User:TheLonePlush/Gacha game

Dolphin - http://jultika.oulu.fi/files/nbnfioulu-202205192268.pdf

A player who is called a Dolphin is a player who spends a moderate amount of money on microtransactions in mobile games

Minnow - http://jultika.oulu.fi/files/nbnfioulu-202205192268.pdf

A player who is called a minnow is a player who Spends little to no money on microtransactions in mobile games.

Types Of Players
An aspect of monetization commonly found in the financing of gacha games involves a model where a large part of the game's revenue comes from a very small proportion of players who spend an unusually large amount of money on gacha rolls, essentially to subsidize the game for other players who may spend smaller amounts of money, or even free-to-play players that spend no money at all. The high-spending players are often colloquially referred to as "whales". A player who is called a dolphin spends a moderate amount of money on microtransactions in mobile games. A player who is called a minnow spends little to no money on microtransactions in mobile games.

Price Anchoring - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320303076

A marketing practice where deals of a product are being shown to the consumer so they perceive what there buying as a good deal. This is used in gacha as extra roll deals and virtual currency deals to get the consumer to buy more. Studies show that consumers buy on the basis on the single product and not all of the products combined which entrepreneurs take advantage of. Buyers only look at the price at hand and compare that to the deal and not the sub charges. Specifically for mobile games there is a cheap product to set the anchor then the more expensive ones show deals making the player feel better for a purchase.

intermediate reward system - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10603-022-09522-7

Intermediate reward system makes the player more engaged by giving the player reward intermediately throughout the game so the player must work for these rewards in order to get what they desire. making the player either have to play to get these rewards or paying to get an advantage and getting the rewards without having to play. an example of this is getting free gacha open by doing certain tasks in game.

Near miss tactic - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10603-022-09522-7

Near miss tactic is when showing the player rare items that they may get and when the player does not get this item wants to spend more to achieve this item because they feel that they were close to getting the item and that the next roll they will get the item. when the player starts a roll it passes by the items in that banner then stops on the item the player obtained while teasing what items where next to or close to the item they got making the player feel as if they have missed the desired item.

Fomo - https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/805479/Dang_Thang.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Fomo (Fear of missing out) is when limited time rewards make the players feel urgent in getting the item for bragging rights or because the item gives the player an advantage but is only available to obtain for a certain amount of time. if the player has not saved on the currency required to get the limited items the consumer is more likely yo buy their way to obtain the item. this also makes player from stop playing the game because they fear that they will miss the next limed event and miss a limited item. this is also abused through daily login rewards to get the player to open the game each day because they fear they will miss out on the free reward offered each day.

Price Anchoring
A marketing practice where deals of a product are being shown to the consumer so they perceive what there buying as a good deal. This is used in gacha as extra roll deals and virtual currency deals to get the consumer to buy more. Studies show that consumers buy on the basis of the price of a single product and not all of the products prices combined which entrepreneurs take advantage of. Customers only look at the price at hand of a product and compare that to the deal and not the sub charges of the product. In mobile games this is used by a cheap product to set the anchor then the more expensive ones that shows deals making the player feel better for a purchase because they have more value.

intermediate reward system
Makes the player more engaged by giving the player reward intermediately throughout the game so the player must work for these rewards in order to get what they desire. Making the player either have to play to get these rewards or paying to get an advantage and getting the rewards without having to play. An example of this is getting a free gacha pull by doing certain tasks in game.

Near miss tactic
Showing the player rare items that they want and when the player does a gacha pull and does not get the desired item. The player wants to spend more to achieve this item because they feel that they were close to getting the item and that the next roll they will get the item. When the player starts a roll it passes by the items in that banner then stops on the item the player obtained while teasing what items where next to or close to the item they got making the player feel as if they have missed the desired item.

Fomo (Fear of missing out)
Limited time rewards make the players feel urgent in getting the item for bragging rights or because the item gives the player an advantage but is only available to obtain for a certain amount of time. If the player has not saved on the currency required to get the limited items the consumer is more likely to buy their way to obtain the item. This also makes player from stop playing the game because they fear that they will miss the next limed event and miss a limited item. This is also abused through daily login rewards to get the player to open the game each day because they fear they will miss out on the free reward offered each day.

Main - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.940281/full https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10603-022-09522-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40429-022-00424-9 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.14583 https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/glr2.2018.2216

Studies done in Europe and the United States show that more than half juveniles who participate in gacha around 5 percent of them developed bad gambling habits and 10 percent were starting habits. the gacha industry invokes gambling addiction and 30 percent are students who spends 256 to 1280 Dollars of which these students have no steady income. as of 2020 the EU parliament has regulated form of gacha on the basis of consumer protection because of the exploitation of the industry. the parliament looked for alternative basis player protection in hoped of finding a better solution. This has been considered for regulations many times by many countries but only a few of them have actively taken action against gacha. Belgium has banned loot boxes, China has made a requirement on showing chances of obtaining a particular item, UK has adapted to a wait and watch. As of 2019 55 percent of the highest income in UK games are lootboxes and gacha on mobile and 36 percent on pc.

Future -

in the future it is believed that gacha industry will try to get more money out of its players and then be regulated further to counteract this. the EU parliament will step in again to stop the exploitation of the gacha industry then the mobile industry as a whole because of these marketing tactics. if the industry takes the exploitation of its player base too far it might get outright banned because of the industry is made to exploit people of of their money.

Resemblance to gambling
Studies done in Europe and the United States show that more than half juveniles who participate in gacha around 5 percent of them developed bad gambling habits and 10 percent were starting habits. The gacha industry invokes gambling addiction and 30 percent are students who spends 256 to 1280 dollars of which these students have no steady income. As of 2020 the EU parliament has regulated form of gacha on the basis of consumer protection because of the exploitation of the industry. The parliament looked for alternative basis player protection in hoped of finding a better solution. This has been considered for regulations many times by many countries but only a few of them have actively taken action against gacha. Belgium has banned loot boxes, China has made a requirement on showing chances of obtaining a particular item, UK has adapted to a wait and watch. As of 2019 55 percent of the highest income in UK games are loot boxes and gacha on mobile and 36 percent on pc. Players with already set gambling problems are a lot more susceptible to spending more money on loot box and gacha games. This is largely because there is no committed limit for how much the person will spend on pullls or opens spending more because of it. 30 percent of the revenue from gacha and loot boxes are players who are moderately at risk for gambling addiction. UK does not consider loot boxes and gacha gambling because the virtual item have no real monetary value outside of the game. As studies show the brain likes randomness and surprises which gacha is a surprise in a way that what the player might get will be amazing or poor. this is because the brain likes to predict what reward they will get from the pull and makes the player excited at the possibility of getting something that they desire. just like cards the buyer will always get something just maybe not what the consumer wants to get unlike gambling. Gacha games go by the philosophy of all or nothing when pulling the player either pulls till they get the desired item or they stop half way getting nothing of value. Gacha games are not inherently bad it is based upon the developer of the game making the gacha a requirement to continue the game or if the items are just to help the player continue the story or main quest. Pay to win is also dependent on the game itself as not all gacha games are pay to win but most gacha games let the player buy advantages to help them in the game. ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) does not consider gacha gambling because the player is guaranteed to earn some sort of prize which gambling does not. "The Netherlands Gambling Authority" has stated that gacha violates "the Betting and Gaming Act" and "the Belgium Gaming Commission" states that is it gambling because of its random chance. Illegal third party sites make it so players can sell virtual items for real money making it closer to gambling because at that point it deals with outside game currency. Gacha items has rarity which means by proxy it has a value which therefor can be sold on third party sites for real life money depending on rarity. Similarities can be drawn from crypto games because of the breeding method turning two crypto game into a new one by a set random chance just like the random chance of gacha. one big criticism is pay to win give an advantage to players with more money and gacha is one that has been criticized for pay to win. from a survey they used 46000 users and out of them 586 where pay2win and has purchased loot boxes or gacha to gain an advantage. 50% of those users where high risk gamblers and low level education. Gacha is one of the most grossing industry in gaming aquaring $6300000 a year making it one of the most lucrative.