THE ROLES OF VIRTUAL CHALLENGE AND DIVERSION IN PAY TO PLAY (P2P) PRACTICES AMONG INDONESIAN MOBILE GAMERS

Abstract

This research aims to investigate factors influencing the intention to play and pay (P2P) in mobile games. The mobile games market is growing and lucrative. In terms of revenue, Indonesia is one of Southeast Asia's biggest gaming markets. However, local gaming companies only own a very small percentage of the market. Several P2P-related concepts are incorporated in this research, namely time flexibility, diversion, and challenge. This quantitative research used a purposive sampling technique to recruit 324 mobile gamers from Strategy, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) and Action genres. To analyse the data, this research employed Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via SPSS and AMOS software. The results show that 1) Challenge has positive effects on the intention to play mobile games and the intention to pay for virtual items 2) The intention to play mobile games has a positive effect on the intention to pay for virtual items 3) Diversion has a positive effect on the intention to pay for virtual items and 4) The intention to play mobile games partially mediates the relationship between challenge and the intention to pay for virtual items.