The allure of gacha games: Qualitative content analysis of Genshin Impact user reviews
Toskala, Niko (2026)
2026
Tietotekniikan DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Information Technology
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2026-05-22
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202605226136
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202605226136
Tiivistelmä
Gacha games have become more and more popular within the last decade. Genshin Impact, one of the most popular gacha games, has millions of players worldwide and has even received multiple awards. What is it about these games that makes players invest their time and money into them? Why do players like gacha games?
Research into gacha games has mostly been focused on studying their health impact or their relationship with gambling addiction. Other research has been focused on trying to understand what makes people spend money on gacha games or how gacha games affect people's spending. Little research has been done into understanding what is it that makes these games so liked or disliked. The existing research on this topic has been quantitative in nature and high-level, trying to understand what players like about gacha games, by focusing on general principles of game design rather than individual game elements. This thesis attempted to fill this research gap by investigating which game elements of free-to-play gacha games players like and dislike. This was done by analyzing the user reviews from Metacritic and OpenCritic for the gacha game Gensin Impact. The user reviews were analyzed by utilizing qualitative content analysis with an inductive
approach.
The analysis found that there were seven categories of game elements that players like and dislike: technical aspects, game community, character design, game design, storytelling & worldbuilding, art & aesthetics, and monetization. The results showed that the elements that players like in gacha games are: Low game installation sizes, good player-developer relations, interesting characters, engaging gameplay, engaging storytelling, free-to-play monetization and a good-looking art style. The elements that players did not like were: Bad game performance, ignoring player feedback, artificial limitations in gameplay, slow story pacing and excessive dialogue, unfair and pricy gacha and generic art style. The discussion elaborates more on these results and how they relate to previous research on this topic.
Research into gacha games has mostly been focused on studying their health impact or their relationship with gambling addiction. Other research has been focused on trying to understand what makes people spend money on gacha games or how gacha games affect people's spending. Little research has been done into understanding what is it that makes these games so liked or disliked. The existing research on this topic has been quantitative in nature and high-level, trying to understand what players like about gacha games, by focusing on general principles of game design rather than individual game elements. This thesis attempted to fill this research gap by investigating which game elements of free-to-play gacha games players like and dislike. This was done by analyzing the user reviews from Metacritic and OpenCritic for the gacha game Gensin Impact. The user reviews were analyzed by utilizing qualitative content analysis with an inductive
approach.
The analysis found that there were seven categories of game elements that players like and dislike: technical aspects, game community, character design, game design, storytelling & worldbuilding, art & aesthetics, and monetization. The results showed that the elements that players like in gacha games are: Low game installation sizes, good player-developer relations, interesting characters, engaging gameplay, engaging storytelling, free-to-play monetization and a good-looking art style. The elements that players did not like were: Bad game performance, ignoring player feedback, artificial limitations in gameplay, slow story pacing and excessive dialogue, unfair and pricy gacha and generic art style. The discussion elaborates more on these results and how they relate to previous research on this topic.