The avatar's new clothes: understanding why players purchase non-functional items in free-to-play games

Marder, Ben, Gattig, David, Collins, Emily ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9607-3113, Pitt, Leyland, Kietzmann, Jan and Erz, Antonia 2019. The avatar's new clothes: understanding why players purchase non-functional items in free-to-play games. Computers in Human Behavior 91 , pp. 72-83. 10.1016/j.chb.2018.09.006

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Free-to-play online games create significant revenues through sales of virtual items. The argument that the sale of items that provide a competitive advantage (functional items) fuels a pay-to-win culture has attracted developers to business models that are solely based on the sale of non-functional items (items that provide no objective competitive advantage). However, the motivations for purchasing non-functional items remain under-examined. The present study therefore provides an exploration of hedonic, social, and utilitarian motivations underpinning purchase of virtual items within the top-grossing free-to-play game League of Legends. From interviews with 32 players, a number of motivations are identified and presented. In addition, a novel finding is that motivation for purchase may not stem from the value in the item but lie in the act of purchasing itself as a means of transferring money to the developer.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0747-5632
Date of Acceptance:	11 September 2018
Last Modified:	09 Nov 2022 09:47
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/137022

Citation Data

Cited 29 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item