Exploring Consumer Engagement in Gamified Health and Fitness Mobile Apps

This paper explores how Generation Y engages with gamified health and fitness mobile apps focussing on the popular Nike+ and Fitbit apps. An interpretative approach was adopted whereby ten in-depth interviews were carried out to explore this phenomenon from the perspective of the user. Findings suggest that consumers enjoy receiving intrinsic rewards but these only hold value when players understand the behaviour or activity for why they are being rewarded. It was also found that consumers would welcome social media integration in the gamified apps only if a purpose is clearly identified. Finally, competitive elements, such as leaderboards, points and status, are most likely to enhance consumer engagement but brands need to create opportunities for constructive competition

A MODEL FOR EVALUATING ONLINE GAME PLAYERS: A STUDY OF ENJOYMENT, INTERACTION, FLOW EXPERIENCE, AND MOTIVATION TOWARDS ATTITUDE AND INTENTION BEHAVIOR IN CHINA

The purpose of this research is to find out the factors that affect online players. This study's variables are human-Game Interaction, utilitarian motivation, hedonic motivation, flow experience, perceived enjoyment, attitude, and intention. The researchers observed these variables and put forward four hypotheses to determine the influencing factors. The researchers used China's "League of Legends" as the research model. 300 respondents select this data through a questionnaire survey on two large-scale communication platforms in China. The first platform is the official forum of "League of Legends" in China, and the second platform is the most used game social software "QQ" in China. ". The researchers used convenience sampling and judgmental sampling to investigate. All data were analyzed using statistical software, and linear regression and multiple linear regression were used to find the most significant factors affecting players’ attitudes and intentions. Use descriptive statistics to provide average and demographic percentages. Besides, the researchers use inferential statistics to test the effects of variables. The results show that human-game interaction has a significant positive correlation with utilitarian motivation and hedonic motivation. Utilitarian motivation, hedonic motivation, flow experience, and perceived enjoyment have a positive impact on the player’s attitude. However, flow experience, perceived enjoyment, and attitude have no influence on the intentions of online player

Digital Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents: Problematic Practices and Policy Interventions

Examines trends in digital marketing to youth that uses "immersive" techniques, social media, behavioral profiling, location targeting and mobile marketing, and neuroscience methods. Recommends principles for regulating inappropriate advertising to youth

Understanding hotel visitors’ motives to use hotel gamified applications

While hospitality has been one of the industries that have been keen to adopt and use various technologies, the proliferation of gamification application is still to materialise. It is therefore very interesting to investigate the potential benefits of gamified applications in the area of the hospitality industry by identifying the motives of individuals’ when they use a hotel-gamified application. Hospitality industry is becoming more and more competitive and surviving and marketing a destination has become a challenge, so in order to gain a competitive advantage, the use of modern technology is crucial for many destination-marketing organizations. Gamification can be applied in technology-mediated and non-technology-mediated contexts. Within technology-mediated contexts, gamification is more applicable due to the favourable environment that such context offers. Recent evolutions indicate that mobile devices are becoming travel buddies and their use is profoundly influencing the different phases of a travellers’ journey. Hence, it could be assumed, that a mobile hotel gamified application is now easier than ever to develop and succeed. Since fun has become the requirement to ensure continuous demands for many products or services, companies and organizations feel the need to involve fun in their offerings to secure continuity in consumption and use. Therefore, this study aims to understand the meaning of fun for individuals when they will use a hotel-gamified application, using visual material so the interviewees would have an idea of how a hotel-gamified application would look if it was in existence today based on the current definitions of gamification

A Study of Player Behavior And Social Influences to Purchase Intention Mobile Legends: Bang Bang In-Game Item

Purpose: This quantitative study aims to analyze the interest in buying items and skins in the online game Mobile Legends in Indonesia, especially in East Java Province by looking at the psychological and social factors of game players. Player behavior is a psychological factor and social factors are social influence variables. Design/methodology/approach: The number of samples in this study was 310, the sampling method used purposive sampling. Respondents are active Mobile Legends game players who have participated in answering our research questionnaire. The data collection method uses online questionnaire distribution using Google Forms. Measurement of data using answers with a Likert scale of 1 to 10 with 1 point strongly disagree and 10 points strongly agree. Data were analyzed using the PLS-SEM method using Smart PLS 3.0 software. Findings: Player behavior includes achievement, challenge, escapism, and social interaction. Social influences consist of network externality and community involvement. The results of our research show that player behavior consists of achievement, challenge, escapism, and social influences such as network externality, and community involvement have a significant positive effect on Purchase Intention. Originality/value: This study explores the purchase intention of virtual item in the mobile legends game using the uses and gratifications theory (U&G). The application of U&G theory is seen from the behavior of the players. Social influences is also applied to see the influence from outside the players

Gamification and online consumer decisions: Is the game over?

Consumption can be more than just a necessity; it can become a leisure activity. With the emergence of e-commerce and social media, products and services are just one click away; a trend that is further driven by gamified systems. This research aims to systematically analyze the most relevant academic literature on gamification, to establish if it influences online consumer decisions and, if so, which elements, mechanisms, and theories can explain it. After a thorough search from Web of Science and Scopus databases using SciMAT, 257 papers were analyzed. Twenty-nine (29) of the 36 papers found show empirical evidence that the inclusion of game elements in non-game activities has a significant influence on consumer engagement and online consumer decisions in digital contexts. Moreover, rewards and challenges were identified as the two most used mechanisms, with points, badges, and leaderboards being the most tested gamification elements. The Self- Determination Theory (SDT) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) are the two most common theoretical explanations for why gamification works. Lastly, possible future studies to include thematic, methodological and theoretical agendas were discussed

Gamification Design for Mobile Marketing Effectiveness

Retailing and other business sectors have been buffeted by the diffusion of mobile technology. Millennials, in particular, consider such technology indispensable and have lately been using it for gaming applications. In order to thrive in the new mobile and game centric world, retailers will need to adapt and leverage mobile game-like applications using the process known as gamification. Our own sense is that the gamified interfaces currently offered by firms mostly miss the mark. We provide a systematic overview of game design and point out how principles derived from that field are highly applicable to gamified retail apps as well as to other firm offerings with game like elements. We are aided in our systematic approach by the work of Schell (2008) whose Elemental Game Tetrad Model allows us to offer a coherent look at the gamification antecedents of its psychological and marketing outcomes.Retailing and other business sectors have been buffeted by the diffusion of mobile technology. Millennials, in particular, consider such technology indispensable and have lately been using it for gaming applications. In order to thrive in the new mobile and game centric world, retailers will need to adapt and leverage mobile game-like applications using the process known as gamification. Our own sense is that the gamified interfaces currently offered by firms mostly miss the mark. We provide a systematic overview of game design and point out how principles derived from that field are highly applicable to gamified retail apps as well as to other firm offerings with game like elements. We are aided in our systematic approach by the work of Schell (2008) whose Elemental Game Tetrad Model allows us to offer a coherent look at the gamification antecedents of its psychological and marketing outcomes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111727/1/1274_Manchanda.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111727/3/1274_Manchanda.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111727/5/1274_Manchanda_Aug15.pdfDescription of 1274_Manchanda.pdf : April 2015 - proper coverDescription of 1274_Manchanda_Aug15.pdf : August 2015 revisio

Players' preferences and main motivational factors in online roleplaying games: Case Vietnam

This study aims to study (1) the Vietnamese players’ valuations and their preference clusters, (2) how the preference clusters relate to the main motivational factors in online roleplaying games. The study is based on the flow experience theory in games. It identified eight game factors that related to the flow experience in games (gaming experience). They were: concentration & immersion (graphics and sounds), challenges & skill, control (customization), feedback, social interaction (communication spaces and tools), variety & novelty, and storyline. These factors were used in a best-worst scaling experiment to find out how respondents value them. Using latent class analysis, respondents were segmented into five different clusters with different interests. People in cluster 1 are the story lovers, which are interested in the game’s storyline. People in cluster 2 are the aesthetics lovers, which love the beauty aspect of games (graphics and sounds). People in cluster 3 are the socializers, which enjoy communicating and cooperating with others. People in cluster 4 are the achievers, which are about conquering, competition, and performance. Finally, people in cluster 5 are the local story lovers, which have a special interest in the local aspect of the game’s story, e.g. local myths are embedded in games. In addition, players’ main motivational factors were studied: they were achievement, social, and immersion. Furthermore, the motivational factors’ average across the clusters were compared. Cluster 4 has the highest average mean in terms of achievement. In terms of social, cluster 3 and 4 have the highest average means. Meanwhile the immersion’s average is the same across all the clusters. To the best of the author’s knowledge, the players’ valuations in games have not been studied with a method of discreet choice (best-worst scaling method) before. On the practical level, the study findings can help game companies to develop and publish their games efficiently in the Vietnamese gaming market