Mobile Gacha Games: In-App Purchases or Gambling?
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Gacha games are very much a household name for players who have tried plenty of mobile games. Mobile games that are specifically free to download are the most common types of games that fall under this category of games. That’s because gacha is a Japanese term that is commonly associated with addictive gaming experiences.
What are gacha games?
Most casino games that offer a free-to-play structure don’t blatantly tell users that there is a reason why the game is free to play, to begin with. The game is either brimmed with annoying ads or sometimes, you are forced to watch a painful video promotion that is not related to the game in any way!
Over time, people are expected to get bummed by such mechanics that some people would immediately quit playing the game entirely.
Why gacha games exists
It is worth noting that making a game for mobile devices is a lot different than the ones you’ll find for major gaming consoles or PCs. Apart from the obvious gap in terms of scale, mobile games are meant to complement the phone’s main purpose: portability.
Because of this, the game needs to be as efficient and it should never take up massive storage space in order for people to even consider trying the game for themselves. However, due to this fact, and the limitations of what mobile phones can handle, games are inherently way smaller than their counterparts on other beefy platforms.
These game developers know that no one would pay for a premium price of a full game with what little they can do for games they develop on smaller and less capable devices such as mobile phones. That’s where most free-to-play builds started to take off.
Companies realized that they don’t need to compete directly and make the mobile gaming space its own thing. But again, how are they supposed to make a profit if they’ll just release games for free? If blatant ads are to be their last option, what else could they do?
In-app purchases
Enter in-app purchases. It’s a game mechanic that allows players to buy certain cosmetics and items to customize their gaming experience. In a way, the game developers are able to inject a digital market within the game that is completely optional for players.
Players can grind through normal means, completely ignoring these shops entirely. คาสิโนออนไลน์ games would often introduce several currencies to encourage players to gain and grind for all of them. However, certain currencies are locked to money-paying players, even letting them buy certain items exclusive for those who are willing to spend real-life money.
Some people hate it
Perhaps the worst offender of in-app purchasing are games that also allow gacha games. Players are more familiar with the term chests, loot boxes, and crates, and they are all in the game to have a common purpose, to get people to spend more real-life money in the game. These are “boxes” that when opened, can give players a random item(s).
These items can be completely random, either rare or straight-up trash. In other words, opening one is a gamble! If you can purchase loot boxes, you’re basically doing gambling. While it is certainly interesting and sounds a lot of fun on paper, you have to look at the bigger picture.
Mobile games are obviously accessible to anyone. People of all ages, specifically, can most certainly get away playing games of any kind online. If minors get their hands on games that offer gacha mechanics, we’re basically tolerating the act of online gambling to these young players, exposing them to risks at a very young age.
