Enhancing perceived enjoyment in social games through social and gaming factors

Abstract

Purpose – Residing on social networking platforms, social games have unique characteristics distinguishing them from other digital games or online games. The purpose of this paper is to explore both social and gaming factors of social games and investigate their roles on enhancing perceived enjoyment. The authors also examine the relationships between perceived enjoyment, subject norm, perceived critical mass, intention to play, and actual behavior. Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops a research model including nine hypotheses. Using a survey questionnaire, empirical data were collected from 169 actual social game players. Structured equation modeling was used to test the proposed research models. Findings – Social identification, social interaction, and diversion significantly influence perceived enjoyment. Perceived enjoyment significantly influences the intention to play, which in turn significantly influences the actual behavior. Moreover, subject norm and perceived critical mass play different roles in determining the intention to play and the actual behavior. Practical implications – The results of this study provide social game practitioners with a set of rich insights into guidelines on designing specific social and gaming characteristics to improve users’ perceived enjoyment and actual playing behavior. Originality/value – Through analyzing characteristics of social games, The authors emphasize the difference between social games and other online games or computer games and recognize the enhancing role of social and gaming factors on perceived enjoyment. Findings of this study contribute to the literature on social games.

What kind of video gamer are you?

“…It seems reasonable to assume that if gamers derive enjoyment and fun from video games, then they may be willing to buy more video game-related products in order to entertain themselves and keep playing (Huang et a., 2017;Li et al, 2015). As video games are mainly hedonic products for entertainment (Chen and Wang, 2016;Huang et al, 2017), the current work thus considers that achieving pleasure, flow and perceived enjoyment (hedonic motivation) is a positive trigger of game-related product purchase. Hence,…”

The Path between Personality, Self-Efficacy, and Shopping Regarding Games Apps

“…As for extraversion, in gamer behavior [26] argue that social influence, which explains how other people's attitudes or opinions may affect an individual's decision making, is a determining factor in social games. Extraversion positively influences self-efficacy [82].…”

Drivers and deterrents of music streaming services purchase intention

“…Given that satisfaction itself is no longer enough to explain technology adoption, in VAM PV is a main determinant of user adoption and is determined by two cost beliefs (perceived fee -PF and technicality) and two benefit beliefs (usefulness and enjoyment). While PU refers to functional value, perceived enjoyment (PE) refers to hedonic value, and plays also an important role in determining usage behaviours (Chen et al, 2016(Chen et al, , 2018a. Authors such as Wang et al (2013Wang et al ( , 2018 or Chu and Lu (2007) also support the notion that utilitarian and hedonic benefits have a great influence on PV (Table 1).…”