This study examines the relationship between the visual design of characters in thevideo game Genshin Impact and their character background. The study uses formal analysisand data collected on selected characters’ color choices, shapes, movements, facialexpressions, and backstories to analyze if the characters’ visual designs align with theirnarratives. This research is relevant to game designers, players, and game research scholars.Game designers can use the insights gained from this study to create more immersivecharacters that organically convey their backstories. The findings suggest that visual designplays a critical role in conveying character context and personality in the game. Thecharacters of the sample showed a strong visual appearance, effectively conveying theirbackground story and personality characteristics. The findings of this study confirm that thecharacter design in Genshin Impact effectively conveys the character’s background. Theanalysis revealed notable strengths in employing a skillful combination of color, shapes,movements, and facial expressions to evoke specific emotions, accentuate character traits, andenhance the storytelling experience. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of carefullyconsidering and refining visual design choices to align with the intended narrative and engageplayers effectively. Future research could explore other aspects of visual design and its impacton video game character development.

The monetization model Gacha has spread from its country-of-origin Japan and become a global phenomenon. Genshin Impact, a Chinese Gacha game, is currently one of the highest grossing mobile games in the world. Despite its high revenue, Genshin Impact is free to download and play, all purchases in game are voluntary. A question can then be asked: What aspect of Genshin Impact games makes players spend money? This paper aims to answer that question through qualitative interviews with Genshin Impact players and their reasons for paying for in game items. The results show that players chose to spend money on Genshin Impact because they formed emotional attachment to content, and that the enjoyment of the game justified the money they paid. Further research can be conducted on the difference in opinion between players who pay for in game items and players who do not.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out how interactive level design directly impactsplayers’ experience of immersion. This was done by researching different perspectives andtheories for immersion and interactivity while using Genshin Impact as an example. For thisstudy, interactive level design means a piece of environment that reacts to a player’s input.This research is important as there is a gap in the research, as while there are existing theoriesfor interactivity, immersion, and level design independently, there is little existing researchlinking them together. Additionally, this thesis is important for future level design, as it willaid in making more interactive and immersive levels for games. The method of this thesisrelied on answers from 2 qualitative and quantitative surveys and 5 semi-structuredinterviews. The data gathered from the surveys and interviews were then separately analyzed.The results indicate that interactive level design indeed has an influence that heightensplayers’ experience of immersion.

An exploratory discourse analysis was performed on a community of practice based on Discord, an instant messaging platform. The community of practice is a group of gamers (people who play video games), dedicated to the cross-platform free-to-play game Genshin Impact. A corpus of messages was gathered from the community’s public message logs, which spanned a period of three days during the release of Genshin Impact’s most financially lucrative character banner. From the corpus, numerous themes in players’ discussions have been observed; such as reactions to the gacha’s probability system, displays of problem gaming, sexualization of female characters, and opinions regarding monetization & the game’s developers. This study would be beneficial for future studies that pertain to player behavior and gamer culture that can also use communities of practice on platforms such as Discord, in order to gain insight into niche communities of engaged users. / En utforskande diskursanalys utfördes på praxisgemenskapen baserad på Discord, en plattform för snabbmeddelanden. Praxisgemenskapen var en grupp spelare dedikerade till det plattformsoberoende gratisspelet Genshin Impact. En korpus av meddelanden samlades in från gemenskapens offentliga meddelandeloggar, som sträckte sig över en period av tre dagar under lanseringen av Genshin Impacts mest ekonomiskt lukrativa karaktärsbanner. Från korpusen har många teman i spelarnas diskussioner observerats; såsom reaktioner på gachas sannolikhetssystem, visningar av problemspelande, sexualisering av kvinnliga karaktärer och åsikter om intäktsgenerering samt spelets utvecklare. Framtida studier som avser spelarbeteende och gamerkultur kan också använda praxisgemenskaper på plattformar som Discord, för att få insikt i nischa gemenskaper av engagerade användare.

The open world game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) has been proven to follow a 40 second rule when placing points of interest for players to explore. The developers of the game said in an interview that the rule existed, and this was proven by a study made in 2021 by Cojanu and Jaber (2021). The 40 second rule means that whichever direction the player goes in, they will encounter a point of interest within 40 seconds. This study asks the question if Genshin Impact (2020) is following the 40 second rule. The researchers analyzed footage from four YouTube content creators to see if the rule was implemented in the game. It was found that Genshin Impact (2020) follows the 40 second rule since the points of interest were about 10 seconds apart. How the player decides to play the game slightly impacts the frequency of the points of interest and could be taken into account when testing the 40 seconds rule. It was found that points of interest found were more random at the start of the game and more intentionally found by the player later in the game. / Öppen världs spelet The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) har visat sig följa en 40 sekunders regel när det gäller placeringen av intressanta platser för spelare att utforska. Spelets utvecklare sa i en intervju att regeln fanns, och detta bevisades genom en studie utförd 2021 av Cojanu och Jaber (2021). Regeln innebär att oavsett vilken riktning spelaren går i så kommer de att stöta på en intressant plats inom 40 sekunder. Denna studie undersöker om Genshin Impact (2020) följer 40 sekunders regeln. Forskarna analyserade videomaterial från fyra YouTube innehållsskapare för att se om regeln implementerades i spelet. Det visades att Genshin Impact (2020) följer 40 sekunders regeln, eftersom de intressanta platserna låg ungefär 10 sekunder ifrån varandra. Hur spelaren väljer att spela spelet påverkar lite grann frekvensen av de intressanta platser och detta kan tas i beaktning när man testar 40 sekunders regeln. Det visade sig att de intressanta platserna var mer slumpmässiga i början av spelet och mer avsiktligt hittade av spelaren senare i spelet.

This thesis research explores the patterns of player-character relationships and player-character attachment in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020) and Genshin Impact (2020). The purpose of the paper is to fill in the existing gap in the literature concerning the psychological and social mechanisms of attachment that players form with non-customizable game characters. The research explores the nature of player-character attachment in its relation to game mechanics and broader social context, as well as its transformative potential.   The research relies on interdisciplinary mixed-methods methodology, drawing from the fields of psychology and anthropology. The first part of the research employs auto-ethnographic data on the authors' personal relationships with game characters. The second part involves a series of qualitative in-depth interviews with players of Animal Crossing and Genshin Impact. Thematic analysis with the elements of case-study methodology is applied to the interview data. The results of the interview analysis are compared between the two player groups, as well as to the findings of the auto-ethnographic inquiry. The main results of the comparative analysis suggest that players’ perceptions of characters in the studied games can be categorized as character-as-object and character-as-other. Further on, a distinction can be made between two types of attachment that players form with characters-as-others. The first one is player-for-character, focused primarily on a player’s relatedness and empathy towards a character. The second one is character-for-player, where a game character is perceived as a supporting and caring figure that transcends the boundaries of the game. The relationship types are not mutually exclusive, and both of them have been found to have transformative potential.