I got introduced to a gacha game for the first time about 2 years ago, compared with classic mid 2000's Gamecube games. Gacha is a type of Japanese gambling game that is found on mobile phones, and can be tied to various media properties to link into pre-existing fondness for characters.

I don't consider myself as having an addictive personality (only got a smartphone about the same time, etc) but it has been an education in how much effort one has to put into not making it take over your life. If I didn't have a strict "only money you spend on this is the flat 5$ monthly subscription fee, no more" rule, I can easily see a bad night wrecking havoc on a pocketbook. The thought with the subscription for me, is that the gameplay's fun enough for me to spend a starbucks-a-month on it.

The wildest thing is, this specific gacha (Fire Emblem Heroes) is considered very tame compared to most gachas, when it's all said and done.

Given the popularity (an order of magnitude larger than FEH) of other gachas like Genshin Impact among Gen Z ... and the horror stories I've been hearing of former friends backstabbing each other and sabotaging fandom projects to steal money for gacha addictions ... this worries me.