Lootboxes currently cause a frequent debate in the games industry where the discussion is often focused on the connection to gambling. In this thesis an addition to this debate is made by taking a closer look at Gacha design – a way to design games around monetization – through theory and player opinions. Conclusions point to that if Gacha is viewed as a spectrum of strength the discussion can benefit from an increased understanding of all monetization systems within games regardless of their abstract definitions. The data was collected through focus groups and analyzed based on current research of the common topics that surfaced during the focus group discussions. The thesis found that overall knowledge surrounding Gacha was lacking and by looking at Gacha as a design method opened up for a broader discussion with connections to Lootboxes. / Lootboxes orsakar för närvarande en återkommande debatt inom spelindustrin där diskussionens fokus ofta är kring kopplingen till hasardspel. I detta examensarbete görs ett tillägg till debatten genom en närmre undersökning av Gacha design – vilket är ett designverktyg för inkomstgenerering – genom teori och spelares åsikter. Slutsatserna pekar mot att om Gacha är sett som ett spektrum av styrka kan diskussionen nyttjas för att bidra till en ökad förståelse av alla former av inkomstgenereringssystem inom spel oberoende av deras abstrakta definitioner. Data samlades genom fokusgrupper och analyserades utifrån nuvarande forskning runt de vanligaste ämnen som uppstod under fokusgruppernas diskussioner. Detta examensarbetet fann att den övergripande kunskapen kring Gacha var begränsad och genom att titta på Gacha som en design method öppnade upp för en bredare diskussion med kopplingar till Lootboxes.

Online gaming is today a popular everyday activity among both young people and adults. This has led to several new design methods such as dark game design patterns which aim to manipulate the user to act in a certain way that may not necessarily be in their best interest, with features that can be destructive to the user.  The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the presence of dark patterns on two popular gaming platforms – a free to play mobile game and a slot game at a popular online casino – to then investigate what the implementation of these patterns means for the given context. This was considered important to study to identify if the implementation of dark patterns is used differently depending on the gaming platform’s target group, especially as several studies show that it is mainly children and teenagers who play mobile games that are free to play, while slot games are aimed towards adults. The conclusion of this study has shown that the amount of identified dark patterns primarily depends on the game’s construction rather than it’s target group, but also that dark game design patterns are implemented to encourages the user to actively play online games, which in the long run should make the user want to support the gaming companies monetarily.