dragon Age and Mass Effect are built with attractive characters like Morrigan and Garrus because it enhances the drama of the story by giving it emotional stakes. For decades games have been designed with characters that appeal, arouse, and excite players. Though Riot and MiHoYo are pushing the boundaries, the strategy is nothing new. The endgame was simple: Riot wanted people to buy Seraphine. One of League of Legends' recent additions, Seraphine, drew a lot of criticism for how Riot was fudging the line between reality and fiction in trying to make her seem like a real human being. That Genshin Impact's biggest product is an emotional attachment to fictional characters might feel manipulative, but it's not as if Genshin is unique in this respect. Her in-game abilities have to be strong, sure, but she also needs to be equally charming and-as is the case with a lot of Genshin's characters-attractive to a lot of players.Ĭredit: daruo_0 on Reddit. When a new addition to the roster, like ice-archer Ganyu, pops up, MiHoYo is trying to make her as desirable as possible on multiple levels. It's a subtle but important shift: Beyond selling characters, MiHoYo is also selling the ability to build a relationship with them. "We asked ourselves why we would want to pay? It’s because we love a certain virtual character that we become willing to pay for her," Liu said at a Chinese gaming conference in 2017. Liu Wei, one of three of MiHoYo's co-founders, has said previously that its monetization model is all about "paying for love." It was an intentional departure from the pay-to-win microtransactions so prevalent in many of China's most popular free-to-play games. It's also exactly what developer MiHoYo intended. Sandwiched between a game that's both extremely fun to play and mostly devoid of in-your-face microtransactions, Genshin Impact is an easy game to fall in love with. They each have distinctive personalities carefully revealed through every catchy one-liner, idle pose, and funny bit of quest dialogue. They're not only beautifully drawn (and rendered in-game), but also given a lot of life through voice-acted story quests and written biographies that cover everything from their childhood to their favorite foods. If you've played Genshin Impact for even a few hours, it's easy to see why players have forged such strong relationships with these characters.
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