FACTORS INFLUENCING VIRTUAL ITEMS PURCHASE INTENTION WITHIN FREE-TO-PLAY ONLINE GAME IN THAILAND

Abstract

In recent times, gaming has become one of the main entertainments for people around the world. One of the most popular games is free-to-play (F2P or FTP) online games. In FTP online game the player can download and access the game without any charge but, the game will sell the in-game items and additional content in the game later. Thus, the game company gains a huge profit from selling in-game items. The major revenue of selling virtual goods around the world come from the Asia Pacific region especially from China and Southeast Asian country including Thailand. Besides, Nowadays, Game development companies launch many free-to-play online games to the market and many players tend to spend a lot of money to buy virtual goods in those games. Thus, this research paper is aimed to identify the key factors that influence the virtual goods purchase intention within free-to-play online games in Thailand from the perspective of consumer behavior. In this regard, this paper will focus on the main six independent variables which are social influence, perceived enjoyment, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, customization, and in-game achievements that are estimated to influence in-game items purchase intention. Moreover, the researcher aims to investigate customer insight for increases the purchasing rate in a free-to-play game.