An Empirical Analysis of Online Gamers' Perceptions of Game Items: Modified Theory of Consumption Values Approach

Abstract

The aims of this article are (1) to propose a modified theory of consumption values (MTCV) for investigation of online gamer perceptions of the value of purchasable game items and (2) to apply the developed MTCV to multiple game genres and player age groups. To address these aims, 327 valid questionnaires were obtained and analyzed. The original theory of consumption values (TCV) was modified to apply to the specific characteristics of online games. The original TCV specifies five types of consumption values: functional value, social value, emotional value, conditional value, and epistemic value. After revising the TCV to apply to the examination of online games, we proposed that the MTCV be composed of character competency value, enjoyment value, visual authority value, and monetary value. The validity of the MTCV was proven by statistically analyzing the responses provided by the 327 valid questionnaires. To examine the second aim, experiments were conducted to examine the MTCV in three online game genres—massive multiplayer online role-playing games, first-person shooters games, and casual games. The second aim was also studied via questionnaires that examined the ages of online gamers. It was determined that massive multiplayer online role-playing games players regard visual authority value and monetary value as more important than do casual gamers. It was also determined that younger gamers tend to be more interested in visual authority, whereas older gamers tend to be more interested in character competency. This research provides a foundation for future studies to extend the MTCV to consider other user factors, such as cultural effects.

Introduction

The online gaming industry has grown dramatically in recent years. The global revenue from this industry is expected to reach $24.8 billion by 2013.¹ Additionally, the number of online gamers is rapidly increasing because of the increased use of high-speed Internet. Online game business models are composed generally of either subscription-based games or free-to-play games.^2,3 The business model in which online gamers pay a monthly fee to play subscription-based games was more popular in the early phase of online games. However, free-to-play games are becoming increasingly more popular than subscription-based games.² The free-to-play business model provides free access to basic game features, with the opportunity for gamers to purchase more advanced features in the form of game items. These items typically enhance character power or improve a character's visual appearance.^2,3

Despite the recent increase in free-to-play game popularity, no study of these games has been conducted to examine the motivation behind game item purchases. With the end goal of examining this issue, the major aims of this article are (1) to propose a modified theory of consumption values (MTCV) to investigate online gamer perceptions of the value of purchasable game items and (2) to apply the newly developed MTCV to multiple game genres and player age groups. The first objective is based on the fact that the theory of consumption values (TCV) has never been applied to virtual or digital goods such as online gaming items except ringtone.⁴ Thus, it is necessary to modify the TCV in order for it to be applicable to purchasable online game items. The second objective is based on the facts that three game genres are popular in the industry—casual games, first-person shooter (FPS) games, and massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)—and that the demographic characteristics differ for each game genre.⁵

This article is organized as follows. The next section discusses the theoretical framework of the study and examines online games to understand recent trends in the industry research. The MTCV is addressed in detail in this section. Empirical test procedures are described in the subsequent section, in which statistical results are summarized, along with implications for both researchers and practitioners. The article ends with concluding remarks and suggestions for future study.

Theoretical Framework

Online games

It is necessary to understand the context of online games including genres and previous research. Classifying online games into specific categories is difficult as these games may include several characteristics and elements from various genres.^6,7 In previous work, Wolf⁸ classified video games into role-playing games (RPG), FPS games, adventure, sports, racing, action/arcade, puzzle, simulation, or real-time strategy games. Additionally, DFC Intelligence⁹ has classified games into genres, including massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs), FPS games, sports/racing, strategy/simulation, MMOG lite, and casual games. For the sake of educational purposes, Frazer et al.¹⁰ suggested four genres of games, namely FPS, RPG adventure, puzzle, and strategy. Game genres were classified by the 2008 Market Research Report on Digital Content Industry in Korea¹¹ into RPG/MMORPG, strategy simulation, action/adventure, sports, and shooting/FPS types of games. In particular, MMOGs and MMORPGs such as Lineage and World of Warcraft comprise attractive graphics, storytelling, and leveling,¹² making these games especially popular.

Online game studies have been known to exaggerate the negative effects of gaming, although positive effects do also exist.¹³ Therefore, both the positive and negative effects of online games need to be examined. One area of frequent study is game addiction, a social problem in many countries, including South Korea. Another area of research in this field is the examination of online gamer behavior.^14,15 Gamer behavior depends on many demographic factors, including gender, age, income, education, and nationality. A third area of research is the identification of motivation to play online games,^16,17 and a fourth is the investigation of factors affecting one's intentions to play online games.^18,19

The subject of the present study is unique in that we have developed an MTCV to analyze online game user behavior.

Modified theory of consumption values

Theory of consumption values

The TCV is based on the notion that consumers purchase products and services expecting some form of value in return.²⁰ The TCV has been used extensively to analyze consumer behaviors.^21–25 Consumption values include five types of values: functional value, social value, emotional value, conditional value, and epistemic value. Functional value is “the perceived utility acquired from an alternative's capacity for functional, utilitarian, or physical performance.”²⁰ Social value is “the perceived utility acquired from an alternative's association with one or more specific social groups.”²⁰ Emotional value is “the perceived utility acquired from an alternative's capacity to arouse feelings or affective states.”²⁰ Epistemic value is “the perceived utility acquired from an alternative's capacity to arouse curiosity, provide novelty, and/or satisfy a desire for knowledge.”²⁰ Conditional value is “the perceived utility acquired by an alternative as the result of the specific situation or set of circumstances facing the choice maker.”²⁰ Previous studies have used the TCV to determine which values motivate consumers to purchase target products and services, including airline frequent flyer programs,²² clothing,²³ organic foods,²¹ sponsorship in sports marketing,²⁴ and tourism.²⁵

With the World Wide Web and other digital devices becoming important consumptive channels, many researchers have used the TCV to investigate which consumption values encourage consumers to purchase digital products, information systems, mobile Internet services, and other goods and services. For example, Bødker et al.²⁶ used the TCV to analyze consumer experience with smart phones. Lee et al.²⁷ used the TCV to examine the differences in customer behaviors in response to mobile Internet services between Korean and Japanese citizens. Hsu and Chen²⁸ used TCV to understand the behaviors of users of e-government information systems and concluded that both social value and functional value influence consumer intentions to use these systems, whereas conditional value has no impact. In the music industry, Chen et al.²⁹ used TCV to examine the motivations behind downloading MP3 files instead of buying CDs. The importance of social and epistemic values was highlighted through empirical testing. Turel et al.⁴ demonstrated the potential of the TCV to explain consumer purchases of mobile phone ringtones.

Game-item consumption and MTCV

We review the existing research regarding free-to-play games with revenue models based on purchasable game items. We also extend the results of a previous review as the basis for an MTCV approach.

Lin and Sun² proposed that game users are not simply players, but that gamers should be regarded as consumers. When gamers are perceived as consumers, the types of game items available and how these items are perceived by gamers become increasingly important topics. As such, game items can be classified into two types: functional props used for increasing a character's offensive powers and decorative props used to change a character's appearance.

Second, according to the work by Live Gamer,³⁰ a global provider of commerce solutions for online game publishers, game items can be classified into three types: vanity, functional, and social items. Vanity items include things such as clothing, accessories, and other items that allow players to customize their game characters. Functional items include weapons, currency, spells, and other items to aid and progress the game experience. Social items are items that are given as gifts to other users.

Third, Guo and Barnes³¹ proposed three types of game item values that prompt gamers to purchase game items: perceived playfulness (i.e., the concentration, enjoyment, and curiosity perceived by online gamers), character competency (i.e., a game character's ability to defeat opponents and perform difficult tasks), and requirements of the quest system (i.e., the kind of items the game characters should be prepared with, to embark on specific tasks).

Fourth, Lehdonvirta³² investigated attributes that influence consumers in the purchase of virtual goods, including items purchased from sellers such as EVE Online, Kart Rider, MapleStory, Special Force, Ultima Online, and World of Warcraft. Through an extensive literature review, Lehdonvirta³² showed that virtual goods are composed typically of three kinds of attributes: functional, emotional, and social. Functional attributes include those that affect performance (simple numerical advantages) and functionality (new abilities and options). Both emotional and social attributes include visual appearances, sounds, background fiction, provenance, customizability, cultural references, branding, and rarity.

Fifth, Whang and Kim³³ conducted a survey of players of Lineage, a popular online game in Korea, to examine online gamer interests in trading game items. Results demonstrate that gamers trade items for several reasons: (1) they want to increase their strength or abilities in the game, (2) they want to make the games more fun, (3) they want to show off to other gamers, (4) they do not want to be disregarded by others, and (5) they think that buying game items is an investment that will be profitable in the future.

To build on previous research, the authors propose an MTCV including four dimensions of value associated with purchasable game items. The first value proposed is the character competency value. Gamers are attracted to game items that enhance the competency value of their character, like enhanced performance advantages (e.g., “10 percent faster,” “imparts more damage with one stroke”). The second value proposed is the enjoyment value, a generic property implying engagement in the virtual game world, thereby allowing individuals to escape the stress of the real world. The third proposed value is the visual authority. Visual characteristics of game items are a crucial factor in the desire of game users to possess certain game items. In the online game context, the more fashionable are the visual characteristics of game items, the more will be the social authority of the player. Additionally, visual authority provides a feeling of satisfaction, which further increases the emotional value. The fourth value proposed is monetary value. Most game items are deemed worthy of their cost as gamers assess the cost-effectiveness before purchasing an item.

In comparing the TCV with the proposed MTCV, the functional value described in the TCV is similar to the character competency value of the MTCV. Second, the emotional value described in the TCV is associated with the enjoyment value in the MTCV. Third, the social value outlined in the TCV is reorganized into the visual authority value of the MTCV. Last, both the conditional value and the epistemic value of the TCV are excluded from the MCTV as gamers tend to casually purchase online game items, and epistemic value is not intrinsically appropriate for online game items.

Empirical Results and Discussion

Questionnaire development

Questionnaire items associated with the four values of the MTCV were adapted from several literature sources, as shown in Table 1. For this study, we included Korean game users who purchased game items in 2009 or 2010. Korea is an appropriate location for this study as the country has extremely high Internet penetration, and the rates of Internet usage in Korea are famously high throughout the world. Further, a number of PC Bang, Internet cafes equipped with the latest computers and fast Internet lines, are located throughout the country, and online gamers gather at these locations to play games. In addition, free-to-play games are popular among the population of Korea (visit www.gametrics.com for detail). Participants were recruited via e-mail and telephone calls, and the number of initial respondents was 384. However, after evaluating respondent qualifications and response quality, 327 questionnaires were deemed suitable for analysis. Among these respondents, 250 were males and 77 were females—131 were in middle school, 117 were in high school, and 79 were college students.

Table 1.

Questionnaire Items

Construct	Items
Character competency value^29–32	(When I buy game items), 1. I can increase my game level quickly. 2. I can earn more game points than before. 3. I increase my powers.
Enjoyment value^4,31	(When I use game items), 1. I enjoy the game more. 2. I find the game more exciting. 3. I feel happier.
Visual authority value^4,29,30,32	(When I buy game items), 1. I can decorate my game characters to be more fashionable or stylish. 2. I can make my game characters look better. 3. I am noticed more by others. 4. I can make a better impression on others.
Monetary value^4,34	1. Game items are worth more than what they cost. 2. A game item is a good product, given the price. 3. The prices of game items are reasonable.

Reliability and validity tests

All of the Chronbach's alpha values for the four constructs developed in the MTCV were higher than 0.75; character competency, enjoyment, visual authority, and monetary values were 0.78, 0.84, 0.84, and 0.76, respectively. Therefore, the reliabilities of the constructs were determined to be adequate. To test the validity of each item, a principal component analysis with a varimax rotation was used. Table 2 shows that the first factor (i.e., visual authority value) explained 40.3 percent of the total variance, the second factor (i.e., enjoyment value) explained 13.2 percent, the third factor (i.e., character competency value) explained 10.3 percent, and the fourth factor (i.e., monetary value) explained 7.8 percent of the variance. The total variance explained by the four factors was 71.6 percent. In an exploratory factory analysis, it is possible that one factor will dominate the total variance. Therefore, the association between the factors may be distorted, resulting in common method bias.³⁵ In the present analysis, four factors were verified, and there was no dominant factor. Therefore, common method bias was not determined to be a problem in these analyses. Additionally, the confidence interval of the paired correlations³⁶ at the 1 percent significance level did not include 1, as shown in Table 3. As such, the questionnaire data were considered to be statistically valid.

Table 2.

Factor Loadings of Each Item

	Value factor of the game item
Questionnaire items	Visual authority value	Enjoyment value	Character competency value	Monetary value
Visual 1	0.83
Visual 2	0.81
Visual 4	0.78
Visual 3	0.71
Enjoyment 1		0.86
Enjoyment 2		0.81
Enjoyment 3		0.73
Competency 2			0.87
Competency 1			0.82
Competency 3			0.66
Money 3				0.84
Money 2				0.83
Money 1				0.63
Eigenvalue	5.24	1.72	1.34	1.01
Variance explained (percent)	40.30	13.19	10.33	7.79
Total variance explained: 71.6 percent

Table 3.

Correlation of Each Item

	Mean	Standard deviation	Visual authority value	Enjoyment value	Character competency value	Monetary value
Visual authority value	3.4021	1.55743	1
Enjoyment value	4.9735	1.33919	0.466^*	1
Character competency value	4.4679	1.61164	0.323^*	0.513^*	1
Monetary value	3.2813	1.36404	0.470^*	0.390^*	0.388^*	1

p < 0.01.

Empirical results

Our first research aim was to examine game user perceptions of purchasable game items. To fulfill this objective, a mean value for each construct was calculated, consisting of four value dimensions from the MTCV. Enjoyment value had the highest mean (4.97), followed by that of character competency value (4.47). The mean difference between the character competency value and the enjoyment value was statistically significant at a 95 percent confidence interval. The same was true of the mean difference between the enjoyment value and visual authority value. However, the mean difference between visual authority value (3.40) and monetary value (3.28) was not significant at a 95 percent confidence interval. According to these results, the enjoyment value of purchasable game items is most important to gamers, followed by character competency value and both visual authority value and monetary value.

Our second research aim was to analyze online gamer perceptions of purchasable game items according to game genre and age group. Based on analysis of variance, the three age groups including middle-school, high-school, and college students resulted in different responses regarding character competency value (p value: 0.000, p < 0.01) and visual authority value (p value: 0.004, p < 0.01). However, each of the age groups reported similar perceptions of enjoyment value and monetary value. A post hoc Scheffé analysis (α = 0.1)^37,38 was used to elaborate on the differences between age groups. The sample sizes for each group were different; therefore, Scheffé's test was recommended. The results showed that both high-school and college students more strongly valued character competency value than did middle-school students. Additionally, both high-school and middle-school students perceived stronger values for the visual authority value than did college students.

Game genres under consideration in this study included casual games, MMORPG, and FPS games. The analysis of variance results reported in Table 4 reveal that game genre affects game user's perceptions of both the visual authority value and the monetary value of purchasable game items. To investigate this difference, a post hoc analysis using Scheffé's test at a 90 percent confidence interval (α = 0.1) was used. MMORPG gamers more highly valued the visual authority of purchasable game items than did casual and FPS game users. However, for the monetary value of game items, MMORPG users perceived higher values than did casual game users.

Table 4.

One-Way Analysis of Variance Results by Game Genre

Consumption value of a game item		Sum of squares	df	Mean square	F	Significance
Character competency value	Between groups	11.573	2	5.786	2.245	0.108
	Within groups	835.173	324	2.578
	Total	846.746	326
Enjoyment value	Between groups	2.029	2	1.014	0.564	0.569
	Within groups	582.630	324	1.798
	Total	584.659	326
Visual authority value	Between groups	23.291	2	11.646	4.917	0.008^*
	Within groups	767.452	324	2.369
	Total	790.744	326
Monetary value	Between groups	14.533	2	7.266	3.977	0.020^**
	Within groups	592.028	324	1.827
	Total	606.561	326

p < 0.01; **p < 0.05.

Discussion

Free-to-play online games offer game items for purchase by gamers as their main source of profit. Moreover, free-to-play games are popular among current gamers, leading to a need to investigate game user purchasing behaviors in a rigorous, empirical way. As such, we performed an empirical analysis and obtained statistical results that will be beneficial for both academics and practitioners.

First, an MTCV was developed to apply to questionnaire data. Using the MTCV, four dimensions associated with purchasable game items were identified based on reviews of previous studies examining the TCV as applied to game items. Factor analysis confirmed the validity of the MTCV.

Second, gamers are believed to purchase game items mainly for their enjoyment value. A major reason that people play game is to relax. However, if their characters are not strong enough to defeat others, it may result in stress and anger. As such, gamers tend to purchase game items that lead to greater enjoyment of the games. The second most common reason to purchase game items is to increase character power or abilities. However, statistical tests revealed that game users do not perceive a difference between visual authority value and monetary value.

Third, we found that gamers older than middle-school age were more interested in purchasing game items mainly to increase the power of the game character. Additionally, compared with college students, gamers in high school and middle school were more interested in adorning their game characters with purchased items and impressing others with their virtual images. Teenage psychology is characterized by interest in the opposite gender, and adolescents tend to be extremely sensitive to their appearance.

Fourth, MMORPG users play these games to interact with others. Moreover, MMORPG users usually operate a number of game characters that are more human-like than are those in FPS and casual games. Therefore, MMORPG users tend to be more interested in the visual authority values of game items than are FPS and casual game players. Additionally, MMORPGs require game users to consider various strategies to win game points or bonuses, prompting them to purchase relevant game items. In this regard, MMORPG users tend to be more interested in the monetary values of game items than are FPS and casual game players.

Concluding Remarks

With the growing availability of broadband Internet, online games are rapidly gaining popularity among gamers of all ages and genders. With this increasing popularity of online gaming, many researchers are beginning to focus more attention on this area. A recent survey at www.gametrics.com revealed that most popular online games in South Korea are free-to-play games, which depend on the sale of purchasable game items for their main source of profit. Few studies have been performed in the field of free-to-play games. Therefore, this study focused on free-to-play games and analyzed the perceived values of purchasable game items. To develop a theoretical framework for more rigorous investigation of the values of purchasable game items, this study suggested an MTCV. Accordingly, four kinds of game item values were identified: visual authority value, monetary value, character competency value, and enjoyment value.

Based on a statistical analysis of the validated questionnaire data garnered from 327 game users in three game genres (MMORPG, FPS games, and casual games), it was determined that the MTCV was valid for analyzing online gamer perceptions of these four values. Additionally, online gamer perceptions of game items were analyzed across age groups and game genres. Based on the empirical results, it is recommended that game companies attempt to more clearly understand the motivations of game users to purchase online items. Moreover, game companies can analyze potential pitfalls of their business models based on the perspectives of game users.

Footnotes

Acknowledgment

This study was supported by WCU (World Class University) program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (grant no. R31-2008-000-10062-0).

Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

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