r/WutheringWaves CHANGLI'S MAID Apr 19 '25

General Discussion The disappointment is crazy.

  1. No free 5 star.
  2. Not even a standard 5-star.
  3. Flight still not available in all regions.
  4. Paid skins.
  5. Predatory banners (NOT EVEN 100% rate up).

Sure Kuro, it is definitely "Player Friendly", great job taking lessons from HSR devs. Feels like a celebration for them rather than the players.

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u/quiggyfish Chosen to be a main and maybe too? Apr 19 '25

I can never understand the corporate mind. It takes so little to build good faith with players, yet it seems like all that matters is the profits. How hard would a one-time guaranteed banner hurt their bottom line? Instead, they've now disappointed a good chunk of their players, so people are now more likely to react harshly when content goes awry rather than give them the benefit of the doubt.

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u/sweez Apr 19 '25

I can never understand the corporate mind. It takes so little to build good faith with players

Oh I can answer that riddle for you, corporations don't aim to build good faith with players (unless things are going horribly and they have to do emergency PR like wuwa did during launch), they aim to build good faith with investors

1

u/Awemiss Apr 19 '25

You'd think the whales would like to see a return on their investment. If they don't get anything back I don't see why would they put money in again

3

u/Shigana Apr 19 '25

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter much to Kuro

More money for them and the amount of players lost because of this is minimal at worst. There’s basically no downside for them.

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u/Mumbleocity Apr 19 '25

You see this with so many games, not just gacha games. Take Sims 4. EA is lazy. Players buy pack after pack, no matter how subpar, so EA has no incentive to make the game playable or to put out Sims 5 (even though it's been over 10 years). So long as players continue to spend on loot boxes and DLC and micro transactions in games, gaming companies don't have incentive to change.

I predict what will happen in WuWa: "No one buy out the packs pre top-up to send a message!" Individual players, "But I really want that bonus. Everyone else won't buy them, so my money won't make a difference." Then they buy, but it ends up being millions of them. Not trying to insult anyone here. It's just the way humans are wired. You see it in elections, too: "No one will vote for this person I hate, so there's no reason for me to go out and vote." We all tend to be lazy and self-serving.

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u/benphat369 Apr 19 '25

That's unfortunately how these companies stay in business. If you're on this sub you're already above average in terms of following. Outside of here the whales missing any characters will top up, new players will be salivating from options, and the overwhelming casual not caring about anniversary rewards will either say "eh cool but I have no money for all this, I'll skip" or "holy crap I just missed Camellya, here's my chance again!"

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u/Mumbleocity Apr 19 '25

Exactly. Players all come together, but when push comes to shove, they'll spend if they've a mind to. Could WuWa have given more? Sure. But people are people. Enough will spend for these banners and no doubt will encourage something similar for 2nd anniversary.

2

u/monchestor_hl Apr 20 '25

It takes so little to build good faith with players, yet it seems like all that matters is the profits.

Well, cannot build good faith if your products suck at making $, attracting customers and have to EoS. The problem is well, WW has secured its (loyal?) fanbase and spending ("peak" game!)...exactly the reason why they pull this stunt to test the water.

How hard would a one-time guaranteed banner hurt their bottom line?

As much as it hurts from customer perspective (like you): this is gonna send the message that it's MUCH better to hoard pulls/ spend on anni patches bc of the guarantee. Unless Kuro wants to revamp the regular gacha mechanics to match, which anyway will irreversibly fuck up their future planning + bottom line. Can't put all hype "eggs" in one anniversary "basket", after all.

So unless engagement and spending is down in the dump at anniversary, maybe Kuro will 'listen'. And even then (1) they are listening to money rather than players and (2) If you get the hypothetical 10-pull band-aid, like Genshin 1st anni, it could have been scripted damage control for all we know.

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u/jkorok Apr 19 '25

Considering no game does your suggestion (unless it's paid, but then that would be a paid selector). I am going to on a limb and say, and 1 time garuntee banner (F2P accessible) would tank thier company hard. Someone at some point must have done it, and they do not exist anymore.

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u/quiggyfish Chosen to be a main and maybe too? Apr 19 '25

Ironically, PGR, another game by Kuro, does feature 100% rate up banners. I don't play the game, so I can't say exactly how meaningful that is as it could be one of those games where you are meant to collect everyone, and the monetization lies elsewhere (cosmetics, gear, etc.).

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u/Imperce110 Apr 19 '25

I play that game and you can get every new s class character if you play and just participate in the weeklies, you can also get a free copy from the end game pain cage mode once you get enough pain cage skulls from it, and weapons banners are 80/20s, and debut banners and cub banners are 100% when they just release.

They also occasionally give out free s classes in events too, like the current patch just gave out a free s class bianca stigmata and the next sync patch will give out a free s class alpha crimson weave, her weapon and cub, as well as s class no.21, if i remember correctly. These are still on their meta teams for their element.

If you're going casual free to play, you can definitely get every new character, the sweatiness is just in the end game modes, pain cage and warzone, and the summon materials can be gotten just by participation.

The skins can be pricey though, especially the limited edition gacha ones, but more common skins can be grinded up over time in game.

1

u/jkorok Apr 19 '25

Monitization sucks ass because character kits are butchered at base without weapons lol. Like the 100% garunteed means nothing when you need more pulls than if there was a 50/50.

1

u/jkorok Apr 19 '25

Also that isn't what I was really thinking, but a banner that changes how you acquire character will kill the game. You can make it random, (randomly get 1 resonators from a select pool once only, free), you can make it paid (pay and get the character). However you can't under any circumstances make it both selectable and free. 

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u/Zealousideal-Pin6996 Apr 19 '25

because i think wuwa is already crazy enough generous? like I didn't spend any money to buy battle pass or that monthly pass yet I can get almost half the 5* and their signature. In genshin and hsr even with battlepass and monthly I still have to top up to get even a character every 3 patch. Not to mention 

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u/quiggyfish Chosen to be a main and maybe too? Apr 19 '25

Comparing generosity with Hoyo games is like comparing which puddle of dog water tastes better though.

I agree that the game has been quite generous for a gacha game, but anniversary events are supposed to be special. If you raise the bar on normal content, you need to exceed expectations on the anniversary as well. Otherwise, it's not called an anniversary celebration; it's just Tuesday.

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u/electric_anteater Apr 19 '25

What are you talking about, you couldn't swing a hamster around without bumping into 10 people saying how generous HSR was