Here is the Genshin Impact 5.0 Special Program report, which will almost assuredly bring in the HoYoVerse boycott people, since they are physically incapable of
not bolstering HYV's numbers and performance metrics for even a single moment. I'll be writing my commentary live as it goes, because I somehow outperform most game journalists despite only providing content in this thread thus far:
~110k average CCV on the YouTube livestream alone for the 5.0 special program, not counting restreams and streams on other platforms.
The same people spamming "why is the archon white", "where is the melanin", "add black people" (despite the trailer opening with a black NPC - so I can only assume they are not black enough), are also spamming that they are unable to understand chinese when the developers are talking (they refuse to turn on the subtitles). So much for their advocacy of cultural sensitivity?
At the start of the program, the developers stated they are listening to player feedback - and then subsequently going into how they are improving the quality of gameplay, player/character traversal, environment interaction, really showing where all those hundreds of millions of dollars earned each quarter are going with constant gameplay segments. Cue further crying from the protesters about how this wasn't the feedback they meant, and how every character doesn't look like a modern day minstrel show, and "when is [their favorite character] re-run".
...We are nearly halfway through the program (midway revision:
no we're not) and there are still complaints that they can't understand chinese (they will still not turn on closed captions, it's already translated in english). They're also teasing Himeko's rebirth as the Pyro Archon in Natlan, and the possibility of her dying again with the "rebirth" system present in Natlan being a surprise for players to experience. Surely, they won't kill her off again before selling her in the gacha banner, right?
The new Natlan characters have also been created to take advantage of these new traversal mechanics with their own unique skills and abilities, such as an animal or mechanical companion depending on the character and their theming, which should encourage sales of their respective banners regardless of whether they meet the protesters' standards of skin tone. Kachina, for example, has a full-on Dr. Robotnik traversal drill, which can be utilized further as a giant hammer - and players will obtain her just by playing the Natlan story. Mualani has a shark that she can ride along the currents of Natlan like a surfboard (both in the water, on land, and in the air), she is big into sporting events - specifically, water sports (the developer's words, which I strongly recommend they translate differently before the consequences of such reach the artists). Kinich is a Digimon protagonist, he has a digital monster (dragon) that he can bring into reality to both assist in combat and traversal - though they seem to be at odds with each other for the sake of comedic timing.
Natlan characters have "Nightsoul's Blessing", which enhance their powers within Natlan in accordance with the currently established lore, which is shown in the form of full-character glowing tattoos/patterns on their body - and this system is such an overhaul that they have to make a segment of Natlan for the "test this character" function to try out their abilities not only in combat, but through the environment. The first banner wave is Mualani and Kazuha, with the increased 4-star being Kachina to entice 6c after getting her for free. The second half of the 5.0 banner is Kinich and Raiden Shogun. And so, HoYoVerse is set to make another several hundred million on Genshin Impact alone before the end of the year, let alone before Patch 5.1. Though it shouldn't come as a surprise, they confirmed that all of the characters in the teaser trailer for Natlan will be on the banners of future versions, so Himeko waiters will have to persist until 5.2 in November/December for that holiday $$$.
...There is now a pinned comment from Genshin Impact telling the viewers to enable captions (the protesters still refuse, how dare the developers not speak fluent English, that's not very culturally sensitive of them!). The developers are even going into the system where the player can transform into the Saurians within Natlan to participate in environmental gameplay - and if ZZZ was inspired by Digimon World, I can only assume this is inspired by Digimon Frontier. Despite all of the gameplay being shown, people just want their codes so they can leave, or their free five star, or otherwise complaining about the lack of melanin (these are fantastical creatures fighting other fantastical creatures, what do you
mean).
They're overhauling the reputation system for Natlan so that the player assists the tribes directly, and in helping those tribes, the player unlocks further content. The overworld minigames are also being overhauled for Natlan, and it looks like a modern day version of an N64 collectathon mascot-platformer (specifically Banjo Kazooie or DK64). They're also overhauling the limited eventing systems for their archon quests, for their reward delivery, so that they give out more paid currency and pulls, which will be further enhanced through the 5.X patch series. They're also increasing the world level, alongside drop rates for materials, decreasing the need for farming with the sheer amount of characters they have at the moment (and in the future). They're finally overhauling the artifact system, by bringing in their Honkai Star Rail QOL changes that they can be churned into EXP, and so that the player is able to directly determine what stats they want through the respective event/bp currency.
They're even overhauling the 50/50 pity by adding even further pity for those who constantly get struck with 50/50, so the reign of Qiqi is at an end - and the weapon 50/50 has been reduced from 2 to 1. Free five star from the standard pull as part of the 5.0 launch celebrations - and they're finally adding more of the event characters to the standard banner in future updates. Looks like they're feeling the heat of Wuthering Waves? Healthy competition is a good thing for players, especially when it comes to these forever games that demand players time and money!
At this point, Natlan might as well be an entirely new game - so at least HoYoVerse is sticking to "the contract" of putting their hundreds of millions of gacha dollars back into the game. Imagine if other major franchises did that, spending their millions on the games themselves to overwhelm the competition with quality! Impossible!
I am looking directly at Pokemon right now.
REDEMPTION CODES (expire within 24 hours post-livestream):
2SMTYV59TLFD
7SMTGV59BLXH
8T4TGDLRA5E5
(I pulled the current 5-star character, Emilie, with these codes in the past few minutes - I fully believe the system is rigged for success during the program, and I refuse to be told otherwise)
The video performance by the Natlan symphony ending the program features an incredible number of black performers, as well as performers of numerous nationalities,
every protester calling the developers racist for the smallest of slights will eat their words. (They are now claiming that the developers are scared to put them in game and that all of their efforts are
not
enough,
sweaty)
(The symphony performance did not, in fact, end the program - the team is now talking about their visions of the long-term future, shock and awe that the game will continue post-Natlan and into Fantasy Russia, and beyond. They're even talking about the vocal criticisms of the game, and how they're using that to fuel their future development)
...Much like the pre-show trivia 15 minutes before the program, there is now a post-show featuring the English VA hosting a mini-talk show, so this might be the longest Special Program yet (I wish it wasn't!). You already know what to expect from this segment of the program, for better or worse! At least one acronym has been mentioned, implied homosexuality between Aether and Albedo, that's EN VA culture for you (they have yet to prove the allegations wrong).
The program has finally ended after a little over 2 hours and 15 minutes, which means I can finally get back to playing the game, I'm sure I'll be reporting on the protesters (and their perpetual inaction) again soon enough.
yes
Also Valve banned a bunch of game journos for going against their honor system of "don't take footage/screenshots of the game as it is in alpha".
