Drivers of video game consumption on online video game platforms
Pulkkinen, Joona (2024-05-15)
J. Pulkkinen
15.05.2024
© 2024 Joona Pulkkinen. Ellei toisin mainita, uudelleenkäyttö on sallittu Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) -lisenssillä (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Uudelleenkäyttö on sallittua edellyttäen, että lähde mainitaan asianmukaisesti ja mahdolliset muutokset merkitään. Sellaisten osien käyttö tai jäljentäminen, jotka eivät ole tekijän tai tekijöiden omaisuutta, saattaa edellyttää lupaa suoraan asianomaisilta oikeudenhaltijoilta.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202405153522
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202405153522
Tiivistelmä
Gaming as a phenomenon has become a massive trend that is not slowing down anytime soon. The overwhelming majority of gaming takes place on online video game platforms with platforms amassing millions of users. These platforms are digital architectures designed to enable and support interactivity between their users while capturing the value from the interactivity. Despite the popularity of gaming and the online video game platforms, research into online video game platforms' users' behavior is very scarce.
This thesis adopts a mixed method approach utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods to study the drivers and constraints of the users of online video game platforms. The qualitative portion is conducted through 10 interviews. The quantitative portion is conducted through a survey study with a sample of 204 responses. The quantitative analysis is conducted using a two-step structural equation modeling approach utilizing a new theoretical model that is a combination of decomposed theory of planned behavior and flow theory.
The interview study found peer influence, ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived enjoyment to be the most important drivers of online video game platform user behavior. Furthermore, time, technology, money, and negative peer influence were found to be the most important constraints of behavior for online video game platform users according to the interview study.
The survey study found attitude as the most important driver of behavior to play video games on online video game platforms with perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness as the most important determinants of attitude. Contradictorily to the interview study’s findings, peer influence was not deemed a significant determinant of behavior to play video games on online video game platforms. Moreover, the quantitative study did not support perceived behavioral control to have a significant effect on behavioral intention and thus finding answers to constraints to playing video games on online video game platforms was unattainable.
This thesis’ findings implicate that social aspects of online video game platforms are important. The platforms need to be easy to use and provide useful features to the user such as an easily accessible library of video games. Furthermore, the thesis found that users of online video game platforms do not like being restricted to a certain platform. Additionally, the impact of the flow state was keenly observed in both the qualitative and the quantitative portions’ findings. Facilitating flow states on online video game platforms can be valuable. The findings of this thesis are relevant to the developers of online video game platforms, as well as their users. To the scientific community, the thesis offers a new theoretical model for predicting user behavior.
This thesis adopts a mixed method approach utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods to study the drivers and constraints of the users of online video game platforms. The qualitative portion is conducted through 10 interviews. The quantitative portion is conducted through a survey study with a sample of 204 responses. The quantitative analysis is conducted using a two-step structural equation modeling approach utilizing a new theoretical model that is a combination of decomposed theory of planned behavior and flow theory.
The interview study found peer influence, ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived enjoyment to be the most important drivers of online video game platform user behavior. Furthermore, time, technology, money, and negative peer influence were found to be the most important constraints of behavior for online video game platform users according to the interview study.
The survey study found attitude as the most important driver of behavior to play video games on online video game platforms with perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness as the most important determinants of attitude. Contradictorily to the interview study’s findings, peer influence was not deemed a significant determinant of behavior to play video games on online video game platforms. Moreover, the quantitative study did not support perceived behavioral control to have a significant effect on behavioral intention and thus finding answers to constraints to playing video games on online video game platforms was unattainable.
This thesis’ findings implicate that social aspects of online video game platforms are important. The platforms need to be easy to use and provide useful features to the user such as an easily accessible library of video games. Furthermore, the thesis found that users of online video game platforms do not like being restricted to a certain platform. Additionally, the impact of the flow state was keenly observed in both the qualitative and the quantitative portions’ findings. Facilitating flow states on online video game platforms can be valuable. The findings of this thesis are relevant to the developers of online video game platforms, as well as their users. To the scientific community, the thesis offers a new theoretical model for predicting user behavior.
Kokoelmat
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