I would like to share my idea for celebrating the anniversary.
To start off bring back every re-run banner for the duration of the anniversary update. Of course this won't include more recent Inazuman characters like Kazuha.
The next step can go in either of two possibilities.
Possibility 1 - A guaranteed banner drop with 90 pity. This effectively halves the cost of banners which would affect all players. Whales who happened to be unlucky during these older banners now have a good opportunity to fill up the constellations they missed. Dolphins have a better chance at completing their rosters. Meanwhile f2p players who were on the fence about spending now have a very good reason to go for it. The rest of us could still manage one of these 5* drops from these banners since each update provides at least 50 Fates.
Possibility 2 - A discounted 45 pity while keeping the 50/50. This version effectively doubles the drops and would also affect all players. Whales and Dolphins would be getting double the drops which would work towards constellations on off banner characters they missed while still halving the cost of banner characters. F2p again would still have a good reason to start spending or enjoy a guaranteed drop with additional free Fates to spare. Admittedly this version wouldn't benefit whales any more than the other one but is much more valuable to f2p players who intend to stay f2p.
The important thing to keep in mind though is that all this is to celebrate the anniversary. Genshin's anniversary is unlike most anniversaries in gaming. Other games celebrate franchise anniversaries like Pokemon. That's because most games themselves don't stay popular for very long. And gacha games celebrate their anniversaries to incentivize new players to make up for the ones they lost over the previous year. So with Genshin Impact lasting over a year and retaining such high popularity the anniversary should instead celebrate the dedication of players who've supported the game since the beginning. As such the re-run banner perk is unlocked when players have been active for 365 days.
Requiring 365 days worth of playtime serves a few purposes. For loyal players who've been at it since launch it shows appreciation and hopefully tells us our dedication was worth it so we'll feel confident to keep supporting this incredible game in the coming years. For players who started with us but ended up falling off somewhere in the middle it teaches diligence because the investment you put into Genshin will be rewarded. In other words you might have missed this round but it's not too late to make up for lost time. Maybe Year 2's anniversary will also require 365 total days for that year letting these players start with a clean slate. And since each update lasts for 6 weeks it means that even players who didn't start at launch but were still around for most of Genshin's Year 1 they still have a chance at these banners. As long as they can reach the 365 login requirement in time they could easily save up during the update to use on the banners when they've finally unlocked them. As for new players that joined somewhere in the middle this shows that Genshin rewards its players so they should stick with it just for that if not for the rich lore and interesting characters.
Now some dude might look at this and go "but MiHoYo's all about the profits! They would never be this nice. Enjoy your 10 summons." To that I would point right back at the 365 day requirement. This is only for dedicated veteran players thanking them for being here since the beginning. The 10 Fates and Moonlight Merriment are for all players. And that's because vet whales have likely spent thousands on these banners already and aren't likely to spend more on regular re-runs of them. We can look at Klee's rerun to see that. There are tons of new characters still coming out too so having something like a 3rd or 4th Childe rerun won't really appeal to us OG players.
So having this event will allow the greatest profit on these old characters while showing old players that they are appreciated.
The next idea is something I think everybody's screamed at MiHoYo at least once. Skins. Specifically I suggest a full collection of anniversary skins to celebrate it. It wouldn't really be that hard either. Go with a tux/evening gown series if you don't want to think too much about it.
This image
that was shown during the v2.1 livestream made so many people simp especially for Ningguang's and Beidou's outfits.
Putting in a little more thought MiHoYo could pair these outfits with a little change in dialogue for that extra value.
Other images from the livestream like Keqing's shown above also got players drooling and itching to crack open their wallets. Here's a couple more:
MiHoYo's shown that it doesn't really want to frivolously drain its player's wallets but for something like the anniversary especially when it's about player dedication this should be ok. For players this will feel like a real celebration that they're dressing up their favorite characters for the occasion which could be a fun memory for them. Memories which we just recently learned could make a moment last an eternity. On the company side there's no real drawback to making additional easy money is there? For a game that's really shied away from making money off of aesthetics it wouldn't feel like the cash grab gimmicks of other less scrupulous games. Otherwise the simplest workaround is to make events where we could earn them.
This is why I've said many times that MiHoYo does the game stuff right but it is terrible at marketing and public relations. It should not come as a surprise that the older players wouldn't appreciate 10 Intertwined Fates and a refresh on whale Genesis Crystals. This doesn't feel any better than what we'd already gotten in rewards from regular updates. In fact 10 Fates was exactly the reward we got from the v1.3 Chinese New Year update. And since v2.1 coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival the Fates not to mention the Moonlight Merriment Event feel more about that holiday than the anniversary.
Summary
-Real anniversary was bad. Geez was it bad.
-One 10 pull =/= Respectable Anniversary Reward
-An event based on a Chinese holiday =/= Anniversary Event
-Should have re-run banners in discounted format for OG players
-Anniversary Skins for all characters
-Profits and good PR were staring you in the face MiHoYo
PS: And I would have suggested this to them privately via e-mail but o that's right they don't read their e-mails.
