Syftet med den här studien var att förklara om det hur sambandet mellan olika typer av mikrotransaktioner i dataspel och konsumenters varumärkesbild ser ut. Studien utgick från frågeställningen: Hur ser sambandet mellan olika typer av mikrotransaktioner i dataspel och konsumenters varumärkesbild ut? Uppsatsens studie använde en kvantitativ metod som utgick från en deduktiv ansats. Datainsamling gjordes genom en enkät (n=118) med en Likertskala för att ta reda på sambandet mellan varumärkesbild och de olika mikrotransaktionerna. Slutsatserna som har dragits från resultatet av studien är att det finns ett starkt positivt samband mellan de olika typerna av mikrotransaktioner och varumärkesbild. / The purpose of this study was to explain if there is a relationship between different types of microtransactions in video games and consumers’ brand image. The research question of the study was: What does the relationship between different types of microtransactions in video games and consumers’ brand image look like? The study of this thesis used a quantitative research method and a deductive approach. Data collection was done through a survey (n=118), which used a Likert scale. This to see the relationship between brand image and the different types of microtransactions. The conclusions drawn from the results of the study are that there is a strong positive relationship between all the different types of microtransactions and brand image.

Throughout the last two years the revenues from in-game transactions in video-games have increased due to its growing presence both in traditional retail games as well as digital due to the fact that more and more games have become free. This growing presence is the basis for answering the question of what motivates players to spend money on in-game purchases in freeto-play games. The research found that having a well designed game is a very important factor that makes players purchase content. Many respondents made purchases based on emotional reasons such as wanting to look cool. People also made purchases to avoid grinding and to gain competitive advantages. In summary people think that their purchases were justifiable since the games are free but the common consensus is that while cosmetic items are acceptable, pay-towin items which provide a competitive advantage are not.

This bachelor’s thesis presents a study mainly focused on players’ motivations of purchasing cosmetics items in Path of Exile, a free-to-play, action role-playing game. A “Theory of Consumption” is used in this paper as the theoretical framework. This study is conducted by running nine interviews and one survey, where 33 sets of results are collected in total. It was found that there were two main motivations for purchasing cosmetic items in that game. The dominant one is “conditional” motivation which is to support the game or game company, while the second one is “emotional” motivation which is to bring certain feelings within the game experience. However, the study found that one non-cosmetic item in Path of Exile was also purchased very frequently when it comes to the microtransactions of this game, so a “functional” motivation will also be mentioned in this paper. This study could be helpful for game designers wanting to figure out a good monetization strategy which does not alienate, but welcome players, especially in free-to-play games. / Denna kandidatuppsats presenterar en studie huvudsakligen fokuserad på spelarnas motivationer till köp av kosmetiska objekt i Path of Exile, ett ‘free-to-play’ actionrollspel. En “Konsumtionsteori” används i denna uppsats som dess teoretiska grund. Denna studie genomfördes genom nio intervjuer och en enkät där totalt 33 olika svar samlades in. Undersökningen visade att det fanns två huvudsakliga skäl till köp av kosmetiska objekt i spelet. Det dominerande skälet visades vara “villkorligt baserad” där spelare vill visa support åt spelet eller spelföretaget, medan nästa skäl visades vara “känslomässigt baserad” där spelarnas känslor höjs genom köp som förgyller spelupplevnaden. Studien visade även att den enda icke kosmetiska varan i Path of Exile köptes mycket ofta i relation till andra mikrotransaktioner i spelet, så ett “funktionellt baserat” skäl kommer även presenteras i uppsatsen. Denna studie kan bli hjälpsam åt speldesigners som vill lista ut en god monetäriseringsstrategi som inte fjärmar, utan välkomnar spelare, särskilt inom ‘free-to-play’ spel.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate players’ attitudes towards microtransactions within online games. The thesis is based on a multi-method approach combining the following methods: focus group-interviews, interview questions posed to hosts of a podcast, for then to discuss in their episode, and a survey. The results of this study are a categorization of players’ attitudes towards microtransactions consisting of: Activist, Idealist, Agile, Pragmatist, Enthusiast and Compliant. By adopting de Certeau’s concept of strategies and tactics, I have elicited distinctive reactions and ways of meaning making towards microtransactions, associated with each proposed category. Apart from categorizing player attitudes, this study has also identified microtransactions to have brought the broader player base into the symbiosis that previously existed exclusively between fan-programmers, socialized players, and game companies. Meaning, feedback from the whole player-base is crucial for success in implementing microtransactions. In turn, this is perceived as a strategy that surrenders power from the producer to the user.

Background: In the last couple years, the free to play sector in gaming has taken a rise compared to their pay to play counterparts, being able to generate up to 85% of all gaming revenue. More and more game developers have opted to change their game from a paid model to a free-to-play business model, with prominent cases being games like CS:GO and Overwatch. It all started with cosmetics and skins, but companies started to develop new ways to get players into the cycle of spending money in free-to-play games. Purpose: For this reason, the purpose of this study focuses on exploring how the purchase of microtransactions in free-to-play games impacts the way players experience flow. Similarly, we also aim to learn what happens after the initial purchase and how, by using money in this way, players can enhance the quality of their overall play time. Method: We conduct a qualitative study examining how microtransactions impact flow through conducting a set of 21 interviews with players from different platforms and games, 4 individual think aloud protocols, and various relevant reddit posts. Conclusion: Our findings build upon past research, illustrating how there are contrasting effects regarding how microtransactions impact flow. The results challenge previous flow literature, incorporating the novel view that microtransactions and the social context can also help trigger and destroy flow.

Research on the effects of color associations in gambling situations has especially come to the forefront in recent times with the rise of casinos and other sales techniques in which consumers do not know the outcome of their purchases. Loot boxes are a unique form of micro-transactions in video games where players are uncertain about the objects they will receive with their monetary purchase. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of color and color placement in ads on loot box purchase intent. It will contribute to research about color perception in marketing and will, more specifically, establish a link between color associations in Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons and online video game environments in which gambling takes place. This research sets out to demonstrate that the color red, when placed in a foreground CTA button will achieve the highest purchase intent for a theoretical loot box in an online video game scenario. The study tests the placement of the color (foreground and background) and the color itself (red, blue, and gray).

I dagens spelindustri är det allt vanligare att spel innehåller affärsmodeller som innefattar mikrotransaktioner, det vill säga köp inom spelet. Framfarten av mikrotransaktioner har skapat många skilda åsikter. Denna studie är gjord för att skapa en inblick till hur spelare uppfattar och förhåller sig till fenomenet och dessutom fördjupa förståelsen av vad spelutvecklingsföretagen gör för att få sina spelare att genomföra köp inom sina spel. För att belysa problemet formades forskningsfrågan som följande: Hur förhåller sig spelare till mikrotransaktioner och på vilka sätt påverkar spelutvecklare spelare att genomföra köp genom mikrotransaktioner? Studien utfördes med en enkät som bestod av frågor utifrån en mixad metodansats. Frågornas karaktär formades med inslag av både kvantitativa och kvalitativa ansatser. 117 respondenter svarade på enkäten varpå enkätsvaren sedan analyserades och resultatet visar på att det finns både positiva och negativa åsikter om mikrotransaktioner och att det finns flera olika angreppssätt som spelutvecklarna använder sig av för att få sina spelare att genomföra köp. Utifrån tidigare forskning påvisar denna studie att synsättet på mikrotransaktioner förändrats positivt. Framför allt för att spelutvecklingsföretagen på senare tid fokuserat på att lyssna på sina spelare och genom det utvecklat mikrotransaktioner utifrån spelarnas behov men man måste också ta i beaktande att en positivare syn på mikrotransaktioner eventuellt kan leda till olika grader av beroende. Resultaten i denna studie kan påverka läsarens syn på fenomenet. Studien lyfter en ny syn på hur spelare förhåller sig till fenomenet som både motsäger och stärker tidigare forskning, vilket eventuellt kan gynna spelutvecklingsföretagen samt vidare forskning inom ämnet. / In today’s gaming industry it’s increasingly common to use business models that include microtransactions, in short in-game purchases. The recent rise of microtransactions has created many different opinions. This thesis was conducted to provide an insight of how the players perceive and relate to the phenomenon and further deepen the understanding of what game development companies do to get their players to make in-game purchases. To highlight the problem, the research question was formed as follows: How do players relate to microtransactions and how do game developers affect players to make purchases through microtransactions? The study was conducted with a questionnaire consisting of questions based on a mixed method. The nature of the questions was shaped with elements of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. 117 players responded on the questionnaire, which was analyzed and the result shows both positive and negative opinions about microtransactions and there were several different approaches that the game development companies use to convince their players to perform in-game purchases. Based on previous research, this study shows that the view on micro-transactions has changed to the positive. In particular, game development companies have recently focused on listening to their players leading to developed microtransactions based on player's needs but it need to be considered that a more positive view of microtransactions may potentially affect different degrees of addiction. The results in this study may affect the reader’s view of the phenomenon. The study highlights a new view of how players relate to the phenomenon that both contradicts and strengthens previous research, which may benefit game development companies as well as further research on the subject.

Cette thèse étudie le comportement des investisseurs des fonds mutuels ouverts et ses implications au risque de liquidité. Ces travaux de recherche ont pour objectif d’aider les gérants de fonds à éviter le scénario de "fund run" où ils perdent leurs clients de manière soudaine. La première étape de cette étude est de collecter une nouvelle base de données qui enregistre les "micro-transactions" des investisseurs. Cela nous permet d’analyser leurs comportements au niveau individuel et d’effectuer trois articles de recherche autours de ce sujet. Dans le premier article, nous développons un modèle de comptage auto-excitant qui capture des faits stylisés des séries des flux du fonds. De là, nous montrons un risque lié au passif du fonds qui est différent de celui lié à l’actif déjà documenté par la littérature précédente. Nous identifions également une contagion des chocs de liquidité entre les différents clients dans un même fonds. Dans le chapitre suivant, nous étudions les horizons d’investissement des clients individuels. Ces horizons sont fortement liés aux caractéristiques des investisseurs et aux conditions économiques. Nous montrons également que les gérants de fonds subissent un risque de sortie pré-maturée relatif au raccourcissement des horizons d’investissement de ses clients. Nous observons ensuite une hétérogénéité entre les investisseurs: ceux de long-terme comportent différemment que ceux de court-terme. Enfin, dans le dernier chapitre, nous nous intéressons aux activités de rééquilibre. Nous trouvons que de nombreux investisseurs détiennent un portefeuille contenant plusieurs fonds et le rééquilibrent afin de garder la même allocation d’actifs / This thesis studies the behaviour of investors in open-end mutual funds and its implications to the liquidity risk. We seek to help the fund managers to avoid the "fund run" scenarios where they loss their clients in a sudden way. We begin our research by collecting a unique data set which records the micro-transactions of fund investors. It allows us to monitor investors’ behaviour at the individual level and to accomplish three research articles around this topic. In the first article, we develop a self-exciting counting process to model the stylized facts of fund flows. Therefrom, we highlight a novel risk linked to the fund liability which is different than the asset-related risk documented by the previous literature. We also identify a liquidity contagion among different investors in a same fund. In the next chapter, we study the dispersion in the investing horizons of individual fund clients. These horizons are strongly determined by investors’ characteristics and economic conditions. We show that the fund managers suffer a pre-mature redemption risk, i.e. clients shorten their investing horizons and redeem pre-maturely. Especially, we observe a heterogeneity among investors: long-term ones bring a higher pre-mature redemption risk. In the last chapter, we are interested in the rebalance behaviour. We find that numerous investors hold a multi-funds portfolio and rebalance it to keep the target asset allocation.

Monetization is now a fundamental aspect of video game creation and currently, all developers are trying to utilize it in the various designs of their games. Contemplating the monetized aspect of video games, this research has seen a gap in the studies pertaining to monetization from the perspective of the consumers, who are also the gamers and the buyers of these monetization designs. This paper approaches monetization from the perspective of consumers to bridge that lacuna. It aims to gain insights into the consumer mind by initiating a conversation between previous theories and present discussions to arrive at a middle ground on monetization in AAA games between consumers and game designers. It achieves this by the use of an online survey and semi-structured interviews with core and casual consumers. Furthermore, this research is supported by a discourse analysis on YouTube by game critics and reviewers. The results of the study showed that monetization is beneficial to independent developers and mobile games, it is also beneficial in AAA games if it is left to the part of the game design that does not affect the quality of the game. For example, cosmetics and DLCs, as long as those DLCs are not gated game lore that consumers are forced to buy. The impact of monetization on AAA games is a fifty-fifty issue on the part of the consumer and developer. The financial impact consumers project to developers justifies the rationale for the continuity of monetization models regardless of the quality of the games design. In the future research is needed to better understand consumer perspectives on monetization, particularly among consumers who have grown up in different gaming eras. Additional studies with larger sample sizes should be conducted in order to make valid generalizations and capture the perspectives of teens. Future studies should also focus on games and game studios that have implemented micro-transactions successfully, considering game design quality, revenue, and customer satisfaction. / Intäktsgenerering är nu en grundläggande aspekt av att skapa videospel och för närvarande försöker alla utvecklare att använda det i de olika designerna av sina spel. Med tanke på den monetariserade aspekten av videospel har denna forskning sett en lucka i studierna som rör intäktsgenerering ur konsumenternas perspektiv, som också är spelarna och köparna av dessa intäktsgenereringsdesigner. Detta dokument närmar sig monetarisering ur konsumenternas perspektiv för att överbrygga denna lucka. Det syftar till att få insikter i konsumentsinnet genom att initiera en konversation mellan tidigare teorier och aktuella diskussioner för att komma fram till en medelväg om intäktsgenerering i AAA-spel mellan konsumenter och speldesigners. Den uppnår detta genom att använda en onlineenkät och semistrukturerade intervjuer med centrala och tillfälliga konsumenter. Dessutom stöds denna forskning av en diskursanalys på YouTube av spelkritiker och recensenter. Resultaten av studien visade att intäktsgenerering är fördelaktigt för oberoende utvecklare och mobilspel, det är också fördelaktigt i AAA-spel om det överlåts till den del av speldesignen som inte påverkar kvaliteten på spelet. Till exempel kosmetika och DLC:er, så länge dessa DLC:er inte är gated game lore som konsumenter tvingas köpa. Effekten av intäktsgenerering på AAA-spel är en femtio-femtio-fråga från konsumentens och utvecklarens sida. Den ekonomiska påverkan som konsumenter projicerar till utvecklare motiverar skälen till kontinuiteten i modeller för intäktsgenerering oavsett kvaliteten på speldesignen. I framtiden behövs forskning för att bättre förstå konsumenternas perspektiv på monetarisering, särskilt bland konsumenter som har vuxit upp i olika spelepoker. Ytterligare studier med större urvalsstorlekar bör genomföras för att göra giltiga generaliseringar och fånga tonåringars perspektiv. Framtida studier bör också fokusera på spel och spelstudior som har genomfört mikrotransaktioner framgångsrikt, med tanke på speldesignkvalitet, intäkter och kundnöjdhet

Microtransactions are part of a business model used almost extensively in the video-gaming industry where developers offer virtual goods or features via micropayments. The concept is relatively new and still unknown to many but deeply rooted in modern video-game developers’ business strategies. Microtransactions are found in smartphone applications, online games played on computer or gaming consoles, and while the concept might be unfamiliar to many, the odds are most have encountered it.   Most published games will feature in-game purchases where users have to option to purchase features, items or content for a small amount of money. A microtransaction in its most simplistic form is ad-removal, here developers offer the user a way to get rid of ads by charging a small amount, like $.99. While one microtransaction may seem insignificant, multiple impulsive purchases can quickly add up to considerable sums. This has resulted in the use of microtransactions becoming the most profitable business strategy for game developers.   This study seeks to describe what stimulates a person to complete a purchase by using the components of hedonic motivation from the HMSAM theory leading to the research question: Which hedonic motivations induce use of microtransaction systems and does it vary by age? To research the phenomena a quantitative questionnaire was formed based on hedonic motivations, including three motivations added by the author, gathering responses from 398 video-game players having completed a microtransaction purchase.   After analyzing the results, some components protruded more than others while the consensus suggested that the influence of hedonic motivation was comparatively low. The argument for this outcome may be that players see in-game items as objects of real-world value, making the microtransaction system within a game a utilitarian-motivation system. The general attitude towards microtransactions appeared to be poor which contradicts some elements of previous research while supporting others.   This thesis will contribute to the field of informatics by complementing the traditional technology acceptance model (TAM) with hedonic motivations, as proposed by Lowry et al. in 2013. The author of this study argue it is a modernized way of researching intentions to use asort of system.