Lately, JS1 and JS2 have taken to playing this game called “Be The Plushie” on Roblox.
The basic gameplay is that you ‘become’ a plushie (avatar), enter this room, and vacuum up little balls of light (food) to grow bigger and eat other plushies. Yeah, plushie PvP. To become a plushie you need to have it in your collection, and you collect plushies by saving up wish points from playing the game and using them to wish for plushies. Each wish will give you a random plushie from the game’s roster, with B-rank (common), A-rank (rare) and S-rank (super rare). Yeah, so plushie PvP gacha.
The game even has limited-time plushies available, and the current limited-time plushie is an S-rank adorable light blue octopus that looks exactly like one that the Junior Strawberries have and adore so…it’s a must-grab, for JS1 at least.
Except she didn’t.
She got and spent about 35-ish wish points and there was still no octopus in sight.
What made it worse was that JS2, on his account, somehow managed to nab an S-rank plushie on his first wish. It wasn’t the octopus, but it was still an S-rank plushie (the only other S-rank plushie in the game’s roster). He was quite pleased with it.
JS1, on the other hand, got more and more upset as her wishes went by and her roster filled out with everything but S-rank plushies. It got so bad that when we called her for dinner she started yelling in fury, stomping around the house throwing cushions, declaring that she was never going to eat dinner again, and then breaking down in big, big sobby tears and wailing at the top of her lungs, “Why? Why?? It’s NOT FAIR” etc.
And at this point, I should have pulled the plug on this game and henceforth banned her from all gacha-type games, right?
Well…yes and no.
Why I Let The Kids Play A Gacha Game
Gacha games have a bad rep. They’re gambling, they’re addictive, they’re a time-suck, they employ insidious psychological tactics to make you spend, they’re fanservice-y. And there’s truth to that.
Now, obviously, ‘Be The Plushie’ is not fanservice-y (except in terms of extreme squishy cuteness). But it does have gacha mechanics, right down to the FOMO-inducing limited banners (the light blue octopus will only be available until Wednesday, so you need to get it RIGHT NOW, by any means possible! *hint-wallet-hint* Although I think it goes without saying that spending actual money on this is a no-no for the kids).
But. I do believe in games as a learning tool, and gacha games do something quite interesting – they mimic the vicissitudes of life. And because of this, I see them as an opportunity to cultivate socio-emotional skills to cope with such vicissitudes, when they inevitably occur in life.
(A) SOMETIMES THINGS JUST AREN’T FAIR
Hoo boy. This is a tough lesson. One of the first things kids learn is that actions lead to consequences, and just when they’ve finally mastered (sort of) this principle, now you’re saying that sometimes things just happen?
Yes. Yes, I am. Why does he get an S-rank on his first wish and I don’t even though I’ve spent 35 wish points on this? Why are her parents so rich and she can live in a house with a pool when we live in this tiny apartment? Why is he so clever and I can barely keep up in school?
A lot of life is determined by sheer luck. And sometimes, luck just doesn’t go your way. The only thing you can do, is to keep your eyes focussed on your account life and how you can make it better. Avoid the comparisons – that way lies madness.
I explained this principle to JS1, even though she probably wasn’t in the best place to really digest it, so as she continued to scream and kick things around, I also explained that if she was having difficulty keeping herself calm, I was going to have to remove the situation by blocking the game from her Roblox account (I just learned recently that this can be done! Thank goodness I read that email Roblox sent out instead of summarily deleting it!) until she developed the mental muscle to do so.
It…well, it made her at least try. Although that meant she sat down at the dining table, sobbed as she ate, and spat food all over while crying, “I’m not upset anymore! I’m not!”
… -.-;;
(B) LEARN TO READ THE RULES
The food spitting was getting out of hand, so I pulled her away from the table and sat her down elsewhere to talk. One of the most useful things to do when trying to calm the kids down, I’ve found, is math – so I asked, “How many wishes have you made for your octopus so far?”
“I don’t know! All JS2 needed was one! How come he can get an S-rank plushie and I ca-”
Okay, time to head that off. “How many more wishes will you need to get an S-rank plushie?”
“I don’t know!”
“How many wishes will you get in one day?”
“I don’t know! I’m never going to get an octopus, I want to dieeeee-”
I heaved a deep sigh and opened up the game again. “You need to read the rules, kiddo.” If she didn’t know the rules, she was basically swimming in a fog of confusion. Her wishes were going down what was, to her, a bottomless pit (of despair). Everything would feel unrelentingly out of control and who can blame someone for being fearful and spiralling into a bad mental place in the face of that?
It turned out that in 45 more wishes, she was guaranteed to receive an S-rank plushie.
(C) IF YOUR LUCK IS CRAP, MAKE UP FOR IT WITH HARD WORK
That got her listening – a little. Now that we knew the rules, I broke it down further for her with math (I love math!):
No. of wish points available for collection daily (through completing in-game tasks): 12
No. of days to collect wish points before octopus availability goes away: 3
No. of wish points available for collection weekly (from Monday): 9
Total no. of wish points that can be collected before Wednesday:
12 x 3 = 36
36 + 9 = 45(!)
In other words, mathematically, she would definitely be able to receive an S-rank plushie, which (since there were 2 available) had a 50% chance of being the octopus.
“But I’ll never get it! My luck is the worst! And the octopus is going to be unavailable after Wednesday!”
After pointing out that this was a very typical FOMO tactic employed by salespersons everywhere, I told her that she had to decide whether she wanted to put in the work (of collecting and saving the wish points over a period of 3 days) for a 50% chance of getting the thing she wanted. Delayed gratification and risk taking practice, perhaps?
She didn’t give me an answer right away, but by then she was calm enough to think things over and (perhaps more importantly) eat her dinner without spitting food all over.
(D) DON’T RELY ON LUCK (DON’T GET TOO COCKY)
JS2, meanwhile, being the sensitive soul he is and watching his sister have a meltdown, said, “I’m beginning to feel bad” (about the fact that he got lucky enough to get an S-rank plushie right at the outset).
I told him there was no need to feel bad – it was good to handle your own good luck sensitively around others who have not been so lucky, but your own good luck can be enjoyed. Besides, luck is unreliable. He might have been lucky this time, but next time he wouldn’t be…maybe.
How It All Turned Out
Well, JS1 did decide to put in the work for her chance at the octopus she wanted. And I do mean work, because in our household, all game time has to be earned. So she had to complete specified IRL tasks to earn her game time, then play the game and complete the specified in-game tasks, then save up the wish points.
By Tuesday evening, she had saved up 50 wish points.
I stuck my head around the computer screen to watch as she made her wishes. First a batch of 10…with no S-rank plushie. Then a second batch of 10…that turned gold! An S-rank plushie had been netted! But was it the octopus?
It was indeed.
There was a moment of shocked silence, then JS1 screamed (in joy this time), jumped out of her seat, and went tearing through the house cheering all the way. XD That was definitely one earned win! She even had 30 wish points left over, for “next time”. Lol.
How about JS2, who also wanted an octopus (especially after seeing his sister get one)? Well, he also had a few wish points saved up. As he was getting ready to make his wishes, I told him not to expect luck to stay with him, since he had been pretty lucky the last time. And, as foretold by yours truly, the first batch of 10 netted no S-rank plushie.
The second batch of 10, however…turned gold. This was especially shocking because he was still far away from his guarantee – again. But was it the octopus??
…It was. JS2 burst into cheers as I stared, a little bemused, at the screen. Erm…lesson failed? I think? Maybe I should be worrying more about JS2 than JS1 when it comes to gacha games, hmm.
