The Determinant Factors of the Intention to Buy Virtual Good In Multiplayer Online Battle Arena

Abstract

Recently online game industry is evolving and bringing a new phenomenon called “Virtual Economy”. One of the most famous free-to-play online game right now is DOTA 2, an Action game with Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre. The online game is free, the developer use “virtual goods” as their business model to generate the revenue. The previous research on purchase intention for virtual goods mainly not discuss about the MOBA genre. The variable related to purchasing intention in this research is Emotional Value (Playfulness & Aesthetic), Functional Value (Price Utility), dan Social Value (Rarity & Self Image Expression). Data collected from 203 Indonesian respondents using purposive sampling. The researchers use Structural Equation Modelling for the data analysis. The result shows that the influence of Playfulness and Rarity is not significant on purchasing intention (P-Value respectively 0,999 dan 0,352). The influence of Aesthetic, Price Utility, and Self-image expression is significant on the purchase intention (P-value respectively 0,005; 0,002; and 0,002). With this research, we hope the developer knows more about their player’s purchase intention to their virtual goods, but this research is still limit by the number of respondents and scope of a range which is only in Indonesia.