The Effects of Purchase Intention on Actual Purchase of Virtual Items in Free-to-Play Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) Games

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Evanmarie O. Mendoza 

Master of Science in Management

University of Asia and the Pacific

Keywords: purchase intention, virtual items, multiplayer online games

ABSTRACT

In-game purchases or virtual item purchases have become increasingly popular as a growing number of people play online games. Several researches on online games have explored virtual item purchases in other game genres whereas this study determined the effects of purchase intention on actual purchase of virtual items particularly in free-to-play Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games. The theoretical framework adapted was a modified version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) Model. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the levels of the variables while multiple and simple linear regression models were used to determine the level of significance of the effects of the exogenous constructs to the endogenous construct. Contrary to previous researches which found most of the determinants of purchase intention to be significant, the findings of this study showed that only two variables namely, habit and advancement had a significant positive effect on purchase intention. Furthermore, purchase intention had a significant positive effect on actual purchase and this relationship was moderated by the demographic variables – average annual household income and player rank.