It was the familiar video style, except this time the content didn’t focus on any specific game. Instead, it served as educational content, explaining to all viewers the history and evolution of “gacha” mechanics in the gaming industry.
The video started from the earliest games featuring gacha mechanics, then moved on to how gacha became prevalent in domestic games, and finally explained why game designers—especially domestic ones—were so fond of gacha mechanics.
Obviously, the biggest driving force was just one thing: increasing revenue!
Gacha mechanics exploited human psychological weaknesses. Precisely because most people enjoy gambling on luck and like the feeling of getting something for nothing, gacha activities had become so popular and enduring.
In other words, the pleasure people derived from gacha wasn’t solely because of how valuable the prizes were—that was just one aspect. More importantly, it was the psychological satisfaction that gacha provided.
It was the feeling of getting something for nothing.
Using ten yuan to get something worth a hundred yuan was a strong emotional stimulant for most ordinary people—it was the mindset of wanting to get a good deal that was at work.
Qiao Liang changed his tone: “Actually, many similar situations exist in commercial activities.”
“Many businesses take advantage of consumers’ psychology of wanting to get something for nothing or get a good deal, creating activities that seem like great value but are actually tricking consumers.”
“However, in commercial activities, regulatory oversight is much stricter, and penalties for false advertising and inducing consumption are more severe, so such situations occur less frequently.”
“But the gaming sector has gradually become a severely affected area.”
“Since games aren’t purely commercial activities but lean more toward cultural entertainment, the value of virtual items has never been clearly defined. With weaker regulatory oversight, many gacha mechanics in games have essentially become money-making tools for game companies. The gacha rules are all over the place, running wild, and players’ interests after spending money are difficult to protect…”
At this point, Qiao Liang specifically criticized several games.
For example, a mobile game recently had a scandal where all the grand prizes in the official gacha event were won by a few accounts that kept changing names. Observant players discovered that these accounts always won prizes whenever they participated in gacha events.
Seeing this, Pei Qian finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“That’s good, that’s good.”
“I thought Old Qiao was going to ruin me again!”
“It seems this has nothing to do with me or the Longyu Group.”
“Although Longyu Group also ran a gacha event, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to give prizes to their own alternate accounts. As long as their gacha is completely legal and compliant, they shouldn’t be caught in Old Qiao’s AOE attack in this video.”
Pei Qian had become fearful—every time he saw Qiao Liang release a new video, he felt like it was targeting him.
However, his happiness lasted barely two minutes before he heard Qiao Liang change his tone.
“Some viewers might ask: if a gacha activity is legal, compliant, and doesn’t involve behind-the-scenes manipulation, then is there no problem?”
“Of course not!”
“I’ve already mentioned that businesses are so keen on gacha because they exploit players’ desire to get good deals and receive something for nothing.”
“Even without behind-the-scenes manipulation, no matter how good a deal the gacha seems, it can be summarized in one sentence: you might gain a little, but the business will never lose!”
“Because you need to understand one thing—businesses always understand probability better than you do.”
“Especially game companies—whenever they design a gacha system, it’s definitely handled by senior numerical designers in the company who will absolutely ensure that the entire gacha activity generates positive returns for the game company. Remember this: luck can never defeat data.”
“Moreover, gacha probabilities in games are never true probabilities but false probabilities with countless added conditions. Although the results may look similar, the internal operating mechanisms are vastly different.”
“Players are actually participating in a game with ‘negative expected returns’ where ‘you never know the true, specific rules.'”
“You think the ‘20% drop rate’ is the rule, but in reality, there are countless subtle rules behind it, written in the gacha program’s code, which you have no way of knowing.”
“For some individuals, the actual returns might be very high, but if averaged across everyone, this is a game where you’re guaranteed to lose.”
“As long as the sample size is large enough, from the perspective of the entire player base, they will definitely lose, and game companies don’t need any behind-the-scenes manipulation to definitely profit.”
“It’s just that everyone thinks they’ll be the lucky one, so they fall for it again and again.”
In the video, Qiao Liang cited extensively, showing off his knowledge of games and probability.
He explained the differences between “false probability” and “true probability” in games, and the internal logic and operating mode of “false probability.”
His core argument was: gacha is actually just a disguised promotional activity. In reality, it exploits people’s psychology of wanting to get something for nothing. Through probability, it makes some players bear the losses of other players, while game companies profit from it.
Any gacha activity, no matter how good a deal it seems or how big the discount is, as long as it still conforms to the basic characteristics of traditional gacha rules, the final result will definitely be players losing and businesses profiting.
The danmaku comments on the video were filled with amazement.
“I’ve learned something!”
“Brothers, put your protection in the public comments!”
“As a former gaming industry professional, I can say that everything Old Qiao says is true. Gacha is nothing more than using people’s psychology of wanting to get something for nothing to make money. Whether you’re lucky or unlucky, the ones who actually profit are always the game companies. And the true rules of gacha are never simply true probability, but false probability calculated layer by layer by numerical designers, ensuring that the final results for most players are within expectations. It really is like that saying: you might gain a little, but we never lose!”
“Is Old Qiao trying to offend all game companies in the country? How many games don’t use gacha now? Everyone knows gacha brings in money quickly—he’s cutting off their financial lifeline!”
“After watching this video, I decisively stopped my urge to participate in gacha. There’s a saying that’s true: people who like gacha don’t actually like the prizes inside, but the feeling of getting something good.”
“Indeed, even if you get really good items, you only feel good at the moment you get them. You’ll get bored after playing for two or three days, a week at most. But the desire to get good things through gacha will always exist, so you’ll still be unable to control yourself next time. Before you know it, you’ve spent money without realizing where it went…”
“Old Qiao is really brave to make videos exposing these inside secrets.”
As if anticipating possible reactions in the comments, Qiao Liang changed his tone in the video: “Actually, I made this video because something inspired me.”
“The one who really stood up to expose this unwritten rule wasn’t me, but Mr. Pei from the Tenda Group!”
“Everyone knows that there are two major hot topics in the gaming circle recently: one is the joint gacha activity by Finger Company and Longyu Group, with a car as the grand prize, attracting a large number of players; the other is Tenda Group’s new game ‘Fitness Battle’ which uses a brand new gacha mode that allows free refunds.”
“Currently, the former has significantly higher popularity than the latter. Many players think that since Finger Company and Longyu Group’s gacha activity offers such big discounts and even includes a car, it must be more generous than the gacha in ‘Fitness Battle.'”
“This is obviously wrong!”
“Because Finger Company and Longyu Group’s gacha activity is exactly the kind of gacha I described earlier. It seems generous on the surface, but in reality, the wool comes from the sheep’s back.”
“If you don’t believe me, you can ask the wealthy players to show their gacha records. After deducting those unwanted trash skins, roughly calculate the actual returns and see who’s profiting.”
“Of course, compared to other unscrupulous gacha activities, this one might seem very generous, but compared to the gacha in ‘Fitness Battle,’ it’s far inferior!”
“Because the gacha in ‘Fitness Battle’ has completely broken the original conventional model. Since players can get refunds at will and only keep the gacha content they’re satisfied with, the expected value of this type of gacha is no longer negative. It retains the surprise and excitement of gacha while not making players slaves to probability.”
“Of course, ‘Fitness Battle’ only contains virtual items, so no matter how low the pricing is, it will still be profitable.”
“But what’s important isn’t the specific price, but the philosophy that Tenda Group is conveying through the gacha model in ‘Fitness Battle’!”
“Gacha can indeed bring surprises and happiness, which is human nature. But more and more businesses and game companies have exploited this psychology, turning gacha into their own money-making tool, normalizing and rationalizing it, causing players to suffer losses without realizing it.”
“In contrast, look at the mall model in ‘Fitness Battle’: all items can be purchased with calorie currency, encouraging players to exercise more. Even gacha can be fully refunded, ensuring players don’t become consumption machines driven by desire, and never using human weaknesses to make money.”
“Comparing the two, the superiority is obvious!”
“Considering the activities of the 515 Game Festival, Tenda Group has been consistently providing benefits to players, and these are real ‘gifts,’ not ‘discounts’ or ‘disguised profit-making.'”
“Tenda has been working hard to create a harmonious relationship with players: making products worth their price, ensuring you get what you pay for, not playing with complex rules and beating around the bush, not using various unorthodox methods to deceive players, but instead persistently guiding players to re-establish healthy consumption concepts!”
“In contrast, looking at Finger Company and Longyu Group, from IOI mobile games to gacha activities, no matter how much they seem to give back, their inner desire to make money is still evident.”
“This difference in philosophy is the biggest gap between the two companies!”
“That car will eventually be won by some wealthy player, and the money this player spent will definitely far exceed 100,000 yuan. After this wealthy player gets the car, Finger Company and Longyu Group will certainly use it for publicity, using this case to argue how generous their gacha activity is.”
“But in fact, this is all a planned routine: using a small number of lucky players who spend a lot of money to stimulate the majority of players, making the unlucky ones pay for the lucky ones, while the game companies profit from it.”
“At the end of the video, I want to remind all viewers: gacha comes with risks, and spending requires caution. This isn’t an empty phrase, because as long as it’s conventional gacha, it’s definitely an investment behavior with negative expected value, which isn’t wise.”
“If you must participate in gacha, do it in ‘Fitness Battle’ to satisfy your craving, after all, you can get refunds freely there and won’t suffer any losses!”