Games

Generally but not always.

Microtransactions = I want the blue shirt, I can buy the blue shirt. The blue shirt can be cosmetic or have power boost.

Loot boxes = I want the blue shirt, I can buy a lottery ticket to maybe get the blue shirt. The blue shirt is just cosmetic. Maybe there is a way to get the blue shirt if I don't get one in X boxes.

Gacha = I want the blue shirt, I can buy a lottery ticket to maybe get the blue shirt. The blue shirt has power boosts. Quite often, if I don't get the blue shirt in a X tickets, I get a guaranteed blue shirt. Also a bit more often the blue shirt needs to be leveled up, using more blue shirts and/or other stuff you get from the lottery.

This is generally how it works, they are exceptions too it of course.

But that is why gacha is its own category, the lottery is required to progress the game and you need a lot of it. There is also usually multiple lotteries with different and the same prices at different % some you can play without spending money, some you need to spend money and some you can play onec in a while without spending money, but the good stuff and higher % are basically always looked in the two latter ones.

The way it is usually used and how upgrading stuff works, is very different between what country makes the game. I don't remember exactly but the three big different ones are, Japan, China and South Korea.

The easiest different to simply explain is usually if you need more blue shirt to upgrade or if you just need more shirts or if you need shirt coins that drop from the game to level up, the shirt or if the shirt can't be leveld up and you need a new shirt instead.