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Notes -
What game is that?
Its a gacha game called Love And Deepspace (abbreviated as LADS). Shot to 2nd place in gacha monthly earnings (est 40m USD) last month, which is enormous for a girl-focused husbando collector.
I keep wondering what women do with their time and money, when men are clearly the ones wasting thousands on glorified jpeg waifus in fairly mid games, and LADS hardly has a significantly better gameplay loop, and it turns out girl games just needed something that shamelessly catered to their preferences. Which, as far as I can tell, is 'six packed prettyboys with oversized bulges and permanent pouts'.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics can answer that question with its Consumer Expenditure Survey and Time Use Survey. For example:
Dollars spent per year in the 2021–2022 period on "toys, hobbies, and playground equipment": 69 for single men, 94 for single women (for dollars spent on "pets", it's 282 vs. 647)
Hours spent per day in 2023 on "playing games": 0.50 for men, 0.24 for women
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There's an interesting column called 'money diaries' where PMC women post their spending. My wife has sent me a few of them and you're more likely to see avocado toast and conspicuous consumption than gacha games.
From the biggest link on that page:
Jesus Christ, the state of Colorado is subsidising this lady to pay $600 a month to a therapist to not help her fix her problems after years so she can not work?
I swear, neurotic people are utility monsters. And I say this as a neurotic person myself.
Though my favorite part is this:
I hate to say this, but I'm not sure she's off to a good start.
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