In-game content purchase motivations (IGCPMs): Conceptualization, scale development, and validation

Despite the rapid growth of virtual content purchases in online games, understanding of how to measure gamers’ motivations to purchase such in-game content lags behind to date, exposing an important gap in the literature. Addressing this gap, we take a self-determination theory perspective to conceptualize in-game content purchase motivations (IGCPMs) as a player’s drive for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in online games that leads the individual to purchase in-game virtual content. Following established scale development procedures, we conceptualize, develop, and validate an eight-dimensional, 30-item IGCPM scale. As a formative higher-order construct, IGCPMs comprise three second-order factors (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness motivations), which are each composed of particular facets: (i) players’ autonomy motivation comprises creativity, choice, and uniqueness, (ii) their competence motivation includes dominance, achievement, and skillfulness, and (iii) their relatedness motivation comprises social interaction and social affiliation. The findings generate pertinent implications for gaming researchers (e.g., by applying the proposed scale) and developers, manufacturers, and marketers (e.g., by allowing them to deduce players’ key IGCPMs).