NIB
Sure but then you only waste your time. Some more casual gachas, like star rail, are deliberately designed to be casual, in order to increase their retention rate(ie keep most of the players playing in the long term). They dont require much time daily(you can afk do the dailies in the background within 5mins) and while there is replayable content, it isnt necessary and eventually you will be done with that too.
Some gachas are more hardcore, demanding more time, which enables them to have a smaller pool of players who are more dedicated(ie less likely to quit because of sunk cost).
I assume addiction rates are higher on those gachas, then again mainstream casual gachas like star rail, have tens of millions of players, so maybe they have more "addicted" players(total, not as a percentage).
A better comparison would be alcohol. Many people consume alcohol but very few people become alcoholics. Maybe it is genetic predisposition or environmental/mental factors that lead people to abusing it.
Similarly with gachas, millions of people play them as free to play, without ever spending money. A lot of people spend 10-20€ a month and very few people spend hundreds or thousands of euro every month.
As far as honkai star rail is concerned, i enjoy the story, environments, music and the characters and i recommend it. You dont need to spend and you can do everything(or miss like 5% of the rewards, if you dont want to tryhard) without ever spending money.
The main selling point of the game is the story and you can do that with any characters. If you dont want to participate in the endgame, you can ignore it. Ultimately it is a singleplayer turned based "rpg", though it is actually just an anime+idle game. Every 40 days, you get a new episode/season.
Star Rail isnt an mmo. And while it has many "progression mechanics", they are slowly introduced to the player. And once you understand them, you dont really need to think that much about them. It is basically an anime+idle game.
You watch your anime episode every now and then and you afk farm daily for a couple mins(so that your characters slowly become stronger). You dont need to think loads of time to understand them but i guess it depends on what you mean by loads of times. Maybe i have played many games(mobile and conventional), so i dont have any issues with the systems.
If you want to build a character, you can choose them and the game will highlight their ideal "gear" and "stats", though those recommendations arent always perfect. If you want to tryhard, you can use this site
https://www.prydwen.gg/star-rail/tier-list/
And see what gear and stats are ideal for your character. Or just use your brain. Most dps like crit damage/rate, attack and speed. Most supports really love speed. Or watch a guoba video about the character you want to gear. Ultimately, if you afk grind gear, it doesnt take a giant brain to understand that the dps set, wants dps stats, or that the break set wants break damage stats.
I used to believe that too, because it was pointless. But it seems that i was wrong. The fact that it was pointless, means that the corporations felt comfortable with using and abusing that to maximize profit. The fact that they are afraid to do that, indicates how fucked things are now.
So i am ok with corporations using movements for marketing reasons, because ultimately this is the canary in the mine. If the corporations consider it a brand risk, then society is moving towards the wrong direction.
They use the same terms of service for mobile games and they just dont bother to change it for pc games.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_Iraq_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_reactions_to_the_prelude_to_the_Iraq_War
"On January 29, 2003, the European Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution opposing unilateral military action against Iraq by the United States. According to the resolution, "a pre-emptive strike would not be in accordance with international law and the UN Charter and would lead to a deeper crisis involving other countries in the region""
"France, Germany and Russia were from the very outset publicly opposed to a US-led war"
"Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Austria and Liechtenstein also condemned the war. The Czech Republic, Croatia, and Slovenia were already mentioned above"
Most european governments opposed the invasion, and most people, even from the european countries that sent troops, opposed it. The invasion of Iraq significantly deteriorated the relations between the european states and america.
As automation/robotics/ai get better, humans transform from an asset to a liability. Fewer people means fewer protestors/rioters/revolutionaries/universal income recipients/whatever.
But they did shut down the dota 2 gambling. I dont know why cs is different.
Valve cracked down on dota gambling many years ago and since then, i dont think it is a thing anymore. However, normal gambling(for dota games or conventional sports) is the primary sponsor of most dota tournaments/teams.
Yes but even with 25% VAT, it should have been 875 USD. And in other countries, it is 800€ (830 USD). Amazon.de sells it for 800€(sold by Amazon) and even delivers it to Sweden(for 15€). Amazon.se doesnt have the ps5 pro for some reason.
I think Sony was willing to take a small loss in Eurozone, so that it can have a nice round price(800€).
Meanwhile in Sweden, it is 944 USD.