How to prevent powercreep in gacha games?

[NegativeExponents-]

I heavily disagree with the Pokémon takes here and I can't believe it's somehow being spun into "cutting the National Dex was great" but I'll just focus on the powercreep part.

There is absolutely no reason why powercreep in Pokémon should exist. At least not on the level it does right now. It's not like a gacha where I'm paying for a chance to get the best pokemon and I'm constantly rolling to get the shiny new ultra powerful pokemon that's a must have for every whale to stay on the top. It's a one and done deal and anyone with a copy of the games is gonna have access to all pokemon without any extra charges (at least pre-dlc but trading exists and most competitive nuts are genning their pokemon anyway or playing showdown). GF is just terrible at balancing or unwilling to do so and many hacks demonstrate that it's possible to make most, if not all, of the cast viable.

Radical Red comes to mind not just for buffing/altering almost every pokemon, but also because it's one of the only hacks that has all pokemon from every generation to begin with (a few mythics/legendaries may be excluded) so imo, it really best showcases that it is possible for a large cast to be balanced, but there's a lot of other "balance" hacks out there that get the point across to lesser extent. And like, there's no reason why a multi-billion dollar company shouldn't be able achieve similar or better results considering it's their job compared to the people who just hack games for a hobby.

Edit: anyway, I didn't really address the gacha part. Personally, I agree with eclipse and think the way dissidia does it is the best. It introduces new powerful weapons and skills but it also updates older characters so that they are on par with current standards. Actually, Tales of the Rays does the same "pull for weapons" mechanic as opposed to the usual "pull for characters" and I really enjoy that because when there's powercreep it elevates everyone to new levels as opposed to having the typical low rarity/old characters being left behind in the dust while new characters/high rarity ones being completely broken. Also, new weapons tend to come with skins which is another big reason for pulling.

Edited April 24, 2021 by NegativeExponents-

[Hasechi]

@NegativeExponents- I see. thanks

[Clear World]

I want to rant about something about power creep that tends to get overlooked when discussing about it. Hopefully you're aware of Yugioh. If not, some of this might not make sense, so I'll try my best to somewhat explain it.

The image above comes from Yugioh, a Trading card series first introduced back in 1999 that has experienced dramatic levels of power creep over its life span (arguably the most power creep out of any other trading card series), and the the example above is used to illustrate the increase in power individual monster cards have gotten over each new release. 

The description that goes with that image: "On your left: Four useful cards at the time of their releases but with some draw-back. On your right: One card released later that can do the same as those fours, AT THE SAME TIME! with no draw-back!"

The reason I bring this up is because, even though it is true that this is clear proof that individual cards has gotten better over time. What this picture fails to show (and the point I'm trying to make across) is that the card that has managed to stay the most relevant in regards to competitive Yugioh is actually the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' even though it is probably the worst of all of the five cards,  technically, if a person only views it individually.

The thing is, players play Yugioh with a Deck that usually consist 40 cards + 15 cards that goes in an 'extra deck, and these cards combined is what really determines the power level of the game. To make the case on how strong it is, a 'Blue-Eyes' deck that is built completely around the max amount of copies of the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' was considered the best Deck in the game just a few years ago, when it won the biggest tournament for Yugioh. And the thing was, in that tournament the two finalist both used the same type of 'Blue-Eyes' Deck with max copies of 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon'.

The thing with 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' is that even though it is a weak card in itself, there are so many strong cards that both combo/support/revolves around the 'Blue-Eyes White Dragon' that enabled the Blue-Eyes White Dragon to remain relevant even though it was released basically at the beginning of Yugioh. Cards aren't isolated things. They can and do work with other components within the game. And this isn't even brining up the topic about some of Yugioh's strongest spell cards to be ever released are the oldest ones like 'Pot of Greed' or 'Graceful Charity'.

The point I'm trying to make across here is, even though a designer can be very conscious in avoiding to making older content less irrelevant, that doesn't mean the game as a whole won't experience powercreep. And people only looking at individual things to determine powercreep will often neglect combinations or looking at the bigger picture. All the components a player uses is what really determines the final power level of a game. Not just one piece of the whole.

This is also my issue with people being so fixated on defining 'powercreep' based on an individual component being outclassed or overshadowed by something new. A lot of the times, 'power escalation' occurs because something was released that boost the strength of existing content. In other words, the synergy between different content can also escalate the overall power level of a game and this is far harder to predict & detect when it happens. And because of this, regardless if it was intentional or not, avoiding direct upgrades and releasing 'side-upgrades' will still typically result in power creep, but because it is harder to detect, that by the time it is, so much of the other game's content has already experience power creep due to that past escalation.

Anyways, I'm done with my rant about power creep... for now at least. I will just end my point by stating, powercreep in itself is not inheritably bad. Power creep does not inheritably mean an unbalanced game nor does it mean older content being lost. All it means is that there was an increase in the power level over time. What determines if it is good or bad is how it is implemented and managed, and the bad it can create tends to be more of a long-term issue for players & designers, unless the escalation is really insane.

[Hasechi]

@Clear World speaking of which. Are your name from a Yugioh card? Glad you mentioned it. I too am a fan of Yugioh too. So I clearly understand all words you said. I always ask my friends :"If you are developers. you can you make old normal monster cards or old bad spell cards stand equal to nowaday cards" Example:

 5 stars attack 1500 no effect pffffftttttt

 And they have no clue.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Hasechi

[Shadow Mir]

21 hours ago, Hasechi said:

@Clear World speaking of which. Are your name from a Yugioh card? Glad you mentioned it. I too am a fan of Yugioh too. So I clearly understand all words you said. I always ask my friends :"If you are developers. you can you make old normal monster cards or old bad spell cards stand equal to nowaday cards" Example:

 5 stars attack 1500 no effect pffffftttttt

 And they have no clue.

tbf, that's hardly the only bad card from the early days. How about most of the early fusion monsters, which (1) required specific monsters as material, and (2) generally didn't have the stats to justify running in a deck? Shoutout to Rare Fish, which only had 1500 attack points. The issue with this one? One of its fusion materials is Fusionist, which is itself a fusion monster... with only 900 attack points. Even by the standards of the early says of the card game, a monster with attack that low is not worth the trouble of bringing out. It gets better. In Japan, it was initially released in the same pack as Skull Red Bird, a normal monster with 1550 attack points, which means it was power crept IMMEDIATELY. Speaking of which, fusion monsters in general were awkward to use until Konami started making them use generic fusion materials (by which I mean they need monsters of specific monster type, attribute, or archetype to summon).

[Hasechi]

@Shadow Mir That is a sad part of gacha games.But they actually can create more support cards for those old cards like they've done with Normal Monster Black Magician,Red Eye Dragon. It's easy, just create support cards that require normal monster 5* above with less or equal 1500 attack, but have very good effect. But because they are less favourite than other cards so they would never recieve that favor. And I'm just a normal person. Their creators sure could  find a better ways to rebalance & make old cards stand equal w9th recent cards. But that won't happen.cause why they should do that instead of create a whole new OP cards/decks to sell more money. It's all about the profit. Players with old cards can't keep up with the game. If they want to keep up, they have to buy new cards/decks. This is the card you are talking about:

Edited April 28, 2021 by Hasechi

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Hasechi said:

@Shadow Mir That is a sad part of gacha games.But they actually can create more support cards for those old cards like they've done with Normal Monster Black Magician,Red Eye Dragon. It's easy, just create support cards that require normal monster 5* above with less or equal 1500 attack, but have very good effect. But because they are less favourite than other cards so they would never recieve that favor. And I'm just a normal person. Their creators sure could  find a better ways to rebalance & make old cards stand equal w9th recent cards. But that won't happen.cause why they should do that instead of create a whole new OP cards/decks to sell more money. It's all about the profit. Players with old cards can't keep up with the game. If they want to keep up, they have to buy new cards/decks. This is the card you are talking about:

That isn't the card I'm talking about. This is.

Anyway, I'd say the real problem with cards like that one you posted earlier is that there are monsters that have better attack or defense that don't need a tribute to summon. For example, is Trent really worth using over Mystical Elf, Spirit of the Harp, or something like that (the latter two have 2000 defense and are level 4)? No it isn't.

[Hasechi]

@Shadow Mir before tribute summon rules. They're better cards. Have you watch season 1? Kaiba just throw Blue Eye without tributing or an old Yugioh PS1 game which I can't remember its name. But doesn't matter. All normal monster cards with lower attack/defense are powercreep nowaday. Nowaday you can't just throw Mystical Elf, Spirit of the Harp in defense position and hope oppoment summon a weaker attack to attack your monster & inflict their life points. That's a waste of turn. As you already known, nowaday people can destroy you entirely with just 1 turns.Time's changed. You want to stick up with the game? Buy more newer stronger cards.

"That isn't the card I'm talking about. This is." xD ^^

Edited April 29, 2021 by Hasechi