Choosing a website to play Poker - A comparison between utilitarian and hedonic users

The objective of this thesis is to identify the relative importance of criteria in online poker website selection among utilitarian and hedonic poker players. This study aims to reveal whether the relative importance of the criteria varies according to a player's motives for playing. Although user acceptance of both utilitarian and hedonic technologies has been relatively widely studied, similar research on systems that can be used for both purposes appears to be lacking. To address this issue, extensive research methods are utilized to form thorough understanding of the issue at hand. First, an extensive literature review is conducted to discover potential criteria that are likely to determine whether users will accept or reject a certain poker website, based on previous research on technology acceptance. The recognized criteria are validated through four interviews with utilitarian and hedonic poker players. To discover the relative importance of criteria for different users, an online survey is conducted, including a Discrete Choice Experiment. Responses are gathered from over 300 respondents, including both utilitarian and hedonic users. The data is thoroughly analyzed to identify the relative importance of the criteria, and to reveal how the motivation for playing affects the order of the criteria. The findings suggest that the most important criterion for all users is reputation. Network size is also found to be a significant criterion for many poker players, as well as the loyalty program provided by a poker website. The findings also propose that the relative importance of criteria does vary according to a user's motives for playing

Playing for fun or for profit: how extrinsically-motivated and intrinsically-motivated players make the choice between competing dual-purposed gaming platforms

An online poker site is a good example of a dual-purposed information system that is used for both fun and making money. In this study, we address the platform selection problem associated with online poker sites by investigating the features online gamers value when selecting a platform. We test the differences in preferences for online gaming platforms between two types of users: primarily extrinsically-motivated and primarily intrinsically-motivated players. Surprisingly, when comparing the importance scores of the features (usability, enjoyment, functionalities, poker network, loyalty program, and reputation), we observe very little difference between the two user groups. The only difference was that loyalty programs were valued considerably more by extrinsically-motivated players. One would have expected that features such as functionalities, poker network, and reputation would dominate the choice calculus for extrinsically-motivated players and that features such as usability and enjoyment would dominate the choice calculus for intrinsically-motivated players. We interpret this surprising finding as providing support to the claim that utilitarian and hedonic values are becoming increasingly intertwined. In this article, we provide alternative interpretations for this surprising result and discuss its theoretical and managerial implications. Because this is an exploratory study, we also note several avenues for future research.Peer reviewe