July 10, 2022 • 15:40 - 15:50 | Sunday
Parallel 20 - Zhumu Conference: 632269262 : Zhumu Conference: 632269262
Parallel 20(2): Graduate student forum for science, health, risk and environment communication

The difference between the " price discrimination " in mobile games and in e-commerce platforms lies in the fact that the former's process is concealed by the seemingly transparent but actually controlled "probability", which is more difficult to be discovered and supervised by the society. In order to verify the existence of " price discrimination " in mobile gacha games, analyzing the operation mode of "price discrimination" and the attitude and response of players, on the basis of long-term participatory observation, more than 30 domestic game players, game developers and founders of data analysis websites were interviewed in depth. The study found that compared with the academic definition of "price discrimination", there is indeed " price discrimination " in mobile games. The process of "price discrimination" in mobile games is composed of three interrelated models: "scarcity-pricing model", "gachaing-user profiling model" and "recharging-profiting model". Gamers' attitudes and responses to "price discrimination" are generally negative. However, it implies the possibility of forming a new "participatory culture". Finally, according to Lawrence Lessig's "four modes of restraining behavior in cyberspace", this paper puts forward suggestions to deal with the problem of " Price Discrimination " in mobile gacha games in China.


Authors
  • CAO RAN

    Soochow University
  • Huang Jiawen

    Soochow University

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