Merikivi, J., Tuunainen, V.,

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|(Merikivi, J., Tuunainen, V., & Nguyen, D. (2017). What makes continued mobile gaming enjoyable? Computers in Human Behavior, 68(Complete), 411-421.

This article looks into what is that’s enjoyable about playing a mobile game, previous research suggests two theories the first being that, the video game either provides, arousal, challenge competition, diversion, fantasy, and social interaction. This is based on the uses and gratifications theory. From these perspectives, enjoyment is a response as well as motive, which thrives when these needs or motives are nurtured. The other theory is based on three game design specific attributes: challenge, fantasy, and curiosity. The two research questions of this article are what factors influence enjoyment in mobile gaming? And; to what extent enjoyment predicts continued use intention?For determining this question of why do people play mobile games, six constructs were selected four (challenge, variety, novelty, and design aesthetics) belong to game design category and two (perceived ease of use and interactivity) belong to the playability category.The biggest factors in mobile games success were the perceived ease of use, the interactivity the user spent in the game this is the game starting and stopping quickly, and being responsive to the user. From their survey, they determined additional reasons people play mobile games include, pastime, challenge and social. Examples of this include killing time when you are bored, like on a bus or a passenger for a car ride, the game is challenging to an extent but still doable such as beating a friend's high score, and you can play with your friends is a social aspect.

Two aspects that heavily impacted player enjoyment in mobile games were artifact-related attributes being game design and playability the game had to be easy to use, offered a novelty had a pleasing design aesthetic and the challenges drove enjoyment. If too much time was spent on loading screens or if they game interface changed drastically then it would deter users. This study has some practical impact in a mobile gaming industry and digital platform that at the time had plateaued at about $26 billion dollars where few games thrive and most are played once then deleted these conclusions could help game designers influence future products. This article was concise and to the point about what it is that satisfies mobile game players and acknowledged well what it is that could be done for future research such as studying the habits of players of a continuous period of time and not just a snapshot of play while also noting their limitations that such as the sampling method being that of convenience. Very clear understanding of why people choose to use mobile games and would help greatly in any paper looking at the social relationships of people and to the enjoyment had by their mobile devices and media.

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