Hoyo games and recent politics
Dec. 1st, 2025 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoRecently, the HSR forums/reddit has been abuzz with rumors that the upcoming entire 4.0 storyline is in danger because it's JP based, and is getting self-censored due to the recent political climate. The fact that announcement of the 3.8 patch infodump (scheduled for tomorrow) also came with the note that drip marketing for 4.0 won't be included, with no dates given for the delay...isn't helping.
Not sure what this means for the game as a whole. Like, we can't exactly hope that the politics side will die down over the course of the 3.8 patch. We also don't know if the original 4.0 story/setting was entirely or partially or only tangentially affected. So, I guess a lot is up in the air and just...wait and see is all I can do.
That said, the banner for 3.8 is uninteresting to me so far. Maybe second half will have some good reruns. Otherwise I will likely not be pulling anything. Given the amount of pulls I have built up, I am actually feeling less and less incentive to log in every day for the small amount of daily gems.
And I dunno, I feel like I've pretty much lost the spark that got me interested in the game in the first place. The characters/faction I liked are either languishing on the back burner, or get lackluster updates in terms of story. Like, the aftermath of Amphoreus absolutely did not do Jing Yuan or the entire Xianzhou faction any favors in the depiction. The tone of the story is making them into the source of future problems, rather than stalwart allies of the protagonist like the Genius Society or even Belobog (even though they can't offer any help aside from cheering from the sides).
And then my favorite character Dan Heng has pretty much got reduced to vanilla next door boyfriend caricature with his latest SP. While I disliked the horrible writing of the Cloud Quintet, at least that had something for the audience to write about.
...Ugh, I started writing this entry with my thoughts on playing Genshin so far but I guess it got away from me. Anyway, it's been most of a month and I finished the 3rd nation so far. Still haven't gotten to real endgame yet, and my character levels are still hovering around 70-ish (out of 90 max). So in that respect, I still don't feel I can really talk about my full experience with the game.
The return to MMO-esque gaming has actually made me miss GW2, of all things. For one, I miss the much easier character progression -- GW2 didn't really need to farm for decent gear (short of ascended gear or legendaries, but I never bothered with ascended armor anyway). And GW2 didn't need to grind for skills.
Also, the gliding mechanic is pretty much the same, but I feel like the gliding in GW2 was much more responsive than in Genshin. I can't count the number of times I jump off a ledge and press space, but the glider doesn't deploy or gets deployed too late and thus I miss the mark I'm trying to fly to. -_-
That isn't to say I plan to go back to GW2. I have seen youtube ads to know there's been at least 2 or 3 expansions since I quit. But the art and ambience...eh, I still like the anime-esque art style better, I guess.
The time investment I have for Genshin is rather grueling though, even if I am trying to control myself. Maybe it'll get better after I have at least one main team leveled to max. Hopefully?
I'm withholding judgment for now. I will keep playing at least past the CNY patch, since that's usually when there are Liyue centric story event updates. Then I will decide if I want to keep investing time to the game or stick it on the back burner and look for greener pastures.
Note to self for future time reference...
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Archon_Quest_Achievements
Not sure what this means for the game as a whole. Like, we can't exactly hope that the politics side will die down over the course of the 3.8 patch. We also don't know if the original 4.0 story/setting was entirely or partially or only tangentially affected. So, I guess a lot is up in the air and just...wait and see is all I can do.
That said, the banner for 3.8 is uninteresting to me so far. Maybe second half will have some good reruns. Otherwise I will likely not be pulling anything. Given the amount of pulls I have built up, I am actually feeling less and less incentive to log in every day for the small amount of daily gems.
And I dunno, I feel like I've pretty much lost the spark that got me interested in the game in the first place. The characters/faction I liked are either languishing on the back burner, or get lackluster updates in terms of story. Like, the aftermath of Amphoreus absolutely did not do Jing Yuan or the entire Xianzhou faction any favors in the depiction. The tone of the story is making them into the source of future problems, rather than stalwart allies of the protagonist like the Genius Society or even Belobog (even though they can't offer any help aside from cheering from the sides).
And then my favorite character Dan Heng has pretty much got reduced to vanilla next door boyfriend caricature with his latest SP. While I disliked the horrible writing of the Cloud Quintet, at least that had something for the audience to write about.
...Ugh, I started writing this entry with my thoughts on playing Genshin so far but I guess it got away from me. Anyway, it's been most of a month and I finished the 3rd nation so far. Still haven't gotten to real endgame yet, and my character levels are still hovering around 70-ish (out of 90 max). So in that respect, I still don't feel I can really talk about my full experience with the game.
The return to MMO-esque gaming has actually made me miss GW2, of all things. For one, I miss the much easier character progression -- GW2 didn't really need to farm for decent gear (short of ascended gear or legendaries, but I never bothered with ascended armor anyway). And GW2 didn't need to grind for skills.
Also, the gliding mechanic is pretty much the same, but I feel like the gliding in GW2 was much more responsive than in Genshin. I can't count the number of times I jump off a ledge and press space, but the glider doesn't deploy or gets deployed too late and thus I miss the mark I'm trying to fly to. -_-
That isn't to say I plan to go back to GW2. I have seen youtube ads to know there's been at least 2 or 3 expansions since I quit. But the art and ambience...eh, I still like the anime-esque art style better, I guess.
The time investment I have for Genshin is rather grueling though, even if I am trying to control myself. Maybe it'll get better after I have at least one main team leveled to max. Hopefully?
I'm withholding judgment for now. I will keep playing at least past the CNY patch, since that's usually when there are Liyue centric story event updates. Then I will decide if I want to keep investing time to the game or stick it on the back burner and look for greener pastures.
Note to self for future time reference...
https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Archon_Quest_Achievements
