University of Twente Student Theses
Sounds fun? Game on! Effects of review valence, anticipation, and parasocial interaction on continuation intention after playing a game compared to watching a Let’s Play
Pingel, M.A. (2021) Sounds fun? Game on! Effects of review valence, anticipation, and parasocial interaction on continuation intention after playing a game compared to watching a Let’s Play.
This is the latest version of this item.
|
PDF
2MB |
| Abstract: | With increasing numbers of video games being distributed, consumers’ reliance on the experiences and recommendations of other members and reviews within gaming communities rose as well. However, the gaming community is not only limited to games but also offers members the possibility to watch Let’s Plays, which are gameplay videos accompanied by a narrator aimed to entertain viewers. Games and Let’s Plays both have the potential to evoke different feelings during the media consumption. Therefore, the current study aims to examine the different elements that influence consumers' decision to continuously engage with a game.The aim of the study was investigated by comparing the impact of reviews and their perceived trustworthiness on intentions to play and anticipations before the media consumption to the perceived enjoyment, engagement, and parasocial interaction after the media consumption. To do so, an online 2 (medium: game vs. Let’s Play) x3 (review: positive vs. negative vs. neutral) between-subjects experimental design was created resulting in 264 valid responses (Age: M = 25.95, SD = 7.35, Gender: Male = 59.8%, Female = 37.5%, Other = 2.7%). Results show that reading a review before engaging with a game or Let’s Play significantly influenced intentions to play and anticipations of a game, which amplified enjoyment, engagement, and parasocial interaction perception after the media consumption. These perceptions further increased continuation intentions for which unique benefits per medium were identified. Playing a game led to higher enjoyment and engagement while watching a Let’s Play led to higher parasocial interaction perceptions. Findings underline the importance of the impact of previous evaluation exposure in form of reviews on the decision-making process of consumers and how varying media leads to unique benefits. Game publishers should make use of reviews and Let’s Plays to increase the distribution their games while game developers should design their game characters based on their target group in order to evoke feelings of identification and parasocial interaction. Main limitations include a lack of control due to the nature of online experiments and factors that were not controlled for (i.e. review trust). |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 05 communication studies |
| Programme: | Communication Studies BSc (56615) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/86472 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
Show download statistics for this publication
Show download statistics for this publicationRepository Staff Only: item control page