Ah yes, the OTHER reason why it feels like Genshin gets worse the more you play it; realizing that every new expansion means going through the tedium of finding region-collectibles.

Ayaka stalking in all the panels...

Inkwell_Obsidia said:

Ah yes, the OTHER reason why it feels like Genshin gets worse the more you play it; realizing that every new expansion means going through the tedium of finding region-collectibles.

Well, you have the option to not collect anything.
Like a guy on my in game friend list. He's still AR45 despite playing over 2 years and only did the required rank quest so he can join his AR60 friends too.
He barely does exploration and most world quests. Just the bare minimum and he join his friends, that's it. He does get his chests when people point it out though.
And you can ignore everything like him too.

Demundo said:

Well, you have the option to not collect anything.
Like a guy on my in game friend list. He's still AR45 despite playing over 2 years and only did the required rank quest so he can join his AR60 friends too.
He barely does exploration and most world quests. Just the bare minimum and he join his friends, that's it. He does get his chests when people point it out though.
And you can ignore everything like him too.

If your friend is only AR45 after having played the game for more than 2 years, than he's either playing on someone else's account or INCREDIBLY lazy. I only play Genshin as filler before the release of bigger games I like and even STOPPED playing it entirely for almost over an entire year and I'm AR58 right now.

Also, yes, I could just NOT explore and do World Quests, but then what would even be left? The Story that takes maybe a day or two of complete focus to catch up on? Spiral Abyss, of which I haven't even attempted any of the higher floors yet? Or maybe even MORE Artifact Grinding? At that point I might as well not play the game entirely, which is fair since, again, I only really play it for real to take my mind off of the release date of bigger games I'm excited for like Armored Core 6.

Inkwell_Obsidia said:

If your friend is only AR45 after having played the game for more than 2 years, than he's either playing on someone else's account or INCREDIBLY lazy. I only play Genshin as filler before the release of bigger games I like and even STOPPED playing it entirely for almost over an entire year and I'm AR58 right now.

Also, yes, I could just NOT explore and do World Quests, but then what would even be left? The Story that takes maybe a day or two of complete focus to catch up on? Spiral Abyss, of which I haven't even attempted any of the higher floors yet? Or maybe even MORE Artifact Grinding? At that point I might as well not play the game entirely, which is fair since, again, I only really play it for real to take my mind off of the release date of bigger games I'm excited for like Armored Core 6.

He wants to play with his friends. I can respect that even if he's not a big a fan of it as they are.

Ashenhawk said:

He wants to play with his friends. I can respect that even if he's not a big a fan of it as they are.

I don't have any issue with that. Well, other than the co-op being region-locked and also kinda crappy over all because of the lack of permanent content to even DO with other players, but that's more of a personal gripe I have with the game.

I can feel the 500+ oculi coming right up.

Inkwell_Obsidia said:

If your friend is only AR45 after having played the game for more than 2 years, than he's either playing on someone else's account or INCREDIBLY lazy. I only play Genshin as filler before the release of bigger games I like and even STOPPED playing it entirely for almost over an entire year and I'm AR58 right now.

Also, yes, I could just NOT explore and do World Quests, but then what would even be left? The Story that takes maybe a day or two of complete focus to catch up on? Spiral Abyss, of which I haven't even attempted any of the higher floors yet? Or maybe even MORE Artifact Grinding? At that point I might as well not play the game entirely, which is fair since, again, I only really play it for real to take my mind off of the release date of bigger games I'm excited for like Armored Core 6.

As I mentioned, he did just about enough to unlock the maps on his end. But he did eventually AR60 himself so he can jump over to his friends' world (mine included).
Before then, he'd just come into the game, get together with some other friends, beat bosses and do domain in his world and just... chat.
They somehow didn't want to join each other on Discord or Messenger or any other platform but chose to stick with Genshin as a mean to talk to each other.

He seemed to have fun then too so not my place to say anything, but yeah, he was lazing around only. It was like his whole reason was to chat with people in game, not playing it.