As we hid widely, Pokemon TCG pocket is a beautiful mobile card game version of the 30-year-0ld trading card game, but also a wide open door to the mechanics of gambling. It's shocking to realize that early on in your time with the game, it will allow you to pour in as much as 720 Poké Gold per day to open new packs, meaning it will only set players back around $105. The day. That's what one Japanese player has been spending as he celebrates getting his 50,000th card.
The responsible person, as reported by AutomatonJapanese YouTuber is Hajimesyacho. Costing about 14,000 yen a day, it has opened the most packs of Pokémon cards possible since the game launched about 12 weeks ago. That works out to almost $9,000, although it would be fair to take advantage of monthly discount offers, probably making the total cost closer to $8,500. Bargain for a mobile card game!
Now, I wish I could painfully report that I never spent a single cent on it Pokemon TCG pocketbut this would be a big lie. I have, in fact, paid for the God-awful Premium Pass for three months in a row (partly out of a naive belief that the company could finally see fit to send some meaningful missions to the battle pass, and partly because I'm as good. dumb as anyone and just want that extra packet every day), along with a couple of times where I – with plenty of guilt – paid real money for a handful of imaginary gold coins. I wanted to open even more folders, okay!? Is it worth it? No! Of course not! But I got to watch the little animation rip so many times, and the dopamine feedback loop is real. But I've spent maybe $50 total? With that, I have drawn a total of 1,476 cards.
In fact, Hajimesyacho is playing with YouTube money. He has 15.5 million subscribers on his channelwith regular viewing numbers in the seven digits, so it costs money to make money. (Why he's playing in French, I have no idea.) It's the kind of goof you can do in that situation. But it also really underscores how ridiculous the spending limits on the game are.
I go back and forth on this subject – catch me in an hour and I might have changed my mind – but when something is so close to gambling, I feel that there should at least be a way to set personal spending limits within the app. It is currently possible to spend $38,235 a year opening incoming packages pocket, and I'm not entirely sure that half the average US salary is how much Pokémon should be willing to fork out for one customer. And to be clear, this is the amount you can spend just opening a pack – you can keep buying more gold if you want.
In fact, there is no way to profit financially from playing Pocket PTCGso at least he stops short of getting any of the resale market of the game in the world. even when trade ends this monthcannot be converted into money through third party apps or similar. But there is still this lingering problem that the more packs you buy, the better your chance of drawing the rarest cards, and believe me, the draw is strong. These beautiful things are just out of your reach, and if you only pay a a little morethey could be yours!
You can fully enjoy the mobile game without ever spending a pennybut obviously The Pokémon Company doesn't want you to. Although let me prove, while I've been weak a couple of times, I've still drawn a series of really nice cards, mostly on the daily grind.
Of course, as we learn that there aren't really that many random elements in the game (the pack you get from the carousel seems to be predetermined, and it's now widely believed to Wonder Picks has decided the same for you) , I notice that in the last few days, I have been very coincidentally suddenly filling in a bunch of obvious blanks in my Genetic Apex Pokédex. And yes, it could be random luck, but a lot of them have certainly appeared. And that! But also, hmmm.
Anyway, the point is, don't be like Hajimesyacho, if you, like Hajimesyacho, don't have more money than you know how to spend. He might open a couple of packages a day and then give some money to charity?
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