Práticas do sistema da moda na monetização e na experiência dos jogos digitais

Abstract

This research investigates an emerging monetization strategy in digital games that appropriates practices from fashion and luxury systems, aiming to overcome traditional "payto-win" (P2W) and "paywall" models. It addresses a gap in studies on this specific intersection between fashion, luxury, and games, as well as a lack of analyses considering the player's relationship with the game's systems and other players, beyond purely technical or financial aspects. The central objective was to analyze how the gacha games Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail (Hoyoverse) achieved tremendous financial success by implementing a robust system based on the user's aesthetic experience, eliminating the necessity to pay (P2W), and integrating – intentionally or not – logics of luxury and fashion. The adopted methodology was theoretical-bibliographical, involving: 1) bibliographic analysis to verify the relationship between luxury/fashion concepts and game practices; 2) description and analysis of the studied games' systems to relate them to luxury systems; and 3) discussion of the relationship between play, leisure, and work, a guiding theme in game development. The main findings demonstrate: 1) confirmation of the relationship between fashion/luxury and games, materialized in collaborations like Louis Vuitton (LVMH) with League of Legends and Guerlain (LVMH) with Genshin Impact; 2) the games' pursuit of legitimacy as consumption products for adults and affluent classes, parallel to luxury brands' pursuit of audience renewal and access to young consumers who value virtual goods; and 3) the crucial importance of decoupling the game from the logic of work, understanding it as "leisure" for the success of this model. It is concluded that the studied phenomenon reflects an abrupt shift in consumption patterns, thinking, and lived experience of new generations, driving new forms of monetization based on aesthetic and symbolic value. The richness and multiplicity of the addressed themes reveal that this work opens significant gaps for future investigations, serving as a fundamental basis for the development of this emerging field of study.