Assignment on Literature Review of Motivations for Purchasing of Mobile Games Among Youth in Saudi Arabia

Mobile game playing has been found to be influenced by several factors ranging from social to economic aspects. Whereas some of these factors are related to personal preferences such as needs and values derived from playing particular games, others such as ease of use are mainly technological-based.

According to Penttinen, et al. (2010), mobile gamers vary in their needs and values – characteristics responsible for the variation in their purchasing behavior of mobile games. These values could be related to satisfaction with quality, functionality on a mobile phone or price compared to their expectations. The perceived usefulness such as providing a platform for socialisation also appears to influence the user’s intention to purchase a mobile game. On the other hand, the game-related factors that could motivate users to purchase mobile games include ease and quickness of setup, audio-visual effects including sound and graphics attributes, and product information.

According to Barnes et al. (2012), significance of the research show that the path between performance expectancy and PBI in WoW was significant only at the 10 percent level. Furthermore, prevent deceitful behavior lead to issues of institution-based trust, which are related to performance expectancy issues, are diminished. Also, the relation between social influence and purchase intention was not supported and coefficient was close to zero. Thus, the researchers suggest that social influence has little effect on forming players’ purchase intention.

While Hsiao and Chen (2016) also highlight in their research that the perceived value of mobile games may encompass playfulness, connectedness, access flexibility and reward. The authors also observed that loyalty to mobile game is mainly a determinant factor among the game players who pay for the games and not in non-payers. Moreover, the gaming experience of the consumers could motivate or demotivate them to purchase and play a particular mobile game. Price of mobile games also appears to be a crucial determinant of purchasing mobile games. However, it remains an important factor for only paying gamers.

Kim and Cho (2018) similarly determine the perceived value, as well as risks and attitude, play a significant role in the intention to purchase mobile games by the consumers. Risks could be related to performance mismatch between the expected and actual performance. Satisfaction or dissatisfaction was also found to influence the user’s behaviour in purchasing mobile games and loyalty. Whereas perceived use and loyalty have been established to influence the consumers’ intention to purchase apps for mobile games.

According to Su et al. (2016) humane-computer interaction, social interaction, skill, and challenge independently positive influenced flow experience, and further positively influenced the player loyalty of mobile game users. They explain the influence of player behavior on their player loyalty. In particular, the higher challenges and social interaction are, the more the game challenges experienced players and facilitates interactions with each other, therefore raising player loyalty.

Merikivi et al. (2017) determine that the connection between enjoyment and continuance intentions and what makes mobiles games pleasant. enjoyment direct impact on continued use intentions has confirmed. additionally, Jani reveal that enjoyment within the mobile game context depends on two kinds of artifact-related attributes: game design and playability. Of these, perceived ease of use, novelty, design aesthetic, and challenge are strongly influence enjoyment which in turn driven the continual mobile game use. This literature review indicates that motivators for purchasing mobile games could be related to individual perspectives or system characteristics.

Passmore & Holder, (2014) describe in the research that playing video games can provide a wide range of positive effects and benefits. As they have highlighted, playing prosocial video games can promote aspects of prosocial behaviours including increasing positive affect, generosity, helping behaviour, and accessibility to prosocial thoughts, in addition to decreasing aggressive behaviour, hostile attribution bias.

You, et al. (2014) from Korea make the argument that the Participation in programs that focus on problems, such as video game addiction or aggressive behavior, remind adolescents of their problems rather than of their positive traits, whereas a strength-focused approach increases positive self-perceptions. Thus, educators, family members, and the community could utilize this strength-focused approach to better understand the mediating roles of adolescents’ strengths regarding the impacts of violent video games on adolescent social behaviors.

Al-Jifri and Elyas (2017) state that video games can become an effective language learning tool in schools and universities if they were designed ‘right’. What the word ‘right’ implies is that a number of elements should form the foundation of the game’s design to become as involving as commercial/ console video games such as Metal Gear Solid or Grand Theft Auto. These elements include action- packed gameplay, a compelling story that addresses serious issues such as violence, adult- related situations, beyond reproach voice acting and etc.

Granic, et al. (2014) describe that we have become particularly inspired by the potential that these games hold for interventions that promote well-being, including the prevention and treatment of mental health problems in youth. The game of Chess in mobile is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions. we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping for a favorable change, and that of persevering in the search of resources.

Connolly,‏ et al.(2012) also try to show that playing computer games is linked to a range of perceptual, cognitive, behavioral, affective and motivational impacts and outcomes. The most frequently occurring outcomes and impacts were knowledge acquisition/content understanding and affective and motivational outcomes.

Thirunarayanan and Vilchez (2012) get some results from a survey of 203 students in a public research university are reported in the paper. Using Chi-square, statistically significant differences were found between students who had and had not participated in video game tournaments in the reported improvement of several life skills or abilities, such as arithmetic skills, giving directions to others, functioning as a member of a team, leading a group of people, coordinating the activities of other people, and ability to memorize information. The results show that playing in video game tournaments does have positive consequences.

Prasetya, F. X. (2015) also say that era people prefer to play games that can be played any time. A mobile phone is probably good tool for a game rather than computer because you can use it any time and people can bring it all the time also Mobile phone is a network device which supports multiplayer game.

Oliveret et al. (2015) assigned 512 participants randomly divided into 1 of 2 groups that asked them to recall a game that they found either particularly fun or particularly meaningful, and to then rate their perceptions of the game that they recalled. They discovered that Enjoyment was high for both groups, though appreciation was higher in the meaningful- than fun-game condition. Further, enjoyment was most strongly associated with gameplay characteristics and satisfaction of needs related to competency and autonomy, whereas appreciation was most strongly associated with story characteristics and satisfaction of needs related to insight and relatedness.

Husni and Mohamed (2011) arrive to result that the Electronic games have a positive impact on cognitive processes as they encourage the development of logic and the acquisition of cognitive skills in a fun way as it pushes learners or players to develop their information.

Vasileiadou, & Makrina, (2017) research confirm the significance of incorporating technology in the English language classroom as it increases students’ motivation also promotes language learning . The implication of this finding, for the teaching of English in Primary school, is crucial as it suggests that the use of computer or mobile games should become an inextricable part of the lesson because computers offer enjoyable practice in English as a foreign language.

Cho (2015) results show that effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, price value and habit have positive effects on the formation of behavioral intention to use in-app purchase items. Social influence was not a significant factor influencing the behavioral intention. The moderating effect of gender showed that male users consider hedonic motivation more than female users do.

Indrawati and Putri (2018) determine that there are six variables have a positive and significant influence on the consumer’s continuance intention of Indonesia Go-pay adoption. Which ordered continuously as Habit, Trust, and Social Influence were the most influential on the consumer's continued intention, while the effect of Price Saving Orientation, Hedonic Motivation, and Performance Expectancy are less impacts on consumer’s intention. Therefore, in order to make the consumers become addicted to use Go-Pay, they suggest to create a Go-Pay reward name for several levels. Once consumers unlock a higher level, there will be higher amount of discounts and Go-Points and it will increase the customer addiction.

Hsin, Ping and Yi-chen (2016) have used UTAUT as the theoretical base to investigate the purchase intention of smartphone users in purchasing game APP. Based on the literature review and in order to enhance the explanatory power of UTAUT, and hence the researcher added two variables of “Price” and “Product Involvement”. In this study, the researcher investigated the factors that would affect users’ purchase of game App, and the researcher regarded that those who would purchase game App were all voluntary, and hence the individual difference of “voluntariness of use” wouldn’t be investigated in this study.

Lastly, Al-Muhanna et al. (2019) discover that relative advantage was defined under the entertainment context of passing time, and it had the strongest effect among the other factors in both case studies (D 0.40 and 0.32, respectively). This indicates that participants enjoyed passing time playing the game. This is consistent with the results in [48], as they found that game adopters have stronger personal needs for passing time and a higher perception of Relative advantage in playing online games, whereas they perceive the risks in terms of time spent in playing online games as less significant.