Video games have changed a lot since their birth and will continue to do so: the latest evolution is that of gacha games, such as Genshin Impact.
“Gacha games” are now everywhere. They’ve filled Google Play and the App Store for years, and now you can play many of them on PC and consoles too. The gacha game “genre” is stronger than ever, leading everyone to ask one simple question: what is a gacha game?
Unlike other “genres” that are typically defined by the type of world you explore, how you interact with that world, and from what perspective (such as the “open world first-person shooter”), gacha games are defined primarily by way the game makes money.
“Gacha” is a Japanese onomatopoeia from “gachapon,” which refers to capsule machines that dispense small, random toys in exchange for one or two coins. You probably bought a toy from one of these machines as a child, or at least saw some in a mall or toy store. These machines exchange a small amount of money for a random prize, which is how gacha games make money too.
How do Genshin Impact & co. make money? —
Instead of giving a physical toy, gacha games make money by giving digital rewards. In titles like Genshin Impact, these rewards are playable characters and essential gear to equip them with, in Infinity Nikki they’re fashionable outfits and makeup, and games like Apex Legends and Overwatch feature “loot boxes” that reward you with highly sought-after cosmetic items. The booster packs for the recent and hugely popular Pokémon TCG Pocket are also another form of gacha.
The common thread across all of these games is that the random items they sell – sometimes called “loot boxes”, other times “pulls” – are incredibly popular, and one of the main reasons is that the gacha mechanics can trigger an addiction. Getting a random reward shares a lot of DNA with the modern gambling industry, and extreme investors – known as “whales” – can spend thousands of dollars trying to get a single in-game item.
Some games occasionally feature gacha-like mechanics, but do not offer a method to pay real money to play them. An example is Xenoblade Chronicles 2, where you can receive randomized Blades to fight with, but you can only interact with this mechanic using in-game currency, which cannot be paid. As a game mechanic, it’s arguable whether gacha in a form like this is actually “fun”, but it’s at least less questionable from a moral standpoint.
Be careful with gacha games… —
Despite sharing a monetization system, gacha games rarely share a genre. Dozens of mobile gacha games, like Granblue Fantasy and Fire Emblem: Heroes, will have you searching for new characters to use in simplistic RPG battles, while the aforementioned Genshin Impact and Infinity Nikki are different types of open-world games. Gacha games often share the same monetization system, but the gameplay is rarely the same from one title to the next, unlike other game genres.
The most important thing to know before playing a gacha game is that it is designed to make you invest your money. Early portions of gacha often offer the player in-game currencies that have a great perceived value completely for free, but over time they slowly cut into this resource, enticing the player to spend to maintain the same level of progress. Gacha games can be very fun and rewarding, but as with gambling in a casino, you need to be aware of how much money you are spending and spend wisely.
If there’s one lesson to take away from this article, it’s this: spending money on pull or loot boxes shares a lot of DNA with gambling, without any monetary reward. Gacha games can lull you into a sense of security while draining your bank account. If you choose to play, make sure you are aware of how the game pushes you to spend money, and if you decide to spend, set a personal, manageable limit. Gambling can ruin your life and no game is worth that outcome.
Written by Dave Aubrey for GLHF
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