Genshin Support Platform Design
Introduction
What is Genshin Impact?
Genshin Impact is a popular Gacha game that was released in 2020 by the company MiHoYo. With a community of over 60 million players, content creators, voice actors, and cosplayers, it is a fantasy role playing game where players can explore a vast open-world avaliable on multiple gaming platforms such as mobile, PC, and playstation.
The term 'gacha' originates from the term 'gachapon,' which are Japanese lottery vending machines where customers use money to purchase random items. Therefore, gacha games are video games that make use of the random item feature.
Genshin Impact utilises this feature as players are able to spend money for the chance to win rare characters or weapons that they can utilise in the game. It is not compulsory to spend money as the game can be enjoyed with the free provided characters. However, the rarer characters are often stronger and more popular which entices players to spend real money.
Genshin Impact Official Art
Problem
How much is too much?
As MiHoYo continues to release consistent updates with new characters and events, players are further enticed to spend a lot of their time and money on the game. To what extent can the amount of time and money spent on the game be considered an addiction?
Goal
Providing the help necessary.
The goal of this project was to design and develop a support platform for players suffering from a Genshin Impact addiction.
To further understand the problem, I conducted a 5 interviews with members within the community. The question asked were mainly focused on the following:
How much time they spent on Genshin Impact.
How much money they spent on Genshin Impact.
How did they interact with others within their community.
Background survey:
A survey was conducted before the interviews to provide a quick summary of the interviewees. It contained the following 4 questions:
How old are you currently?
Are you currently employed?
Roughly how much money have you spent in the game Genshin Impact?
How long did you play Genshin Impact?
The results of the survery are as follows:
Interview summaries:
The results of the interviews were summarised into 4 categories:
Category 2
Amount of time spent:
All participants played hours every day in order to complete daily quest and not miss out on any rewards. Their reasons for enjoyment were different as some enjoyed following along with the story while others enjoyed the game play. For the participants that stopped playing, their main reason was due to having other different priorities such as university assignments.
Participants all believed that at the time, they could have been more productive focusins on studies and assignments rather than playing the game.
Category 3
Amount of money spent:
4 out of 5 participants spent money on the game. With 2 of them spending a fairly large amount. However all the reasoning was the same as they wanted to win the limited available character. As the rate to win rare characters was very low, it often meant a fair amount of money needed to be spent.
Interviewees admitted to feeling devastated when they didn't win the character they wanted causing them to spend more money. At the time the participants were willing to spend money however, when asked now they regret spendingthe amount they did.
Category 4
MiHoYo prevention:
MiHoYo implemented a 'pity roll' system which meant that after a certain amount of tries, players will be able to get the character they want guaranteed. This partially worked as an intervention as players stopped spending money after they won their character of choice. However, it was also viewed as an incentive as players knew that eventually if enough money was spent they will be able to get the character they want.
2 personas were created based on the interviews.
Persona 1
Amelia:
Persona 2
Watson:
Using the persona's, 4 different problem statements were created to help come up with a solution.
What are the problems?
Players are spending too much money on Genshin Impact.
Players are spending too much time on Genshin Impact.
Players need options that will help them against their addiction.
People don't feel safe opening up their problems.
Framing the challenges:
Problem 1.
Amelia needs a visual tally of how much money she has spent on Genshin Impact in order to be more cautious with her spendings.
Problem 2.
Amelia needs a timer on Genshin Impact that stops her from spending too much time on the game so she is able to focus on other priorities.
Problem 3.
Watson needs options that can help him take the initiative to stop his Genshin Impact addiction so he can spend more time focusing on his studies.
Problem 4.
Watson needs a community that can support him so he is able to open up and seek help.
Concept ideas were created before developing the solution. 4 wireframes were created to demonstrate 4 different pages of the platform.
Low-fidelity wireframes:
Statistics page:
Help page:
Forums page:
Profile page:
Conceptual model:
Purpose and high functionality:
The product will allow users to track the amount of money and time spent on Genshin Impact in real time. A visual graph will be incorporated so users can have a visual viewpoint. It is personalisable to each user as they are able to create and personalise their accounts. A forums section will be included for users to share their stories and experiences. All users will be able to participate in the forums section, allowing them to create their own post and also like or comment on other user's post. A help section will also be included for users to seek aid if they believe they need it. Different help options will be available to help support all types of users.
Visualised change in experience:
Diagramming navigational and organisational structures:
A high-fidelity prototype was created using Figma.
Wangshu Inn:
In Genshin Impact, Wangshu Inn is a place where travellers can relax and rest from their journeys.
For my project, Wangshu Inn is a platform that will nurture a safe and encouraging community where players who believe they have a Genshin Impact addiction problem can freely open up and seek help. Other features will also be avaliable to support players with their addiction.
Landing page:
The landing page will ask players to connect their Genshin Impact account with the platform.
Statitics page:
The statistics page provides a visual representation of how much money and time the players have spent on the game. A log sheet was incorporated into both sections allowing players to keep track of the money and time spent.
Help page:
The help page provides players with different options that they can utilise to help combat their addiction. A variety options at different levels were included so all types of users can utilise the page.
Forums page:
The forums page allows players to share their own experiences and stories within a safe community. Users are able to ask for help or offer support to other players.
Forums page interaction:
Each post can be individually clicked on and viewed allowing for users to interact with their community. Users are able to like, comment, and share each post.
Forums page post:
The forums page also allows users to share their own stories and experiences. Users can upload a post, image or video.
Accounts page:
The accounts page allows users to create and utilise their persona. The page shows information about the users Genshin Impact details as well as their platform details. It also allows users to come up with a bio or switch profile pictures.
Accounts page - switching themes:
Players are given the opportunity to change their profile picture into their favourite character, which also changes the theme of the platform.
Changing Themes:
Within the game there are 7 different elements:
Pyro
Hydro
Dendro
Electro
Cyro
Geo
Anemo
As the characters element changes, so does the theme of the platform.
Pyro (Red):
Hydro (Blue):
Dendro (Green):
Electro (Purple):
Cyro (Light blue):
Geo (Yellow):
Anemo (Turquoise):
Style guide:
Layout:
A grid layout was created combining: 12 columns and 10 rows, both centered with a width of 130 and a gutter of 20.
This layout was decided as the larger overlapping boxes made it easier to format larger elements. I believed this to be important as the page did not contain a lot of information. It also helped me with keeping the page minimalistic.
2 final playtesting were conducted to determine the usability and impact of Wanghu Inn.
The 2 participants were given a scenario to explore the platform and then asked about their thoughts and opinions afterward. The scenario given is as follows:
"You are currently a Genshin Impact addict. You spend too much time and money on the game. You are scared to ask for help and not sure what you should do. However, recently a platform has been released called Wangshu Inn that supports people with a Genshin Impact addiction as it attempts to provide a safe space for players to interact with each other and seek help."
3 questions were asked once they had finished exploring:
What are your initial impressions of the website?
Would this platform have helped you?
Is there anything about this platform that you would like to change?
Results:
The first impressions of the platform were recieved relatively well as it was very suited for Genshin Impact players.
They both believed that the statistics page would have helped them be more cautious with their spendings as they were openly made aware of the amount of money they spent. They also appreciated that the platform allowed you to support yourself through the help page, or seek help within the community. An aspect that they both enjoyed was having information of their Genshin Impact accounts linked and shown as well.
One aspect they would like incorporated was to include more Genshin Impact terminology throughout the platform. This would have made Wangshu Inn feel more linked to the game rather than a stand alone platform.
One thing I did notice as they were exploring the platform were that some of my elements needed more indications. For example participant did not know that the profile picture on the profile page could be changed until I notified them.
Overall I believe the project to be successful. From interviewing members of the Genshin Impact community I was able to learn that one of the biggest problems was addiction. That many people spend too much time and money on the game. I believe the platform I had designed has the potential to actively support players if built further.
The statistics page allows players to keep cautious with the amount of time and money they are spending on the game. The help page allows players to take the initiative into their own hands by providing effective options. The forums page allows for a community that supports and helps one another be fostered. The profile page helps users build an online persona that is directly linked to their account in the game.
For future additions I would like to continue improving the platform by incorporating proper help options. At the moment Wangshu Inn only gives examples of the different ways users can seek for help, however eventually I would like to make it a possibility.