The economy of time, the rationalisation of resources: Discipline, desire and deferred value in the playing of Gacha games

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

3-2022

Abstract

This paper offers a counterpoint to existing research that explores the associations between gacha games and gambling. Whilst existing research tends to advance a view that playing these games is equivalent to gambling, I contend that such assertions rest on analyses that focus almost exclusively on investing money in the game. Moreover, they tend to view the game as separate from the structuring forces of everyday life. Arguing that players are embedded within a double structural frame that moderates the extent of seemingly ‘irrational’ playing behaviours, I reinterpret grinding as a form of temporal investment that is motivated by more ‘rationalised’ engagements with the gacha mechanic. Drawing on qualitative data derived from Singapore-based players of gacha games, I explore how discipline, desire and deferred value can lead to resource maximising behaviours that are rooted in a time-money trade-off. In turn, these agentic patterns of play can be seen to ‘game-the-game’.

Keywords

gacha games, rationalisation, gambling, grinding, economy of time

Discipline

Sociology

Research Areas

Sociology

Publication

Games and Culture

First Page

1

Last Page

18

ISSN

1555-4120

Identifier

10.1177/15554120221077728

Publisher

SAGE Publications

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