Consumer Addiction towards Gaming Products

Chin, Chun Yin (2022) Consumer Addiction towards Gaming Products. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

As computer technologies advances, digital games had become one of the mainstream leisure and most addictive activities over the internet. Within the virtual world, player often takes on an in-game persona which provides the player with a form of primary identification and these identifications could result in blurring the lines between reality and the virtual world which then, increasing the player needs for gaming as well as his or her dependencies towards gaming products. However, from game publishing companies’ perspective, game addiction is one of the key elements to capture the market. Therefore, marketing addiction had become one of the common business models that use to generate more revenue as well as to slowly capitalize consumer’s emotion to promote brand loyalty. With the availability of graphical processing unit, higher game realism was introduced and it has been used by game developer as a pole of attraction to attract new customer as well as to create a better gaming experience. Nevertheless, most studies in the past were mainly focused on game realism in facilitating individual aggressiveness and immersion, yet they had neglected the possibility of game realism in facilitating game addiction. This research, thus, addresses the gap by adopting three theories namely (1) mental model theory, (2) self-determination theory and (3) flow theory to justify the interconnection between all the variables under investigation. The primary objective of this research is to investigate (1) the influences of perceived game realism on gaming frequency and immersion; (2) the influence of gaming frequency and immersion on game addiction; (3) the impact of perceived game realism and gaming frequency on immersion and (4) the influence of intention to become gamer on perceived game realism. The second objective of this research it to examine (1) the role of gaming frequency in mediating the relationship between perceived game realism and game addiction; (2) the role of immersion in mediating between perceived game realism and game addiction and (3) the moderating role of perceived importance of game reward on the relationship between perceived game realism and gaming frequency. To initiate this study, a quantitative research design with cross-sectional study was adopted and data was collected using online questionnaire survey via Google form. A total sample of 470 respondents (primary data) from Malaysian gamers were gathered. These data were then analysed using both Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25 and SmartPLS version 3.3.3. The research finding evinced that game realism is positively and significantly influence a person gaming frequency as well as his or her immersion level. In addition, this research also corroborated that game realism indirectly predicts game addiction through gaming frequency and immersion. This research, moreover, concluded the moderating effect of perceived importance of game reward in which it strengthens the relationship between perceived game realism and gaming frequency. The outcome of this research had contributed a more comprehensive and unabridged perspective on gaming addiction by offering a better understanding of how game realism influence game addiction through gaming frequency and immersion. From a practical point of view, the research findings have highlighted the importance of game realism and in-game reward to be implemented during game development in order to increase the game quality as well as its longevity.