W!cked Saints Studios

Yesterday, while looking for a game company I couldn’t remember the name of, I stumbled upon a KOBI5 piece titled “Black and women-owned gaming company in Medford makes history with new venture funds.” I was on KOBI’s 5 on 5 a few years ago, so the headline immediately jumped out as local.

Intrigued, I went to take a look. First, I read their “about” page, and about their team. First impression, positive:

We use behavioral technology to create interactive media that is wickedly fun and actively good.

Like get out and use the broken pieces of this world to build a better one—good.

You can probably tell from the quote that W!cked Saints has a clear voice. They know who they are and what they’re doing, and they’re proud of it.

The founders are not your typical video game company founders, and not only in the ways pointed out in the headline above. Jessica Murrey and Alicia Clifton have both spent time working in the non-profit space, and more specifically in conflict resolution with Search for Common Ground.

Conflict resolution, social change, empowering young people, making the world a better place, these are themes throughout – and it’s a game company. They are attempting to achieve big things through video games, and that’s a fascinating spin. While other companies are figuring out ways to harvest more and more of your data, here is a company trying to weave behavioral psychology into their games to improve the world around us.

I love that!

“Sure, but rainbows and butterflies don’t make fun games,” the cynic in you might say, but tell the cynic to pipe down for a minute.

W!cked’s CTO, Daphne Larose, is someone who definitely knows how to make games. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of Pokémon Go!, but I think it’s safe to say that it achieved some modest popularity… Yep, Daphne came over from Niantic to lead the tech team.

Their flagship game, World Reborn, is still in development, so no reviews on that front, but I can say I dig the artwork on the site, like a lot. There is a Discord and members apparently get access to help play test, so check it out.

I mainly just wanted to give them a shout out. I don’t know if they’re still local to me or not, but what they are doing is worth highlighting.

Kudos on your aspirations, W!cked, I hope everything goes well for you!

Might not be a popular opinion, but I have started to hate gacha games.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the random spin dynamic, and the joy of scoring something rare and new, but the games are problematic in so many other ways.

First, let’s define a gacha game. The Urban Dictionary definition is pretty straightforward: Gacha (or Gachapon) is a monetization technique used in many successful Japanese free-to-play games. Originally a term used for Japanese Toy machines, this is used to describe games that pull a selection of data, people, heroes, etc. from a large pool at random.

The games are based on the Japanese Gashapon (trademarked by Bandai, AKA Gachapon) vending machines, essentially gumball machines for collectible toys. You insert money, turn the knob and out pops a prize egg.

In the ’80s and ’90s we had Glitter Kitty sticker vending machines, and I’m still a fan. You’d put in your money, and out would come a fold of white card stock, and inside would be a random Glitter Kitty. I think I still have an original pink one somewhere in a box.

Orange Glitter Kitty

In game mechanics, the prize can be items, characters, skimpy new outfits for your harem members, weapons, power-ups, you name it. You get a limited number of free draws per day, and you can always, always, always buy more draws. That’s one of the gotcha’s. They are addictive, and people are willing to spend cold hard cash for the thrill of the draw.

You can grind it out, but you’re free draws last a minute at most, and the rest of the gameplay is usually just a time suck. That’s the real gotcha’. The games aren’t actually fun.

I can’t remember the names of the several gacha games I recently deleted from my iPad. One was advertised in another game and I installed it on a whim, played for a couple weeks and deleted it. And here’s why (the reason is the same every time).

Like most of these games there are a large number of daily activities in town, in your guild, in your party, in your quests, in, in, in, in, in…, to the point where completing all the tasks keeps you in the game for far longer than is healthy, and the only part you enjoy is the gacha draw. These games are designed to be a time suck, to keep you playing, keep you watching adds, keep you buying in game gold (if you’re the type who buys in game gold). That’s why the endless tasks are endless and the gameplay is meh.

Here’s a clue, if your battles are set to auto-complete, that’s probably not a game dynamic you enjoy. Are any of the tasks enjoyable, do you get a sense of community out of your guild, or are you just grinding for another draw?

I mean that’s the question at the end of the day, are you enjoying playing the game, or is the play a means to an end, that tiny blip of endorphins when you use your gacha draws? If it’s the latter, my advice is to delete the game.