게임 이용자의 마인드셋이 유료아이템 구매의도에 미치는 영향: 경쟁심의 조절효과와 사회적 현존감의 매개효과를 중심으로

With the revitalization of the game market, game companies are focusing on item sales and developing advertising content to attract more users and generate revenue. The sale of charged items is a way to increase profits for game companies, and it gives game users an opportunity to enjoy games more efficiently. Therefore, charged items are subject of interest to game companies and users. However, despite the increasing interest of companies and users on purchasing charged items, there is a little research on the charged item purchase behavior from a user's perspective relatively. Therefore, this study focused on the effect of game user’s mindset on charged item purchase intention and the moderating role of competition. In addition, in order to identify the mechanism by which these effects occur, we investigated the mediating role of social presence on the charged item purchase intention. The results that the game users with growth mindset showed higher in charged item purchasing intention than users with fixed mindset. Also, the effect of competitiveness on charged item purchasing intention is moderated by mindset. Specifically, in case of users with strong competitiveness, the game users with grow mindset showed higher in charged item purchasing intention than users with fixed mindset. On the other hand, in case of user with weak competitiveness, there was no significant difference in charged item purchasing intention between users with grow mindset and fixed mindset. Also, we verified that the effect of fitness between user’s mindset and competitiveness on charged item purchasing intention is mediated by social presence. This research is meaningful that not only extends the scope of prior researches by empirically analyzing the MMORPG game users’psychology. but also provides a useful approach in understanding game users’charged item purchase motive and establishing promotion strategies to the company in the future.