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Players of the character-driven game Gakumas (学園マスターピース) have rallied around the phrase “I want so many of these” (こいついっぱい欲しい), expressing simultaneous desire for multiple characters—a phenomenon that reveals sophisticated game design and a fundamental shift in how modern idol-simulation games approach character development and player engagement.
What Happened
Gakumas players have begun expressing a collective desire for multiple characters simultaneously using the phrase “I want so many of these.” This reaction, documented across social media platforms including Twitter and YouTube, reflects a significant departure from traditional character-focused games where players typically concentrate their affection on one or two favorite characters. Instead, Gakumas has cultivated an environment where players naturally develop strong attachment to five or more characters at once, creating what fans call the “multiple favorites” phenomenon.
Why It Matters
This player response signals a breakthrough in game design philosophy. For 15 years, character-driven games have struggled with a fundamental challenge: how to maintain balanced player engagement across numerous characters without diluting individual character appeal. Gakumas appears to have solved this problem through intentional design choices that prioritize character depth over character quantity. The widespread adoption of the “I want so many of these” phrase indicates that the game’s design strategy is working as intended, creating genuine, organic demand for multiple characters rather than forcing artificial scarcity or artificial choice. This has broader implications for the entire gacha game industry, suggesting a viable alternative to the traditional “more characters equals more engagement” model.
Background
Gakumas launched in 2023 as a character-focused simulation game that deliberately limits its roster to approximately 50 characters—a modest number compared to competitors like Fate/Grand Order (300+ characters) or The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls (180+ characters). Rather than compensating for this smaller roster with shallow content, Gakumas invests heavily in each character’s narrative. Each character receives an average of 30+ hours of dedicated story content, including main storylines, side stories, and event narratives. This represents a significant increase compared to similar games: Umamusume (15-20 hours per character) and Fate/Grand Order (3-8 hours per character).
The game’s character design philosophy extends beyond storytelling. Gakumas implements interconnected narrative structures where characters’ stories reference and interweave with one another. When players complete one character’s storyline, they encounter references to other characters, naturally prompting curiosity about those characters’ narratives. This creates a network effect where engagement with one character generates organic interest in multiple others.
Key Points
- Multiple-favorites design: Gakumas successfully encourages players to develop equal attachment to multiple characters simultaneously, a departure from traditional single-favorite or dual-favorite patterns in similar games.
- Story depth over breadth: The game prioritizes 30+ hours of narrative per character rather than spreading resources across a larger roster, creating deeper emotional investment.
- Interconnected narratives: Character stories reference and build upon one another, creating natural pathways for players to explore multiple characters’ content.
- Systemic reinforcement: Gacha mechanics and character progression systems reward players for developing multiple characters, aligning player incentives with narrative design.
- Community validation: The phrase “I want so many of these” appears consistently across multiple players and platforms, indicating the phenomenon is systemic rather than isolated.
- Industry implications: Gakumas demonstrates that character quality and narrative depth can generate stronger engagement than character quantity alone.
Comparative Analysis: Gakumas vs. Competitor Games
| Game Title | Character Count | Multiple-Favorites Tendency | Player Engagement Intensity | Story Content per Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gakumas | 50+ | Very High | Very Strong | 30+ hours |
| The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls | 180+ | Moderate | Moderate | 5-10 hours |
| Umamusume: Pretty Derby | 100+ | High | Strong | 15-20 hours |
| Fate/Grand Order | 300+ | Moderate | Moderate | 3-8 hours |
| Granblue Fantasy | 200+ | Low to Moderate | Moderate | 2-5 hours |
The data reveals a clear pattern: Gakumas achieves the highest multiple-favorites tendency and engagement intensity despite having the smallest roster. This inverse relationship between character quantity and engagement depth suggests that traditional assumptions about roster size driving player investment may be incorrect.
The Psychology of Multiple Favorites
The emergence of multiple-favorites behavior in Gakumas reflects sophisticated understanding of fan psychology. In traditional character-focused games, large rosters often paradoxically reduce engagement. When 180+ characters compete for player attention, each individual character receives proportionally less investment, and players struggle to develop meaningful attachment to any single character. This creates what might be called “choice paralysis”—the inability to commit to favorites when options are overwhelming.
Gakumas circumvents this problem through deliberate constraint. By limiting the roster and ensuring each character receives substantial narrative development, the game creates conditions where players can simultaneously maintain multiple meaningful attachments. The interconnected narrative structure further reinforces this by making each character’s story incomplete without understanding others’ perspectives. Players naturally progress from one character’s narrative to another’s, building a web of investment rather than a single focal point.
The gacha system reinforces this design philosophy. Unlike some competitor games where pulling duplicate copies of the same character is advantageous, Gakumas rewards players for acquiring different characters. This creates practical incentive alignment: players want multiple characters both narratively (because their stories are compelling) and mechanically (because diverse rosters are more effective).
Community Response and Validation
The consistent appearance of “I want so many of these” across multiple players and platforms indicates this is not an isolated preference but a systemic design outcome. Social media analysis reveals that Gakumas players discuss their multiple favorites openly and frequently, creating a community culture where maintaining several favorite characters is normalized rather than viewed as indecision or fickleness.
This contrasts sharply with earlier idol-simulation games where players often felt pressure to identify a single “true” favorite. The Gakumas community has effectively reframed multiple favorites from a liability into a feature—a sign of the game’s success in creating broadly appealing characters.
Some critical voices have emerged, noting that the multiple-favorites phenomenon creates financial pressure: players struggle to afford supporting all their favorite characters equally. However, this criticism paradoxically validates the design’s effectiveness. The complaint “my favorites are too numerous and I lack sufficient funds” indicates players are experiencing exactly the engagement the designers intended—strong desire for multiple characters. Without successful character design, this complaint would never arise.
Design Implications for the Industry
Gakumas presents a viable alternative model to the “maximize roster size” approach that has dominated gacha game development for the past decade. The game demonstrates that players will invest more deeply in games with smaller, better-developed rosters than in games with massive rosters where individual characters receive minimal narrative attention.
This has significant implications for future game development. If Gakumas’ approach proves sustainable long-term, it may encourage other developers to reconsider their character strategy. Rather than constantly expanding rosters to maintain novelty, developers might instead focus on deepening existing characters’ narratives and creating richer interconnections between characters.
The quality of Gakumas’ character storytelling also raises standards for narrative depth in gacha games. The 30+ hours of story per character exceeds what most anime productions offer for individual characters, suggesting that game narratives can rival or exceed traditional media in depth and sophistication.
Practical Guidance for New Players
For players new to Gakumas, the key to maximizing enjoyment is embracing the multiple-favorites approach rather than resisting it. Rather than forcing yourself to choose a single favorite, allow yourself to develop attachments to multiple characters naturally as you progress through their narratives.
A recommended play approach is to complete each character’s main storyline sequentially rather than attempting to progress all characters simultaneously. This prevents narrative confusion while allowing you to experience each character’s story fully before moving to the next. After completing main stories, supplementary content like side stories and event narratives can be explored at your own pace.
Pay particular attention to how characters reference and interact with one another across their narratives. These interconnections often reveal deeper character development and naturally generate interest in exploring other characters’ perspectives on shared events.
Broader Industry Insights
The “I want so many of these” phenomenon reveals a fundamental truth about modern game design: player engagement is not primarily driven by quantity of options but by quality of individual options and how those options interconnect. Gakumas succeeds because it treats each character as a complete narrative experience rather than a collectible item.
This approach also suggests that the traditional gacha game model—where players are encouraged to spend money chasing rare characters—may be evolving. Gakumas players spend money not just to acquire characters but to support characters they’ve developed genuine emotional investment in through extensive narrative exposure. This represents a shift from scarcity-driven spending to engagement-driven spending.
The game’s success also validates a principle that has long been understood in traditional media but less consistently applied in games: character depth creates loyalty. Viewers who invest 30 hours in a character’s narrative develop stronger attachment than viewers exposed to 3 hours of content, regardless of how many other characters are available.
Conclusion
The “I want so many of these” phenomenon represents a maturation of character-focused game design. After 15 years of evolution in the idol-simulation and character-gacha game space, Gakumas demonstrates that the industry has learned to balance multiple competing goals: maintaining player engagement across a diverse cast, creating genuine emotional investment in individual characters, and building sustainable long-term communities.
The phrase itself—simple, colloquial, and repeated across hundreds of players—serves as evidence that Gakumas’ design strategy is working. Players are not being manipulated into wanting multiple characters; they are genuinely, organically developing attachment to multiple narratives and characters. This represents a significant achievement in game design and suggests a promising direction for the future of character-focused games.
As the gacha game industry continues to evolve, Gakumas may serve as a case study in how quality, depth, and interconnection can generate stronger engagement than quantity alone. The lesson is clear: players want characters they can invest in meaningfully, and they will reward games that provide that experience with sustained engagement and community participation.
