On October 23, mihoYo announced that Genshin Impact (PC, PS4, Mobile, soon on Switch, PS5) in its Version 1.1 update, will upgrade the Original Resin cap from 120 to 160. Version 1.1 is scheduled to launch on November 11. That's great news, but why miHoYo decided to do this?Original Resin is the Stamina system of Genshin Impact. Stamina is a thing in nearly every gacha game, and basically limits the players' play time per day, limiting the amount of times you can run dungeons or fight bosses for example. Stamina recharges over time, so you can't farm indefinitely, unless you pay up. Genshin Impact work the same, though it's a bit more original as the game never feels like it's deciding when you can play and when you can't. As you have a whole open world to explore, and you can still fight bosses for fun, only paying Original Resin to get the bosses' drops. This is a pretty nice system clearly missing in games like Phantasy Star Online 2, which doesn't let you have fun with any mission at any time.However, it's almost been a month since Genshin Impact released, and many players have been sending feedback to miHoYo regarding the Original Resin system. Genshin Impact became a surprise hit at launch worldwide, though it's yet to be seen if its popularity will last. Many players not necessarily accustomed to gacha games picked up Genshin as well, with some regularly sending negative feedback on the Stamina system. Which could explain the change.What's pretty strange though is that miHoYo has been receiving similar negative feedback about the game for months now, through Chinese players, and through Closed Beta Test players. Not only on the Original Resin system but on various aspects of the game, such as the badly designed Artifacts menu UI, or the very low drop rate for five star characters. And yet miHoYo didn't budge until now. And only communicated now that some improvements for the Original Resin and the Artifacts UI are coming. On comments in Chinese platforms such as Bilibili, some of the Chinese players felt like their feedback has been ignored for months. Perhaps the huge amount of new players made miHoYo realize they should indeed change the Original Resin system a bit. The in-game survey from October 10 must have heavily influenced this decision too:

It's also interesting to note this change to the Original Resin system and the various improvements were first announced in Chinese and English on Twitter, while the Japanese announcement only came around 7 hours later. Usually, it's the English version of the Genshin Impact official announcements that are trailing behind the Japanese ones. Further hinting those improvements were highly motivated by English-speaking players' feedback. As such, seeing all of the above, it's possible some Chinese players will start thinking miHoYo prioritized American and West European feedback over them. Worsening miHoYo's reputation among some Chinese players.

Seeing nothing changed until now, I personally didn't expect this improvement at all, but it's definitely great.  In any case, it'll be interesting to see how the situation evolves from now on. Hopefully, Genshin Impact will receive further changes making the lives of all players easier. I personally believe the 0.6% drop rate for five stars characters will never change. But now, maybe some small changes to the gacha system could happen if we keep sending feedback.

Genshin Impact Version 1.1 is expected to launch on November 11 with a new event. Version 1.2 is expected to launch on December 23, and will add another event and the new Dragonspine area. Version 1.3 is scheduled for February 2021. You can read in detail about each update here and here.