Disability Tax in Gacha Games: The Social Cost of Hidden Expenses

This paper examines how free-to-play and gacha game monetisation designs create "disability taxes," the additional financial, emotional, and labour costs borne by disabled players to remain engaged with a game. Using Genshin Impact as a case study, the authors argue that free-to-play models lower the upfront risk of purchasing an inaccessible title, yet introduce new barriers through progression-blocking systems. The analysis is conceptual and drawn from a review of accessibility, game design, and dark-pattern literature rather than from an empirical survey or dataset, so its claims are framed as arguments for further study rather than measured findings.

The authors identify three design elements that they argue weaponise player "stuckness": pay-to-progress systems, in which waiting timers or resource limits can be bypassed with payment; daily login systems, which reward regular engagement and penalise those who cannot keep up; and character power creep, which pushes players toward acquiring new characters or spending to remain competitive. In each case, the paper contends, systems are playtested around an able-bodied player, so an access barrier in one system can trigger a feedback loop of diminishing resources that ultimately forces payment or renders the game unplayable.

The paper also situates these monetisation concerns within a broader account of disability taxes, including accessibility remasters and the roughly USD$100 cost of specialised controllers, and it cites the long-standing USD$60 retail price as a comparable financial risk. Drawing on prior work on dark patterns and player motivations, the authors maintain that intentionally unbalanced challenges can exploit vulnerable populations, a harm they argue existing accessibility research has largely overlooked in favour of discrete barrier moments. The paper concludes by calling for closer scrutiny of engagement- and monetisation-driven design and for further studies mapping how these systems affect disabled players.