In-Game Purchases and Event Features of Mobile Social Games in Japan

Long-Term Effects of In-Game Purchases and Event Game Mechanics on Young Mobile Social Game Players in Japan

“…During limited-time events, another type of gacha, called step-up, box, or package gacha is designed to attract players (e.g. Shibuya et al, 2015Shibuya et al, , 2016Toto, 2016). For example, in some games, 10 or 100 cards are packaged as a box set, which include one extremely rare and important card and some moderately valuable cards.…”

“…Monetary and event mechanics were analysed using content analysis (Shibuya et al, 2015(Shibuya et al, , 2016. Eleven coders with experience in playing social games were recruited in February and March 2014.…”

“…Operational definition and coding categories. In-game purchases were operationally defined as purchasing costumes, weapons, items for restoring stamina, proceeding with the story, further battle time and multi-purpose items within the games and apps, paid for with game coins or gold, which were obtained through actual monetary payments (Shibuya et al, 2016). Additionally, in-game purchases included playing paid gacha, which could involve playing roulette or a lottery, by using game coins obtained through monetary payment.…”

“…In social games, gacha can be free of charge, but rare and/or valuable gaming items often need to be obtained through special gacha by in-game purchases (e.g. Shibuya, Teramoto, & Shoun, 2015, 2016). Among social games, one particular type of gacha , called kompu gacha (an abbreviation of ‘complete gacha’ ) has been criticised.…”

“…In kompu gacha , players can obtain rare and valuable items by collecting complete sets of cards or items with different marks or numbers. When kompu gacha was available, some players became too enthusiastic to collect all the cards and spent a large amount of money (De Vere, 2012; Inoue, 2012; Shibuya et al, 2016). In 2012, the media and the Consumer Affairs Agency criticised kompu gacha .…”