i hate to admit it but my frustration with arknights has grown lately. the story still largely excites me as does playing actual stages and through strategies. it's an often good and sometimes great strategy game! and i love seeing fanart and fics of it, it's the most lovely thing.
it just feels like the monetization and engagement aspects are catching up to me. "dead weeks" isn't an issue for me with any game. but being heavily encouraged to log in twice daily to shuffle nonsense tasks for twenty minutes to keep up is. and there's just so much more of the latter.
so, time for an extended break? NO, says the monetization team, because most of our new content is time limited! can't just come back in 6 months to catch up on new mechanics, all of those stages are gone (they return ~1 year after the original run so it's only after that where you can return to a "deluge" of new content). nice break, loser.
i hate this craving for constant attention. i hate the gacha monetization. i hate limited operators and the thought of how my play is funded by whales, some or possibly many of whom pay more than they can afford and still may not get the operators they want. i hate the always online aspect and that the game will at some point just vanish completely as its servers are shut down. i hate that young gamers are introduced from the start to games where paying for every in game action, character and even skin is the norm.
but i still like the game itself. joke's on me