{"id":35,"date":"2026-03-23T09:58:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T13:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/?post_type=chapter&p=35"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:43:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:43:51","slug":"chapter-6","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/visualculture-howtosee\/chapter\/chapter-6\/","title":{"raw":"Sign, Spectacle, Reward: An Analysis of Gacha Pull Visual Culture, Amanda Monasar","rendered":"Sign, Spectacle, Reward: An Analysis of Gacha Pull Visual Culture, Amanda Monasar"},"content":{"raw":"

Introduction<\/h2>\r\nEvery pull in every gacha game begins the same: a flash of light, a sound effect, and the possibility\u2014however unlikely\u2014that, this time, the result you get will be the one you actually want. No matter the gacha game, this ritual animation has become emblematic of a wider, more urgent issue: the resurgence of gambling addictions. Although gacha games serve a wide range of audiences, Gen Z is the primary demographic (Dolot 44), meaning that the core inclination towards gambling has not significantly moved away from previous generations, despite the common belief that it has\u2014instead, it has only manifested in a new, modern outlet. Most times, the media points fingers at inherently predatory gacha mechanics and their publishers (which is far from incorrect, as these companies do bear the weight of the tactics they employ in their games), but the images involved in these gacha systems do far more heavy lifting than they are given credit for. These visuals manufacture desire, and, crucially, they reinforce the shady financial cycle of exploitation that leads to the creation of whales, players who unsustainably spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on gacha games in a short timeframe. This research-creation video project<\/a> examines the pull sequence animation\u2014the short video clip that plays after a player uses in-game currency to randomly draw (pull) an item in a gacha\u2014from the otome game Tears of Themis, breaking it down frame by frame to understand how it constructs desire and reinforces the ideology it is entrenched in. As Ian Bogost notes in 2011, video games \u201cdo things\u201d through their visuals and mechanics, and in the Tears of Themis pull sequence, the animations themselves enact desire and reward, shaping player experience as much as the underlying chance mechanics.\r\n\r\nAccording to research, \u201cgacha games systematically deploy characters as both semiotic and commercial organising principles\u201d (Haoning), meaning that the aesthetics, music, and dramatic reveals involved in a gacha pull are systematically arranged to maximize the desirability of the character as a commodity. Because this sequence relies on motion and build-up, using a video format to analyze it allows for a closer examination than a static analysis would. By isolating specific frames and pointing out compositional cues, this project reveals how the game\u2019s visual rhetoric valorizes unhealthy spending habits.\r\n\r\nThe main research question under study is \u201cHow do gacha games mobilize visual culture to construct value, desire, and community?\u201d, specifically taking aim at the pull animation that occurs before a player takes a chance on a gacha banner. I ultimately argue that the pull animation\u2019s colour, motion, and sound design work in tandem to signify rarity, build anticipation, and emotionally charge the moment of acquisition.\r\n\r\nTo contextualize this work, this essay, along with the video, draws on three main frameworks: Roland Barthes\u2019s semiotics, Guy Debord\u2019s critique of the spectacle, and Martin Jay\u2019s theory of scopic regimes. Barthes provides a framework for identifying the signs embedded in the animation\u2019s symbolism; Debord\u2019s notion of spectacle illuminates how the gacha animation is a concentration of desirable images that mediates social relationships and makes the manufactured event (the pull) seem more important than authentic life; and Jay offers a way to understand the pull sequence as a carefully crafted way of seeing that draws on all three scopic regimes. This essay situates the analysis within ongoing conversations in game studies, visual culture, and gambling-adjacent behaviours.\r\n

Contextual Information<\/h2>\r\nGacha games have become a sweeping force in the mobile gaming industry. According to David Nieborg in 2015, the widespread use of smartphones has made the freemium model the dominant approach in the industry. These games may be free to download, but their enticing features\u2014new characters, cards, or weapons\u2014are locked behind the game\u2019s central gacha system. This gacha experience revolves around pulls (also called spins, rolls, or draws): the action of spending in-game currency to receive these randomized rewards; however, in-game currency can be bought with real money, e.g., microtransactions, perpetuating a seemingly endless way to purchase.\r\n\r\nIn addition to whales, studies posit that FOMO is a massive contributor to gambling-like behaviour in these games, as \u201clong-term players spend more money because they are afraid of missing out due to items that are only available temporarily and at certain events\u201d (Kordyaka et al. 151). These obtainable items are sorted into rarity tiers\u2014designated with ratings (e.g., letter grades, such as SSR, meaning Super Super Rare). The rarest items feature extremely low drop rates (such as 0.6%) and are grouped into banners\u2014time-limited events featuring a specific pool of items and a slightly increased drop rate (e.g., 1.2%) for these limited items. This structure creates a sense of urgency, compelling players to \u201cpull\u201d before the banner disappears.\u00a0To counteract the frustration of continuous bad luck, most games implement a pity system, which guarantees a high-rarity item after a player has reached a specific number of unsuccessful pulls on a banner. Crucially, the generosity of the pity system varies significantly across different games. Over the past decade, this mechanic has been adapted into more and more video games and has completely overhauled both game economies and player affect by operationalizing luck, scarcity, and anticipation.\r\n\r\nWithin this broader landscape, otome gacha games present a particularly compelling convergence. These games are targeted specifically towards females, as they are a genre of heteronormative story games where the goal is to romance and form deeper relationships with the desirable male characters. Instead of new characters or rare weapons, otome gacha systems offer new cards that unlock romantic, standalone stories about the featured male character and a visually stunning new illustration. This genre\u2019s main appeal is the narrative, which is complex and episodic, providing the opportunity for deep parasocial explorations. According to Woods, \u201cBy embedding the player within the game, affect is the emotional trigger through which these processes play out\u201d (824). These games represent an idealized version of romance, often with very lofty romance book tropes, including sexy billionaires or runaway foreign princes. The company behind Tears of Themis is widely known as one of the largest profiteers in the gacha industry; its smash hit Genshin Impact has earned (and continues to earn) billions of dollars in revenue every year. As a result, Tears of Themis is a fascinating case study because MiHoYo\u2019s sophisticated and enduring economic strategy, as well as its deep pockets, have enabled this game\u2019s visual imagery to be exceptionally polished and high-quality. This is brilliantly exemplified by its gacha pull animation.\r\n\r\nAs Joleen Blom notes, fans often treat characters as independent objects of affection (ch. 5), and in otome gacha games like Tears of Themis, the pull animations reinforce this by presenting characters as collectible prizes rather than story figures, intensifying emotional investment and spending. The animation itself stages an affective encounter with the game\u2019s four dateable love interests, promising glimpses of romantic intimacy. This way, the gacha system becomes entangled with the emotional stakes of the genre, namely the desire to see a favourite character and \u201cwin\u201d a moment of intimacy. This emphasis on visual spectacle aligns with wider conversations about visual culture.\r\n

Theoretical Frameworks<\/h2>\r\nThis research-creation project draws on three theoretical frameworks\u2014Roland Barthes\u2019s semiotics, Guy Debord\u2019s theory of the spectacle, and Martin Jay\u2019s scopic regimes\u2014to examine how the Tears of Themis gacha pull sequence mobilizes visual culture to produce desire. These frameworks were chosen because they are complementary to each other, in the sense that there is enough overlap to cast a wide net over the multimodal nature of these games. Barthes\u2019s semiotics speaks to the question of what the image means and how it signifies it. Debord\u2019s spectacle answers what the image does to people and society. Jay\u2019s scopic regimes convey why the image looks the way it does and what cultural logic that mode of visuality enforces. As a trio, they move from meaning-making to socio-economic function to visual conditioning, respectively, and, in my opinion, provide a mutually reinforcing analytic model.\r\n

Roland Barthes: Mythologies<\/em><\/h2>\r\nBarthes\u2019s semiotic method is built on the idea that all cultural objects are systems of signs. These signs encode ideologies and cultural values. In his view, meaning is split into two layers: denotation\u2014the literal, surface-level meaning\u2014and connotation (myth)\u2014its underlying, cultural, and emotional associations. He argued that \u201cthe signifier and the signified have, in [the reader\u2019s] eyes, a natural relationship\u2026 any semiological system is a system of values\u201d (130), which helps explain why players easily accept the visual rhetoric of gacha pulls as meaningful rather than arbitrary. The components of a gacha pull feel \u201cnatural\u201d even though they are deliberately engineered to signal desire. This makes Barthes\u2019s semiotics an effective framework for my analysis, because it reveals how the pull sequence subtly constructs the system that drives player excitement and spending. It ultimately allows this project to articulate how specific frames are part of a broader symbolic system that glamourizes spending.\r\n

Guy Debord: The Society of the Spectacle<\/em><\/h2>\r\nIn Society of the Spectacle, Debord speaks to a socio-economic context for understanding mass media and how it lulls the masses as a form of distraction. Although his work was published decades ago, his concepts of commodity images and a \u201cpseudo-world\u201d still hold weight. The gacha pull sequence is a form of commodity images. From the perspective of Walter Benjamin, gacha pull sequences exemplify the loss of \u201caura\u201d in mechanically reproduced digital media: each draw is instantly reproducible and lacks uniqueness, making the spectacle of the pull entirely mediated and commodified rather than singular or authentic. According to Debord, the spectacle operates by substituting lived experience with mediated appearances. \u201cThe world of the commodity is thus shown for what it is, because its development is identical to people\u2019s estrangement from each other and from everything they produce\u201d (ch. 1, par. 37). In my paper, the pull animation exemplifies this logic by transforming a microtransaction into a heightened dramatic event that lends itself more meaning than it actually has. In digital economies, value is experienced visually rather than materially, and this is exactly the case with gacha games. Through this lens, the pull sequence becomes a fascinating site of digital spectacle, positioning the player as both spectator and consumer in an endless loop of visually mediated longing.\r\n

Martin Jay: Scopic Regimes of Modernity<\/em><\/h2>\r\nIn his book, Jay challenges the notion of a single dominant mode of vision in modernity, arguing that multiple scopic regimes coexist and compete. In the context of a gacha pull animation, these regimes help explain why the animation feels the way it does; players are guided through a tightly controlled visual experience that overwhelms the senses. According to Jay, Western visual culture has been anything but uniform, and its scopic regimes produce different notions of what it means to see and be seen.\r\n\r\nThe first regime, Cartesian Perspectivalism, was considered the dominant scopic regime of the modern era, emphasizing geometric rationality, monocular perspective, objectivity, and the distancing of the observer; this can be applied to the factual pity counter at the bottom of the screen, which lets the player treat the system as a knowable, objective, mathematical space.\r\n\r\nThe second regime, The Art of Seeing, is based on Dutch\/Northern art and emphasizes surface and detail, prioritizing description (it is also called Dutch Descriptivism). \u201cIt casts its attentive eye on the fragmentary, detailed, and richly articulated surface of a world it is content to describe rather than explain\u201d (Jay 13). The Dutch regime here reinforces the intimacy that otome games cultivate: the player is feeling the intimacy of the pull, as if physically participating in the summoning of their favourite male character.\r\n\r\nThe last regime, The Baroque, focuses on spectacle, movement, and emotional intensity, often leading to disorientation. \u201cIn opposition to the lucid, linear, solid, fixed, planimetric, closed form of the Renaissance \u2026 the classical style, the baroque was painterly, recessional, soft-focused, multiple and open\u201d (Jay 16). In the gacha pull animation, screen-shattering effects with rainbow lights and dramatic sound effects are reminiscent of the Baroque regime. This overwhelming sensory input creates a \u201cvertiginous\u201d moment of ecstatic spectacle.\r\n

Methodology (Video Analysis)<\/h2>\r\nFor this research-creation project, I created a video essay to demonstrate the three frameworks at play in the gacha pull sequence. Because these sequences are fundamentally multisensory, a video format allows the analysis to engage directly with the medium without the need to overcompensate (and risk confusing a reader) in text. The methodology centres on a frame-by-frame examination of the Tears of Themis pull sequence of an SSR card, supported by screen-captured footage obtained through my own gameplay. The footage was then segmented in CapCut to highlight particular transitions, flashes, effects, and symbolic cues that would otherwise appear only momentarily during standard play.\r\n\r\nThe use of a frame-by-frame semiotic analysis was key to the project\u2019s aims. Based on Barthes, the pull sequence was treated as a dense visual text, where colours, particle effects, sound, and character silhouettes function as signs that accumulate connotative meaning. Pausing and annotating individual frames made it possible to show the ideological work performed by these signs\u2014particularly how they naturalize rarity, romance, and reward.\r\n\r\nIn addition, this research-creation project uses slow motion and freeze frames to point out the micro-gestures of spectacle that shape user affect but are rarely registered intentionally (or consciously). The video format also enables attention to motion and scopic regimes, which would be flattened or lost in a static written analysis.\r\n\r\nFinally, in line with Debord\u2019s analysis, the video format mirrors the structures of attention that are commanded by gacha games themselves. The viewer is guided through layers of sensorial experiences and visual excess, but in this case, the purpose is to inform instead of selling a commodity. Presenting the analysis like this becomes part of the argument as it exposes the mechanics of spectacle by reconstructing them in an annotative, slowed, and critical form.\r\n

Analysis<\/h2>\r\nThis section of the essay highlights a few of the main points from the video, specifically focusing on frames that were more static in nature, expanding on them with more supporting textual evidence.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nFigure 1. MiHoYo Co., Ltd., Marius von Hagen SSR \u201cBetween Shades\u201d gacha banner art, Tears of Themis, NXX Island Suspense Event, October 2025. Digital game asset\/screenshot. Screenshot taken from the author\u2019s own playthrough from Tears of Themis Mobile Game (iOS version) [November 30, 2025].\r\n\r\n \r\n

Frame 1: The Gacha Banner<\/h3>\r\nThis frame is the gacha banner that is encountered even before the actual animation. In this frame, the overall visual communication strongly leans toward the Baroque regime, while borrowing a few structural elements from Cartesian Perspectivalism to maintain clarity and hierarchy, since it is essentially part of the game\u2019s UI. The focus is intensely on the surface details of the character\u2014Marius von Hagen, my favourite from this game, whose card I sought to obtain. His leopard-print shirt and red blazer are highly textured and saturated. This sensory overload prioritizes visual consumption over rational spatial analysis, making the image \u201cpop\u201d and drawing the eye. He is dramatically lit from the upper left, casting deep shadows on the right side of his face and neck. This strong contrast (chiaroscuro) creates an immediate sense of drama, stimulating the viewer\u2019s emotional and narrative curiosity.\u00a0While the spectacle dominates, the image must still function as a clear, transactional interface, so the elements of organization are very eye-catching.\r\n\r\nThe overall screen layout uses clear horizontal and vertical lines to organize the UI. Resource bars, event duration, buttons (\u201c1 Vision\u201d or \u201c10 Visions\u201d), and text boxes (\u201cSSR Between Shades\u201d) are arranged in a grid. Numerical data (e.g., \u201cS-Chips: 6648\u201d) provides the player with rational, measurable information. This aligns with Cartesian emphasis on quantification and measurable reality, grounding the spectacle within a clear transactional structure. Despite the chaotic image within the window, the UI is clean and orderly, ensuring the player maintains control over the mechanism of the gacha pull. The bottom line for this is that the Baroque regime sells the fantasy (the new card) and Cartesian Perspectivalism sells the transaction.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nFigure 2. MiHoYo Co., Ltd., Gacha Pull Animation (Frame from Marius von Hagen SSR \u201cBetween Shades\u201d gacha banner), Tears of Themis, NXX Island Suspense Event, October 2025. Digital game animation frame\/screenshot. Screenshot taken author\u2019s own playthrough from Tears of Themis Mobile Game (iOS version) [November 30, 2025].\r\n

Frame 2: The Gacha Contents<\/h3>\r\nThere are ten cubes in this frame, each pertaining to 1 of the 10 visions that were selected in the first frame. The yellow orb inside the cube represents any card higher than an R value. In the Baroque way of seeing, the orb is the focal point. Its strong luminosity against the dark background gives it a precious quality\u2014it is the desired object emphasized through pure light, and might very well be the object of the player\u2019s desire, although it is not quite known for certain yet. In the Cartesian view, the light from the bottom draws the eye up through this structured space, leading to the yellow orb. This suggests a rational progression from the mechanical act of the pull to the final result. However, in Barthes\u2019s view, this is a myth. Through repeated play, a player does not need to be explicitly told that they have obtained a rare card; the yellow orb automatically signifies it. Since this frame is seen before the cards are revealed, this is a moment of immediate confirmation of value.\r\n\r\n\"\"\r\n\r\nFigure 3. MiHoYo Co., Ltd., Character Reveal Symbol (Frame from Marius von Hagen SSR \u201cBetween Shades\u201d gacha banner), Tears of Themis, NXX Island Suspense Event, October 2025. Digital game animation frame\/screenshot. Screenshot taken author\u2019s own playthrough from Tears of Themis Mobile Game (iOS version) [November 30, 2025].\r\n

Frame 3: The Character\u2019s Symbol<\/h3>\r\nThis symbol only appears when an SSR card belonging to the character Marius von Hagen is obtained in the gacha pull. It occurs right before the reveal of the card itself and does not appear differently if a previously obtained card or a new card is obtained. In Barthes\u2019s view, for the informed player, this single image functions as a highly efficient code that serves as an index for the character. The sight of this specific symbol acts as a direct link that confirms the prize is Marius von Hagen\u2019s card. All suspense about which character card they received is instantly resolved, shifting the focus to which card itself is obtained. The moment this symbol appears, the player is led to feel that they have successfully \u201ctargeted\u201d their desired character.\r\n\r\nThis analysis portion of the essay focused on the static images that appear in the gacha sequence, as they can be safely expanded upon without compromising readability or comprehension. All animated portions are included in the video.\r\n

Critical Reflection on Process<\/h2>\r\nCarrying out this research-creation project was difficult for a number of reasons. My background is not in art history, which made the act of creating a visual analysis and analyzing a visual object (the pull animation) difficult from the onset, as I had no basis for where to begin with this endeavour and had to refer to existing videos on YouTube for inspiration. I also have little experience making videos, so it was difficult from a technical aspect as well, as my creative vision was limited by my actual capability to use video-editing software. Third, translating scholarly frameworks into a visual medium required constantly negotiating between analytical precision and being a clear communicator\u2014and, frequently, one had to be sacrificed for the other; this is obvious based on the whopping 12-minute duration of the video. This process taught me that practice-based study involves thinking about what is being argued in tandem with how that argument should be materially delivered to a viewer. Additionally, the voice transcription mechanism that I employed through CapCut was very unwieldy and would frequently pause strangely (or miss pauses altogether) and mispronounce some of the words in my video, which forced me to write them phonetically (and in some cases, the mechanic still did not properly say these words correctly). Given the opportunity to revise my video, I would probably record my script myself\u2014although the idea of speaking for twelve minutes is more than discomforting\u2014to ensure my pauses, pronunciation, and meaning is conveyed properly.\r\n\r\nAssembling the frame-by-frame breakdown revealed details of the pull sequence that are easy to overlook in ordinary gameplay. I also learned new things about the sequence under observation, specifically, I did not know that the yellow orbs inside the cubes (which occur right before the cards are revealed) were anything more than a visual choice on the developer\u2019s part. However, after analyzing a handful of recorded gacha pulls from my own collection, I realized they pertained to the amounts of SR or SSR cards within the pull. Going forward, when I pull on any Tears of Themis gacha banners, I will look for this signifier.\r\n\r\nThe research-creation process also raised questions about responsibility. Because gacha systems are tied to compulsive spending and exploitative design, I had to balance critical analysis with awareness of the real economic impact these systems have on players, enough that it compels them to become whales. While the video focuses on aesthetic strategies rather than player behaviour, I tried to avoid glamourizing the mechanics under scrutiny by grounding the commentary in critique rather than spectacle.\r\n\r\nFinally, this project reinforced the value of practice-based research. Working through the video format expanded my understanding of visual culture and helped me understand concepts (namely Cartesian Perspectivalism) a lot more than traditional readings did. This process taught me that scholarly interpretation\/application is itself a form of making.\r\n

Conclusions<\/h2>\r\nThis research endeavour was limited by its scope, as it specifically examined visuals and did not address game mechanics or player discourse, aspects of gacha games that are just as important in fostering unhealthy spending habits and addiction-adjacent behaviour. Future research should compare gacha sequences across games\u2014such as Love and Deepspace (a currently viral otome game with skyrocketing popularity) vs. Tears of Themis\u2014or across genres\u2014Genshin Impact vs. Tears of Themis to interrogate how they mobilize different visual elements and frameworks to encourage spending. This will allow for the comparison of sequences in gendered games, hopefully demonstrating how the visual economies of these games themselves are gendered.\r\n\r\nThis project situates itself in multiple existing conversations surrounding digital economies, affective design, and the visual rhetorics of mobile games by foregrounding the gacha pull sequence as a site of aesthetic, ideological, and affective labour. While much of the existing scholarship on gacha systems focuses on economic structures, addicted behaviour, or community practices of \u201cwhaling\u201d, less attention has been paid to the visual rhetoric involved in the very act of pulling on a gacha banner. By drawing on Barthes\u2019s semiotics, Jay\u2019s scopic regimes, and Debord\u2019s theory of spectacle, this project reframes the pull animation as a concentrated visual argument that constructs value through specific aesthetic strategies. This way, it positions itself within an emerging line of inquiry that treats microtransactional interfaces as culturally meaningful texts rather than just UI components.\r\n\r\nBy undertaking a frame-by-frame breakdown of the pull sequence in Tears of Themis and presenting the findings in a video, this project aimed to bring digital visual culture into closer dialogue with ludic research. My approach demonstrates how scopic regimes and semiotic coding can be mobilized to examine interactive systems. This project enters existing debates about digital capitalism by pointing out how these animations normalize overspending. It speaks to critical conversations about affective design and parasocial dynamics in otome games and hopefully opens the door for new research.\r\n

Works Cited<\/h2>\r\nBarthes, Roland. Mythologies<\/em>. The Noonday Press, 1957.\r\n\r\nBenjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.<\/em> Penguin Books, 1936.\r\n\r\nBlom, Joleen. Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling.<\/em> Amsterdam University Press EBooks, 2023, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5117\/9789463722957.\r\n\r\nBogost, Ian. How to Do Things with Videogames<\/em>. U of Minnesota Press, 2011.\r\n\r\nDebord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle<\/em>. 1967. Black & Red.\r\n\r\nDolot, Anna. \u201cThe Characteristics of Generation Z.\u201d E-Mentor<\/em>, vol. 2, no. 74, 2018, pp. 44\u201350, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15219\/em74.1351.\r\n\r\nJay, Martin. \u201cScopic Regimes of Modernity.\u201d Vision and Visuality<\/em>, edited by Hal Foster, Seattle Bay Press, 1988, pp. 3\u201323.\r\n\r\nKordyaka, Bastian, et al. \u201cRolling the Dice: Understanding the Role of Game Design Elements in Gacha Game Addiction.\u201d CEUR Workshop Proceedings<\/em>, vol. 4012, Jan. 2025, pp. 149\u201364, research.abo.fi\/en\/publications\/rolling-the-dice-understanding-the-role-of-game-design-elements-i\/.\r\n\r\nLi, Haoning. Understanding Transmedia Character-Centric Discourse in Gacha Games: A Social Semiotic Analysis of Genshin Impact<\/em>. June 2025, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.26503\/dl.v2025i3.2556.\r\n\r\nNieborg, David. \u201cFrom Premium to Freemium: The Political Economy of the App.\u201d Social, Casual and Mobile Games, 2015, pp. 225\u201340, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5040\/9781501310591.ch-016.\r\n\r\nTears of Themis.<\/em> iOS version 4.8.1, MiHoYo Co., Ltd., 2020.\r\n\r\nWoods, Orlando. \u201cThe Affective Embeddings of Gacha Games: Aesthetic Assemblages and the Mediated Expression of the Self.\u201d New Media & Society<\/em>, vol. 26, no. 2, Jan. 2022, pp. 823-38, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/14614448211067756.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nDisclaimer: Images are either in the public domain or being used under fair dealing for the purpose of research and are provided solely for the purposes of research, private study, or education.\r\n\r\n ","rendered":"

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Every pull in every gacha game begins the same: a flash of light, a sound effect, and the possibility\u2014however unlikely\u2014that, this time, the result you get will be the one you actually want. No matter the gacha game, this ritual animation has become emblematic of a wider, more urgent issue: the resurgence of gambling addictions. Although gacha games serve a wide range of audiences, Gen Z is the primary demographic (Dolot 44), meaning that the core inclination towards gambling has not significantly moved away from previous generations, despite the common belief that it has\u2014instead, it has only manifested in a new, modern outlet. Most times, the media points fingers at inherently predatory gacha mechanics and their publishers (which is far from incorrect, as these companies do bear the weight of the tactics they employ in their games), but the images involved in these gacha systems do far more heavy lifting than they are given credit for. These visuals manufacture desire, and, crucially, they reinforce the shady financial cycle of exploitation that leads to the creation of whales, players who unsustainably spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on gacha games in a short timeframe. This research-creation video project<\/a> examines the pull sequence animation\u2014the short video clip that plays after a player uses in-game currency to randomly draw (pull) an item in a gacha\u2014from the otome game Tears of Themis, breaking it down frame by frame to understand how it constructs desire and reinforces the ideology it is entrenched in. As Ian Bogost notes in 2011, video games \u201cdo things\u201d through their visuals and mechanics, and in the Tears of Themis pull sequence, the animations themselves enact desire and reward, shaping player experience as much as the underlying chance mechanics.<\/p>\n

According to research, \u201cgacha games systematically deploy characters as both semiotic and commercial organising principles\u201d (Haoning), meaning that the aesthetics, music, and dramatic reveals involved in a gacha pull are systematically arranged to maximize the desirability of the character as a commodity. Because this sequence relies on motion and build-up, using a video format to analyze it allows for a closer examination than a static analysis would. By isolating specific frames and pointing out compositional cues, this project reveals how the game\u2019s visual rhetoric valorizes unhealthy spending habits.<\/p>\n

The main research question under study is \u201cHow do gacha games mobilize visual culture to construct value, desire, and community?\u201d, specifically taking aim at the pull animation that occurs before a player takes a chance on a gacha banner. I ultimately argue that the pull animation\u2019s colour, motion, and sound design work in tandem to signify rarity, build anticipation, and emotionally charge the moment of acquisition.<\/p>\n

To contextualize this work, this essay, along with the video, draws on three main frameworks: Roland Barthes\u2019s semiotics, Guy Debord\u2019s critique of the spectacle, and Martin Jay\u2019s theory of scopic regimes. Barthes provides a framework for identifying the signs embedded in the animation\u2019s symbolism; Debord\u2019s notion of spectacle illuminates how the gacha animation is a concentration of desirable images that mediates social relationships and makes the manufactured event (the pull) seem more important than authentic life; and Jay offers a way to understand the pull sequence as a carefully crafted way of seeing that draws on all three scopic regimes. This essay situates the analysis within ongoing conversations in game studies, visual culture, and gambling-adjacent behaviours.<\/p>\n

Contextual Information<\/h2>\n

Gacha games have become a sweeping force in the mobile gaming industry. According to David Nieborg in 2015, the widespread use of smartphones has made the freemium model the dominant approach in the industry. These games may be free to download, but their enticing features\u2014new characters, cards, or weapons\u2014are locked behind the game\u2019s central gacha system. This gacha experience revolves around pulls (also called spins, rolls, or draws): the action of spending in-game currency to receive these randomized rewards; however, in-game currency can be bought with real money, e.g., microtransactions, perpetuating a seemingly endless way to purchase.<\/p>\n

In addition to whales, studies posit that FOMO is a massive contributor to gambling-like behaviour in these games, as \u201clong-term players spend more money because they are afraid of missing out due to items that are only available temporarily and at certain events\u201d (Kordyaka et al. 151). These obtainable items are sorted into rarity tiers\u2014designated with ratings (e.g., letter grades, such as SSR, meaning Super Super Rare). The rarest items feature extremely low drop rates (such as 0.6%) and are grouped into banners\u2014time-limited events featuring a specific pool of items and a slightly increased drop rate (e.g., 1.2%) for these limited items. This structure creates a sense of urgency, compelling players to \u201cpull\u201d before the banner disappears.\u00a0To counteract the frustration of continuous bad luck, most games implement a pity system, which guarantees a high-rarity item after a player has reached a specific number of unsuccessful pulls on a banner. Crucially, the generosity of the pity system varies significantly across different games. Over the past decade, this mechanic has been adapted into more and more video games and has completely overhauled both game economies and player affect by operationalizing luck, scarcity, and anticipation.<\/p>\n

Within this broader landscape, otome gacha games present a particularly compelling convergence. These games are targeted specifically towards females, as they are a genre of heteronormative story games where the goal is to romance and form deeper relationships with the desirable male characters. Instead of new characters or rare weapons, otome gacha systems offer new cards that unlock romantic, standalone stories about the featured male character and a visually stunning new illustration. This genre\u2019s main appeal is the narrative, which is complex and episodic, providing the opportunity for deep parasocial explorations. According to Woods, \u201cBy embedding the player within the game, affect is the emotional trigger through which these processes play out\u201d (824). These games represent an idealized version of romance, often with very lofty romance book tropes, including sexy billionaires or runaway foreign princes. The company behind Tears of Themis is widely known as one of the largest profiteers in the gacha industry; its smash hit Genshin Impact has earned (and continues to earn) billions of dollars in revenue every year. As a result, Tears of Themis is a fascinating case study because MiHoYo\u2019s sophisticated and enduring economic strategy, as well as its deep pockets, have enabled this game\u2019s visual imagery to be exceptionally polished and high-quality. This is brilliantly exemplified by its gacha pull animation.<\/p>\n

As Joleen Blom notes, fans often treat characters as independent objects of affection (ch. 5), and in otome gacha games like Tears of Themis, the pull animations reinforce this by presenting characters as collectible prizes rather than story figures, intensifying emotional investment and spending. The animation itself stages an affective encounter with the game\u2019s four dateable love interests, promising glimpses of romantic intimacy. This way, the gacha system becomes entangled with the emotional stakes of the genre, namely the desire to see a favourite character and \u201cwin\u201d a moment of intimacy. This emphasis on visual spectacle aligns with wider conversations about visual culture.<\/p>\n

Theoretical Frameworks<\/h2>\n

This research-creation project draws on three theoretical frameworks\u2014Roland Barthes\u2019s semiotics, Guy Debord\u2019s theory of the spectacle, and Martin Jay\u2019s scopic regimes\u2014to examine how the Tears of Themis gacha pull sequence mobilizes visual culture to produce desire. These frameworks were chosen because they are complementary to each other, in the sense that there is enough overlap to cast a wide net over the multimodal nature of these games. Barthes\u2019s semiotics speaks to the question of what the image means and how it signifies it. Debord\u2019s spectacle answers what the image does to people and society. Jay\u2019s scopic regimes convey why the image looks the way it does and what cultural logic that mode of visuality enforces. As a trio, they move from meaning-making to socio-economic function to visual conditioning, respectively, and, in my opinion, provide a mutually reinforcing analytic model.<\/p>\n

Roland Barthes: Mythologies<\/em><\/h2>\n

Barthes\u2019s semiotic method is built on the idea that all cultural objects are systems of signs. These signs encode ideologies and cultural values. In his view, meaning is split into two layers: denotation\u2014the literal, surface-level meaning\u2014and connotation (myth)\u2014its underlying, cultural, and emotional associations. He argued that \u201cthe signifier and the signified have, in [the reader\u2019s] eyes, a natural relationship\u2026 any semiological system is a system of values\u201d (130), which helps explain why players easily accept the visual rhetoric of gacha pulls as meaningful rather than arbitrary. The components of a gacha pull feel \u201cnatural\u201d even though they are deliberately engineered to signal desire. This makes Barthes\u2019s semiotics an effective framework for my analysis, because it reveals how the pull sequence subtly constructs the system that drives player excitement and spending. It ultimately allows this project to articulate how specific frames are part of a broader symbolic system that glamourizes spending.<\/p>\n

Guy Debord: The Society of the Spectacle<\/em><\/h2>\n

In Society of the Spectacle, Debord speaks to a socio-economic context for understanding mass media and how it lulls the masses as a form of distraction. Although his work was published decades ago, his concepts of commodity images and a \u201cpseudo-world\u201d still hold weight. The gacha pull sequence is a form of commodity images. From the perspective of Walter Benjamin, gacha pull sequences exemplify the loss of \u201caura\u201d in mechanically reproduced digital media: each draw is instantly reproducible and lacks uniqueness, making the spectacle of the pull entirely mediated and commodified rather than singular or authentic. According to Debord, the spectacle operates by substituting lived experience with mediated appearances. \u201cThe world of the commodity is thus shown for what it is, because its development is identical to people\u2019s estrangement from each other and from everything they produce\u201d (ch. 1, par. 37). In my paper, the pull animation exemplifies this logic by transforming a microtransaction into a heightened dramatic event that lends itself more meaning than it actually has. In digital economies, value is experienced visually rather than materially, and this is exactly the case with gacha games. Through this lens, the pull sequence becomes a fascinating site of digital spectacle, positioning the player as both spectator and consumer in an endless loop of visually mediated longing.<\/p>\n

Martin Jay: Scopic Regimes of Modernity<\/em><\/h2>\n

In his book, Jay challenges the notion of a single dominant mode of vision in modernity, arguing that multiple scopic regimes coexist and compete. In the context of a gacha pull animation, these regimes help explain why the animation feels the way it does; players are guided through a tightly controlled visual experience that overwhelms the senses. According to Jay, Western visual culture has been anything but uniform, and its scopic regimes produce different notions of what it means to see and be seen.<\/p>\n

The first regime, Cartesian Perspectivalism, was considered the dominant scopic regime of the modern era, emphasizing geometric rationality, monocular perspective, objectivity, and the distancing of the observer; this can be applied to the factual pity counter at the bottom of the screen, which lets the player treat the system as a knowable, objective, mathematical space.<\/p>\n

The second regime, The Art of Seeing, is based on Dutch\/Northern art and emphasizes surface and detail, prioritizing description (it is also called Dutch Descriptivism). \u201cIt casts its attentive eye on the fragmentary, detailed, and richly articulated surface of a world it is content to describe rather than explain\u201d (Jay 13). The Dutch regime here reinforces the intimacy that otome games cultivate: the player is feeling the intimacy of the pull, as if physically participating in the summoning of their favourite male character.<\/p>\n

The last regime, The Baroque, focuses on spectacle, movement, and emotional intensity, often leading to disorientation. \u201cIn opposition to the lucid, linear, solid, fixed, planimetric, closed form of the Renaissance \u2026 the classical style, the baroque was painterly, recessional, soft-focused, multiple and open\u201d (Jay 16). In the gacha pull animation, screen-shattering effects with rainbow lights and dramatic sound effects are reminiscent of the Baroque regime. This overwhelming sensory input creates a \u201cvertiginous\u201d moment of ecstatic spectacle.<\/p>\n

Methodology (Video Analysis)<\/h2>\n

For this research-creation project, I created a video essay to demonstrate the three frameworks at play in the gacha pull sequence. Because these sequences are fundamentally multisensory, a video format allows the analysis to engage directly with the medium without the need to overcompensate (and risk confusing a reader) in text. The methodology centres on a frame-by-frame examination of the Tears of Themis pull sequence of an SSR card, supported by screen-captured footage obtained through my own gameplay. The footage was then segmented in CapCut to highlight particular transitions, flashes, effects, and symbolic cues that would otherwise appear only momentarily during standard play.<\/p>\n

The use of a frame-by-frame semiotic analysis was key to the project\u2019s aims. Based on Barthes, the pull sequence was treated as a dense visual text, where colours, particle effects, sound, and character silhouettes function as signs that accumulate connotative meaning. Pausing and annotating individual frames made it possible to show the ideological work performed by these signs\u2014particularly how they naturalize rarity, romance, and reward.<\/p>\n

In addition, this research-creation project uses slow motion and freeze frames to point out the micro-gestures of spectacle that shape user affect but are rarely registered intentionally (or consciously). The video format also enables attention to motion and scopic regimes, which would be flattened or lost in a static written analysis.<\/p>\n

Finally, in line with Debord\u2019s analysis, the video format mirrors the structures of attention that are commanded by gacha games themselves. The viewer is guided through layers of sensorial experiences and visual excess, but in this case, the purpose is to inform instead of selling a commodity. Presenting the analysis like this becomes part of the argument as it exposes the mechanics of spectacle by reconstructing them in an annotative, slowed, and critical form.<\/p>\n

Analysis<\/h2>\n

This section of the essay highlights a few of the main points from the video, specifically focusing on frames that were more static in nature, expanding on them with more supporting textual evidence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Figure 1. MiHoYo Co., Ltd., Marius von Hagen SSR \u201cBetween Shades\u201d gacha banner art, Tears of Themis, NXX Island Suspense Event, October 2025. Digital game asset\/screenshot. Screenshot taken from the author\u2019s own playthrough from Tears of Themis Mobile Game (iOS version) [November 30, 2025].<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Frame 1: The Gacha Banner<\/h3>\n

This frame is the gacha banner that is encountered even before the actual animation. In this frame, the overall visual communication strongly leans toward the Baroque regime, while borrowing a few structural elements from Cartesian Perspectivalism to maintain clarity and hierarchy, since it is essentially part of the game\u2019s UI. The focus is intensely on the surface details of the character\u2014Marius von Hagen, my favourite from this game, whose card I sought to obtain. His leopard-print shirt and red blazer are highly textured and saturated. This sensory overload prioritizes visual consumption over rational spatial analysis, making the image \u201cpop\u201d and drawing the eye. He is dramatically lit from the upper left, casting deep shadows on the right side of his face and neck. This strong contrast (chiaroscuro) creates an immediate sense of drama, stimulating the viewer\u2019s emotional and narrative curiosity.\u00a0While the spectacle dominates, the image must still function as a clear, transactional interface, so the elements of organization are very eye-catching.<\/p>\n

The overall screen layout uses clear horizontal and vertical lines to organize the UI. Resource bars, event duration, buttons (\u201c1 Vision\u201d or \u201c10 Visions\u201d), and text boxes (\u201cSSR Between Shades\u201d) are arranged in a grid. Numerical data (e.g., \u201cS-Chips: 6648\u201d) provides the player with rational, measurable information. This aligns with Cartesian emphasis on quantification and measurable reality, grounding the spectacle within a clear transactional structure. Despite the chaotic image within the window, the UI is clean and orderly, ensuring the player maintains control over the mechanism of the gacha pull. The bottom line for this is that the Baroque regime sells the fantasy (the new card) and Cartesian Perspectivalism sells the transaction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Figure 2. MiHoYo Co., Ltd., Gacha Pull Animation (Frame from Marius von Hagen SSR \u201cBetween Shades\u201d gacha banner), Tears of Themis, NXX Island Suspense Event, October 2025. Digital game animation frame\/screenshot. Screenshot taken author\u2019s own playthrough from Tears of Themis Mobile Game (iOS version) [November 30, 2025].<\/p>\n

Frame 2: The Gacha Contents<\/h3>\n

There are ten cubes in this frame, each pertaining to 1 of the 10 visions that were selected in the first frame. The yellow orb inside the cube represents any card higher than an R value. In the Baroque way of seeing, the orb is the focal point. Its strong luminosity against the dark background gives it a precious quality\u2014it is the desired object emphasized through pure light, and might very well be the object of the player\u2019s desire, although it is not quite known for certain yet. In the Cartesian view, the light from the bottom draws the eye up through this structured space, leading to the yellow orb. This suggests a rational progression from the mechanical act of the pull to the final result. However, in Barthes\u2019s view, this is a myth. Through repeated play, a player does not need to be explicitly told that they have obtained a rare card; the yellow orb automatically signifies it. Since this frame is seen before the cards are revealed, this is a moment of immediate confirmation of value.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Figure 3. MiHoYo Co., Ltd., Character Reveal Symbol (Frame from Marius von Hagen SSR \u201cBetween Shades\u201d gacha banner), Tears of Themis, NXX Island Suspense Event, October 2025. Digital game animation frame\/screenshot. Screenshot taken author\u2019s own playthrough from Tears of Themis Mobile Game (iOS version) [November 30, 2025].<\/p>\n

Frame 3: The Character\u2019s Symbol<\/h3>\n

This symbol only appears when an SSR card belonging to the character Marius von Hagen is obtained in the gacha pull. It occurs right before the reveal of the card itself and does not appear differently if a previously obtained card or a new card is obtained. In Barthes\u2019s view, for the informed player, this single image functions as a highly efficient code that serves as an index for the character. The sight of this specific symbol acts as a direct link that confirms the prize is Marius von Hagen\u2019s card. All suspense about which character card they received is instantly resolved, shifting the focus to which card itself is obtained. The moment this symbol appears, the player is led to feel that they have successfully \u201ctargeted\u201d their desired character.<\/p>\n

This analysis portion of the essay focused on the static images that appear in the gacha sequence, as they can be safely expanded upon without compromising readability or comprehension. All animated portions are included in the video.<\/p>\n

Critical Reflection on Process<\/h2>\n

Carrying out this research-creation project was difficult for a number of reasons. My background is not in art history, which made the act of creating a visual analysis and analyzing a visual object (the pull animation) difficult from the onset, as I had no basis for where to begin with this endeavour and had to refer to existing videos on YouTube for inspiration. I also have little experience making videos, so it was difficult from a technical aspect as well, as my creative vision was limited by my actual capability to use video-editing software. Third, translating scholarly frameworks into a visual medium required constantly negotiating between analytical precision and being a clear communicator\u2014and, frequently, one had to be sacrificed for the other; this is obvious based on the whopping 12-minute duration of the video. This process taught me that practice-based study involves thinking about what is being argued in tandem with how that argument should be materially delivered to a viewer. Additionally, the voice transcription mechanism that I employed through CapCut was very unwieldy and would frequently pause strangely (or miss pauses altogether) and mispronounce some of the words in my video, which forced me to write them phonetically (and in some cases, the mechanic still did not properly say these words correctly). Given the opportunity to revise my video, I would probably record my script myself\u2014although the idea of speaking for twelve minutes is more than discomforting\u2014to ensure my pauses, pronunciation, and meaning is conveyed properly.<\/p>\n

Assembling the frame-by-frame breakdown revealed details of the pull sequence that are easy to overlook in ordinary gameplay. I also learned new things about the sequence under observation, specifically, I did not know that the yellow orbs inside the cubes (which occur right before the cards are revealed) were anything more than a visual choice on the developer\u2019s part. However, after analyzing a handful of recorded gacha pulls from my own collection, I realized they pertained to the amounts of SR or SSR cards within the pull. Going forward, when I pull on any Tears of Themis gacha banners, I will look for this signifier.<\/p>\n

The research-creation process also raised questions about responsibility. Because gacha systems are tied to compulsive spending and exploitative design, I had to balance critical analysis with awareness of the real economic impact these systems have on players, enough that it compels them to become whales. While the video focuses on aesthetic strategies rather than player behaviour, I tried to avoid glamourizing the mechanics under scrutiny by grounding the commentary in critique rather than spectacle.<\/p>\n

Finally, this project reinforced the value of practice-based research. Working through the video format expanded my understanding of visual culture and helped me understand concepts (namely Cartesian Perspectivalism) a lot more than traditional readings did. This process taught me that scholarly interpretation\/application is itself a form of making.<\/p>\n

Conclusions<\/h2>\n

This research endeavour was limited by its scope, as it specifically examined visuals and did not address game mechanics or player discourse, aspects of gacha games that are just as important in fostering unhealthy spending habits and addiction-adjacent behaviour. Future research should compare gacha sequences across games\u2014such as Love and Deepspace (a currently viral otome game with skyrocketing popularity) vs. Tears of Themis\u2014or across genres\u2014Genshin Impact vs. Tears of Themis to interrogate how they mobilize different visual elements and frameworks to encourage spending. This will allow for the comparison of sequences in gendered games, hopefully demonstrating how the visual economies of these games themselves are gendered.<\/p>\n

This project situates itself in multiple existing conversations surrounding digital economies, affective design, and the visual rhetorics of mobile games by foregrounding the gacha pull sequence as a site of aesthetic, ideological, and affective labour. While much of the existing scholarship on gacha systems focuses on economic structures, addicted behaviour, or community practices of \u201cwhaling\u201d, less attention has been paid to the visual rhetoric involved in the very act of pulling on a gacha banner. By drawing on Barthes\u2019s semiotics, Jay\u2019s scopic regimes, and Debord\u2019s theory of spectacle, this project reframes the pull animation as a concentrated visual argument that constructs value through specific aesthetic strategies. This way, it positions itself within an emerging line of inquiry that treats microtransactional interfaces as culturally meaningful texts rather than just UI components.<\/p>\n

By undertaking a frame-by-frame breakdown of the pull sequence in Tears of Themis and presenting the findings in a video, this project aimed to bring digital visual culture into closer dialogue with ludic research. My approach demonstrates how scopic regimes and semiotic coding can be mobilized to examine interactive systems. This project enters existing debates about digital capitalism by pointing out how these animations normalize overspending. It speaks to critical conversations about affective design and parasocial dynamics in otome games and hopefully opens the door for new research.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/h2>\n

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies<\/em>. The Noonday Press, 1957.<\/p>\n

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.<\/em> Penguin Books, 1936.<\/p>\n

Blom, Joleen. Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling.<\/em> Amsterdam University Press EBooks, 2023, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5117\/9789463722957.<\/p>\n

Bogost, Ian. How to Do Things with Videogames<\/em>. U of Minnesota Press, 2011.<\/p>\n

Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle<\/em>. 1967. Black & Red.<\/p>\n

Dolot, Anna. \u201cThe Characteristics of Generation Z.\u201d E-Mentor<\/em>, vol. 2, no. 74, 2018, pp. 44\u201350, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.15219\/em74.1351.<\/p>\n

Jay, Martin. \u201cScopic Regimes of Modernity.\u201d Vision and Visuality<\/em>, edited by Hal Foster, Seattle Bay Press, 1988, pp. 3\u201323.<\/p>\n

Kordyaka, Bastian, et al. \u201cRolling the Dice: Understanding the Role of Game Design Elements in Gacha Game Addiction.\u201d CEUR Workshop Proceedings<\/em>, vol. 4012, Jan. 2025, pp. 149\u201364, research.abo.fi\/en\/publications\/rolling-the-dice-understanding-the-role-of-game-design-elements-i\/.<\/p>\n

Li, Haoning. Understanding Transmedia Character-Centric Discourse in Gacha Games: A Social Semiotic Analysis of Genshin Impact<\/em>. June 2025, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.26503\/dl.v2025i3.2556.<\/p>\n

Nieborg, David. \u201cFrom Premium to Freemium: The Political Economy of the App.\u201d Social, Casual and Mobile Games, 2015, pp. 225\u201340, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5040\/9781501310591.ch-016.<\/p>\n

Tears of Themis.<\/em> iOS version 4.8.1, MiHoYo Co., Ltd., 2020.<\/p>\n

Woods, Orlando. \u201cThe Affective Embeddings of Gacha Games: Aesthetic Assemblages and the Mediated Expression of the Self.\u201d New Media & Society<\/em>, vol. 26, no. 2, Jan. 2022, pp. 823-38, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/14614448211067756.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Disclaimer: Images are either in the public domain or being used under fair dealing for the purpose of research and are provided solely for the purposes of research, private study, or education.<\/p>\n

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