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Gambling addiction

Hello guys,

this is my first and probably my last time on this side, but I wanted to share something even if it isn't something good to know (Excuse me for my english)

I did quit FEH and will now seek for professional help from a doctor or a psychiatrist, because I'm gambling addicted.
Please note that I'm not saying anything against Fire Emblem Heroes or other gatcha games, I just want to spread awareness of the risks playing those games in general or any micro transaction games.
I started playing FEH back in December 2017. I liked the Fire Emblem Game Series and thought that maybe I'll have fun with this game too.
I played it quiet a while. January 2018 and Legendary Ike came on a banner into the game. Me as a little Ike fanboy made jump and jacks when I heard he came into the game. This was the first time I spent about 200 € (~229,26 USD) for the game. Got him to +3 and I was pretty happy.
After that spending I spend regularly little amounts of money to summon more frequently. About 3-4 months later I spended about 800 € (~917,03 USD) in this game. A good friend of mine who also played the game as a Free-2-Play Player talked with me about who much I spent money in this game. So I tried sometime to play the game without really spending anything. It worked for about 3 weeks, but I had often really bad headache, was pretty nervous or sometimes aggressive. Than August came with the CYL 2 Banner and I was really scared at this time. I didn't know if I had the strenght to keep myself from spending money. At the near end from the banner I couldn't hold myself back anymore and spent around 1200 € (~1376,16 USD) to get 2x Hectors, 1x Ephriam and 1x Celica.
I was devastated and cried on that day. I didn't told anyone about this, because I was embarrassed and didn't want to drag someone into my problem.
The next legendary banner came and again I spent around 700€ (~802,83 USD) on that banner. I was called at my home because I didn't went to work on this day. I thought about what I did and thought about my life on that day the whole day long. I said to myself that I need to change things because I can't hold on any longer like that. I fought with myself quiet a bit and even hurt myself once when I tried to buy something again. I was really depressed and sad at this time. Now at the beginning of October I made a point with myself and told my friend about my problem for the first time, how much I spent and how I was in pain because of it. He immediately flew to me to help me out (he's living about 7 hours away from me). I then talked to my familiy with my friend about the problem I had the last months now. With the help of my familiy and my friend I could quit the game complettly and shutting down every connection I had to it.
That's the story of my time.

It took me some trys to write this down so I'm sorry if there are many grammer flaws, but I think people will still get what I wrote.
People might say now that this story is a lie, some people might say it's the truth and everyone can think what they want I'm not hindering them.

For everyone that might have a problem like this and read this:
Please guys don't keep it a secret and talk to someone you trust. To take the problem by yourself can bring more problems with it. Seek for help from anywhere just don't keep it to yourself. To ask for help isn't embarrassing at all and none needs to feel scared. There are many good people out there that will help you regardless in which situation you are in. If you enjoy any game and spent money on it please do it with your mind behind it. It's not wrong to spent money on something you like and support but don't let it overcome you and start spending recklessly.

Maybe in some distant future games that support such micro transaction mechanics will do a warning before people will play to say that it can make you addicted, but I highly doubt it.

That's the end now. I hope I could help people in some extend who read this.
I wish everyone who reads this a wonderful day and hope you have fun in any game you play.

Asked by Zeronin002 months 1 week ago

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Answers

It's good to talk about stuff like that.
For some people, gatcha games can be just as dangerous as a casino

I myself do spent on heroes, and have noticed the urge in the back of my mind.
It hasn't taken over though, and I do make sure that I never spend more than I would make in any given month.

But it's a fear that's there, and the nagging feeling that I probably shouldn't spent at all.

For people that feel like the gambling is taking a hold of you, removing the game from your phone might be a good idea.
talking about preventing the urge from doing too much.

I love this game, but the whole gatcha culture does have sizable issues.

Gacha games like this and micro-transaction based loot boxes in games specifically target people with underlying gambling issues and tendencies towards gambling addiction. The gaming industry can get away with this, because legislations around the world don't consider these things as gambling and therefore it doesn't push the same pressure on them as on the regular sources of gambling (like those warnings, age restrictions and taxation of the income from gambling).

From what I've heard, the Belgian gambling commission is currently carrying out an investigation regarding this whole problem, but it will take a lot of time before there's any kind of development.

You did a good thing that you quit the game if it had such an impact on you.

Old news chump. Not only Belgium, but Netherlands and Australia have declared lootboxes and gacha (some cases more offensive than others) straight gambling, Netherlands being the first to do so more than half a year ago.

And here I thought you liked whales and approved on their spending hmmm

From what I've heard, gacha games are especially dangerou to people with preexisting mental illnesses and chemical imbalances. Pretty much, the pleasure you get from winning the first time leaves your mind wanting more of that pleasure since your conditions leave the gacha as (this sounds morbid but) the only thing that gives your brain the feeling of happiness; the Gambler's High so to say. Then it basically puts you on a downward spiral. It's good that you quit and realized that it's unhealthy for you. I'm starting to find myself disconnecting a little bit from FeH too; partly because i may have found a spiritual calling in art, and partly because the wait for version 3.0 is boring. Nonetheless, I find myself obsessing about Heroes slightly less than before and I hope I can leave Gacha Hell and start spending my money wiser.

It's a combination of different things. Not only is it mental illness or compulsions or gambling tendencies, but its also targeted specifically at a type of people, the otaku/gaming/fandom community. You know well how obsession can take over some of these people's lives that lack any kind of drive, ambition or passion in their life or are void of the basic social ability to have a normal conversation or etiquette with regular human interaction and instead drown their waking life into anime otaku gaming culture. I've met a number of people that are good examples of this at my work and can definitely say this obsession with this culture has fucked them up really good

This is exactly why I have a love/hate relationship with anime/otaku culture because I dont think this stuff has really helped any of these people with these problems but instead just made them more introverted and worse and unable to wake up from their fandom bubble. And because they only have this thing they hold onto, they are more willing to invest money into it through merchandise, manga, dvds, oversized posters/wallscroll prints, expensive overpriced figurines of half naked anime girls (or guys), love pillows, videogames, and ultimately in-game purchases of their favorite games based off animes or their favorite series (Hello Fate Grand Order).

One guy I work with is a chef at the restaurant who is a 28 year old grown man who isnt bad looking and could get a girlfriend if he really put effort into himself, but he couldn't bother to try on working on his appearance or how he communicates because he has no need to when he has his harem of waifus and daughters. He's still never experienced what's it like to kiss someone or be in a relationship to this day. He's a friend, but its hard to have a real conversation with him when we hangout or get a drink after work because he's nonstop on his phone playing FGO (he has spent a good amount of money on this and won't disclose how much) and reading manga through an app or looking at anime memes.. its like he is disinterested in talking in general, just cut off from the world. Not saying everyone like this does gamble into these games, but I can see how these companies that develop them can easily prey on these kind of people

You have good points, DC, and touch on the problem of reality vs fantasy. The concept of a “game” has changed from a fun break to an obsession. Living life vs holing up in anbasement. Risking rejection vs avoiding people to avoid rejection. I could write a Master’s thesis on the subject. It’s sad, but it runs deep these days, especially with availability of such toys and games.

Thank you for your courage to share, and am happy to hear you have support. It surprised me how easy it is to drop money on this game, and sometimes feel regret associated with it. For me it is hard not to spend money after dropping free orbs saved up for months only to get nothing, even this Halloween banner makes me feel a bit that way. The importance of friends and family to talk to makes a huge difference I believe, as you said. It can be a strong pull. Good luck to you and God bless.

I know what that means, here in Italy for more than 5 years i've been selling something called "Gratta e Vinci", which is a ticket where you scratch in some parts and you may win money, pratically a lottery where you can instantly see if you have won or not. And i've seen many people spending hoards of money on those, that may be the reason why i never got addicted to gambling, given that i spent a decent amount of money in the game (about 1000€ and i'm a day 1 player), but every time i spend i had a clear objective in mind and never regretted. I try to manage my resource as much as possible, i saved up 1000 orbs for CYL2 for example

It's good to be reminded of how easy it is to suddenly find yourself addicted. I've spent, I think, more than £3000 (US$3900), which I can afford as I have a good job and I do pretty much nothing else with my life but there would be so much better uses for that money than some Fire Emblem ecchi. I've only hit what U consider a full addiction point twice now, one was for W!Tharja when I spend £800 in a weekend and the other for L!Lucina when I spent nearly £500. Mostly I buy 140 orbs once or twice in a banner of units I care about which is only Awakening and Fates.

Hope things work out for you.

Thank you for sharing that. Good luck and stay strong at keeping it out of your life

this post should be forwarded to IS and the must be told about this issue, but again, they can get away with it because it's legal, users have accepted the terms and agreement and blah blah blah. For me, this is a very serious issue.
I've been playing this game since launch and only bought the Black Knight bundle once and that's about it.

and this post should be permanently added to FEH gamepress page, just a slight warning for new players.

Thank you for having the courage for talking about this and taking initiative for a change. The community will miss you, but if this is for your own good, then it's the right move. Gambling is a serious thing, and like most people, you're going to end up on the wrongs side of things.
Good luck in your indevors 👋😊

It's SO easy to buy and orb pack, get nothing and buy "just one more". Has happened to me too many times. I spent $4000 CDN in year 1 and this year I'm seriously trying to bring that number way down. I'm trying to keep myself to a $50 a month budget (People still pay for a WoW subscription, right) But I've already slipped up a few times spending ~$300 here and there on single banners. I need to be better, your post has inspired me. I'm gonna be better

yeah definitely that's how they suck you in I believed I spent around 25$ for the first time (Starter pact Etc) this month just to break my pity for myrrh and then got a luke so lesson learned! haha
I definetely felt the need to spend more after that but quickly paused and went back to being ftp

Bravo
Really glad to hear you escaped. It's not easy.

Amd great discussion, everyone before me

Congratulations, its require a lot of courage to speak something like this, detect the problem and try to improve for better.
I am not a gambler because i never got the extra money to gamble. But some time ago i was in a similar situation with a moba game (DotA), most of the time i was angry, a little agressive and i was wasting a lot of time in that thing, making my grades be much worse, then i quit the game and prepare myself to salvage high school and enter a university.
In the end i managed to made it but was very hard to compensate all the time lost.

It takes a lot of courage to admit and speak about problems like this, it’s amazing to hear you managed to do something to stop this behavior. Bravo, I hope things will get better for you as soon as possible!
Gacha games are fun but can be really dangerous, especially since it’s so easy to spend money on it. I spent a few money non FEH myself, I’m lucky I’m a bit greedy and stopping myself from buying more and more was not really hard hahah. Though the urge to spend more money because you didn’t get that unit you want is really strong sometimes, I believe many people feel the same. It’s important to remember that FEH is just a game and the money you spent won’t get you anything more than a virtual character on a game you could potentially quit in the future. I personally think spending too much is a waste of money, because let’s face it: having your favorite units will make you happy the moment you summon it, but won’t last long. There’s always gonna be a new unit that will make you spend more money to get it, it won’t end unless you quit FEH or finally realize how this will affect you and react. And people that are particularly susceptible to gambling addictions will end up ruining their life for a phone game.
I’m sure this post of yours will inspire people to think about their own behavior as well and eventually stop or at least calm down a bit, so thanks for talking about this.

Thank you for sharing. Hopefully more legislatures adopt policies to protect people from this kind of predatory behavior.