Seminar Presentation Exploring the value of purchasing online game items Wong Nga Sim Tao Shiu Him Tai Ting Hin Ma Sze Ki Tse Wai Chu Tam Chung Ming

Introduction

Background Authors ： Bong-Won Park and Kun Chang Lee(2011) Title: Computers in Human Behavior Publisher: Elsevier B.V.

Concept Knowledge management is hard to carry out. So researchers want to find out how social factors influence employees to do knowledge sharing.

Objective The objectives of the study were modify the theory of consumption values in order to investigate online game users’ perceived value of purchasable game items develop a new construct – the ‘‘integrated value of purchasing game items’’ As the market size is rapidly increasing, business models are under pressure to represent gamers’ changing preferences.

What is the problem? As the market size is rapidly increasing, business models are under pressure to represent gamers’ changing preferences. Few studies have examined the motivation of free-to-play gamers to purchase game items.

Don’t know why game users purchase online game items in the free-to-play game market. Don’t know what leads game item purchasers to repeatedly purchase these items,

Why does the problem happen? These researchers have not explored why game users purchase online game items in the free-to- play game market. They only analyze potential game item purchasers and neglect other paths. There is a need for an investigation of purchasing behavior of free-to-play online game users.

Key Words Definition Game item ‘Functional props are game items that are used to augment a character’s offensive power’ ‘Decorative props are used to alter character appearance.’

Consumption values Functional value is defined as ‘‘the utility that is perceived to possess criteria salient to physical or functional purposes’’ Social value is ‘‘ derived from its association with one or more distinctive social groups’’ Emotional value is ‘‘derived from feelings or affective states’’ Epistemic value is ‘‘derived from its capacity to provide novelty, arouse curiosity, and/or satisfy knowledge-seeking aspirations’’ Conditional value is ‘‘derived from its capacity to provide temporary functional or social value in the context of a specific and transient set of circumstances or contingencies.’’

Free-to-play game Free-to-play business model play the game free of charge, but are required to purchase various game items, including clothing, swords, and guns, if they want to enhance the powers or appearance of their characters.

Character identification Gamers interpret this identification with the media character as ‘‘a temporary alteration of the media users’ self-perception inclusion of the perceived properties of the target media character’’

Research Method: Modeling

Modeling based on The theory of consumption values (TCV) Originally includes 5 values: functional, social, emotional, conditional, and epistemic Conditional and epistemic values = inappropriate for online games new addition=>Monetary value

Modeling TCV

Enjoyment value: - increase the fun - ~ emotional value Character competency: - increase character - associated with the functional value

Visual authority value: - adorn their characters - includes the social value Monetary value: - cost effective & reasonably priced

Based on the review, and for the purposes of this study, these four factors were used to measure the integrated value of the purchase of game items. H1. The integrated consumption value of an online game item is positively related with a user’s intentions to purchase that item Modeling

gamers tend to identify with their game characters which represents the user in the social context of the game game users experience real emotions based on the actions of, or against, their avatars H2. Character identification is positively related to the intention to purchase game items.

Modeling gamers tend to identify with their game characters which represents the user in the social context of the game game users experience real emotions based on the actions of, or against, their avatars H2. Character identification is positively related to the intention to purchase game items.

Modeling enjoy more, play more. interact with other gamer characters and seek to gain more power than other gamers  motivate gamers to purchase online game items H3. Satisfaction about game is positively related to the intention to purchase game items.

Research Method: 1.Prior literature studies as references 2.Online Questionnaire

1. Take previous literature studies as reference 2. Pilot test ( 20 Korean University students) 3. Online questionnaire  Respondents receive virtual coupon 4. Follow up phone call *327 Valid surveys out of 384 surveys

Type of Questions Category Separate groups of questions into sections by category  Easy for readers to follow  Useful for analysis

Sampling technique, Statistical methods

Sampling technique: cluster sampling -Random samples of successive clusters of subjects (e.g., by institution) until small groups are chosen as units Advantages: -Possible to select randomly when no single list of population members exists, but local lists do; data collected on groups may avoid introduction of confounding by isolating members

Statistical methods Cronbach’s alpha It is commonly used as an estimate of the reliability of a psychometric test for a sample of examinees. Thealphas were moderate, with 0.78 for character competency value(3 items), 0.84 for enjoyment value (3 items), and 0.84 for visual value (4 items). In a reliability test, there are two criteria for goodness-of- fit: a composite reliability greater than 0.7 and an average extracted variance (AVE) greater than 0.5 In Table 4, all scales were satisfied based on these criteria.

Finding

All the analysis are based on this survey. The Latent Value will be showing like that Enjoyment1

The internal consistency of each of the items was examined using Cronbach’s alpha

The total variance explained by the seven factors was 75.38%. To examine the validities of the measurement items, a principal components analysis was completed using a varimax rotation. It rows by descending order

Table 6 is a validity test, the correlation between two factors should be less than the square root of the AVE values of the respective factors. The measurement items satisfied these conditions, illustrating that the variables were valid.

Conclusion & Future Research

Contribution: 1.One of the first of its kind in its focus on free-to-play online games 2.When game users identify with the game characters, they place increased value on the game items 3.Gamers satisfied with the game do not necessarily have online game item purchase intentions 4.Game users perceive greater values of game items, they are more inclined to purchase such items.

Limitation: 1.Sample was composed mainly of young male game users 2.Sample only included game users who previously purchased online game items

Implication: 1.Survey more female and older gamers in future studies 2.Research on potential game item purchasers is needed

Future Research: 1.Should focus on online gaming environments 2.Other factors such as social influence and the effectiveness of purchasing game items should be considered