Buying the Unreal: Drivers of Virtual Item Purchase in Video Games

In the past couple of years, video games have become one of the biggest platforms for the consumption of virtual goods. In addition to the advancement of video game markets, virtual items in gaming industries have grown significantly. There is a substantial amount of money going into the purchase of virtual items. However, most of it is spent on aesthetic virtual goods. They give a better look to the game characters, but they do not grant any direct advantages to the character owners in gameplay. Why do people buy these items? Do they want to attract more attention from other players? Hence, an investigation was conducted to address these questions. A systematic literature review was performed to identify factors that influence individuals to purchase virtual goods in video games. The analysis of selected references was mapped into two models. The first one is the stimulus-organism-response model to explain the purchase behavior. The second one is the attention, interest, desire, and action model to reflect the monetization behind the purchase. The findings improve the understanding of the driving factors to purchase a virtual item. It gives a potential contribution to the gaming industry as well as to regulators.