UC Santa Cruz

Gacha games are a broad genre of games that feature monetized Random Reward Mechanisms (RRMs) as a core mechanic—known as the gacha. Gacha games have become increasingly prevalent and popular all across the world. However, controversy regarding the chance-based monetization of gacha games has led to a widespread impression that gacha game players are a monolith of victimized problem gamblers. This assumption flattens the experiences and motivations of millions of players, and ignores the cultural context and impact of gacha games.Several studies have examined reasons other than gambling, such as agentic play or emotional connections, however, these works primarily focus on specific game subcommunities or have a smaller sample size. Thus, it is difficult to discern which findings may be generalizable to larger player communities. A broader overview of player experiences can provide a basis for more nuanced and in-depth future research and discussion. In most modern gacha games, the gacha reward is a character that the player can use during gameplay or collect, which are complex and multi-faceted because of the sociocultural context within which they are produced and consumed.This dissertation presents two studies. First, a comparative analysis focused on 4 popular gacha games in different genres. This provided context for an online qualitative survey, which examines gacha game players' perspectives on gacha game characters and player interactions with them. The survey's 563 responses were analyzed using iterative thematic analysis. The findings highlight the depth of factors that players consider regarding gacha characters, as well as the wide variety of their experiences desiring, consuming, and interacting with characters.