Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
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
Volume
17
Issue
7-8
First Page
1075
Last Page
1092
ISSN
1555-4120
Identifier
10.1177/15554120221077728
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Citation
WOODS, Orlando.(2022). The economy of time, the rationalisation of resources: Discipline, desire and deferred value in the playing of Gacha games. Games and Culture, 17(7-8), 1075-1092.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3561
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1177/155541202210777
