The Influence of Attractive Game Characters on Players' Gaming Purchases

Charlotte Mae Sia Efren；Chung-Ho Su

Attractiveness ； Game Characters ； Gaming Purchases ； Gamer Behavior ； Player Perspective

數位媒體設計國際研討會論文集

第十二屆（2019 / 06 / 14）

470 - 480

英文

Game characters are the forefront of video games-they serve as the model that helps sell the product. They are often designed to be attractive, both physically and psychologically. Being attractive has been heavily evidenced to have advantages; this indicated the significance to investigate the influence of attractive game characters on players' gaming purchases. This research can provide game designers, creators, and researchers more insights for the creation of new game characters. At the same time, inform them about the effects of the attractive game characters on the purchase behavior of their game players. Qualitative and Quantitative methods were used to address the objectives of this research. Subjective views, ideas, and opinions were gathered from experienced players through online questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The gathered data underwent through the stages of Grounded Theory, that helped in the creation of the quantitative survey. Ordinal Logistic Regression test was conducted to the gathered survey data to investigate the association between the attractiveness factors and the players' reported purchase behaviors. Results showed that attractive game characters influence the gaming purchases and behavior of the players. Descriptive analysis showed high agreeability from the players, while the regression analysis identified predictor variables that influenced the effects. Thus, this study was able to conclude that attractive game characters truly influence the gaming purchases and spending behavior of players.

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