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A foundation for a model of subjective value in free-to-play games
Smith, Dustin C.
Smith, Dustin C.
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Dissertation
Adobe PDF, 2.9 MB
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2017-05
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Electronic dissertations
Electronic dissertations
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Abstract
Mobile gaming is an emerging trend in the gaming community. Many of these games
are known as "free-to-play" or "freemium". Users can play a mobile game for free, but can
also purchase a large number of virtual goods within that game. A large body of literature
exists that attempts to explain the behavior of people who purchase virtual goods in freeto-play
games. Most of these articles spend time defining classic decision making
paradigms that may apply to the virtual markets developed by game creators. Despite the
number of articles that speculate on the relationship between free-to-play in-game
transactions and decision making concepts, there remains an absence of literature that
conducts empirical research to test these hypotheses. This dissertation examined delay,
risk, and exchange rate as a function of subjective value. For the third and fourth studies,
the delays and exchange rates were selected to resemble wait times and currencies that
someone might experience in a free-to-play game. Results suggest that participants are less
risk seeking with game-like currencies compared to United States dollars. These results
explain why free-to-play gamers might be willing to make in-app purchases. Future
research should iterate on these studies to investigate more patterns of free-to-play games
as they relate to decision making.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)-- Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology
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Wichita State University
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Copyright 2017 by Dustin Smith
All Rights Reserved