Play as co‐created narrative in computer game consumption: The hero's journey in Warcraft III

Although the current trend is for marketers to focus on consumer happiness, in this research, we suggest that meaningful (vs. happy) stories can elicit more positive brand attitudes. Across two studies, we show that some consumer segments hold a more positive attitude toward the brand when the stories shared by the brand are meaningful, rather than happy--that is, when they are characterized by a sense of purpose and a mixed affective component. Particularly, this effect holds for individuals with a growth mindset. These consumers believe in the changeability of the world and, therefore, are more adept at accepting negative emotions in positive pursuits entailed in meaningful, but not happy, stories.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meaningful stories and attitudes toward the brand: The moderating role of consumers' implicit mindsets

Carnevale

Yucel-Aybat

Kachersky

2017

“…Viewed in this way, sustained consumption of media and video games might be a consequence of deficiencies in the self‐regulation process, which in turn leads to habit formation (LaRose, Lin, & Eastin, ; Lee & LaRose, ). The importance of optimal interaction between the player, narrative, and gameplay elements in motivating consumption has also been highlighted by several authors, notably including Buchanan‐Oliver and Seo () and Kuo, Hiler, and Lutz ().…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

A duration model analysis of consumer preferences and determinants of video game consumption

Kaimann¹,

Stroh-Maraun²,

Cox

2018

Despite the enormous revenues generated by the video game industry in recent years, relatively little research has been undertaken into consumer preferences and the determinants of video game consumption. This study addresses this deficiency through the analysis of data from a popular online video game that includes historic behavioural information for 1,408 consumers participating in 728,811 unique rounds of gameplay. We analyse these data with the goal of estimating determinants of the aggregate amount of time that a consumer spends playing the game. Through the estimation of duration models, we show that less experienced consumers are less likely to continue playing the game at any given point, possibly due to having achieved mastery and becoming bored. However, we also find that consumers tend to play the game for longer periods when using a wider range of character roles and vehicles, implying that a consumer's interest can be maintained through exposure to greater variety. Our results represent the first such evidence on in‐game consumer preferences, which has important implications for video game consumption through optimisation of gameplay experiences to satisfy these preferences.

“…For example, having just finished on this floor, I saw that the cemeteries were moved inside [the cities], with laws of Leon the Wise or Theodosios earlier (Male,58) Pieces of information, such as the movement of cemeteries, are used by visitors to fill existing gaps and to move the master Byzantine narrative toward completion. Engagement of consumers with "textual gaps" has been also identified by Buchanan-Oliver and Seo (2012) in their analysis of co-creation in computer games. Kozinets et al (2002) refer to "ellipticality," as the property of narrative structures that "leaves out particular elements, omitting details in the service of providing the retail customer with the experience of "aporia" or gaps in meaning that call out to the reader or audience to fill them" (p. 23).…”

Section: Completingmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…By extension, the meaning of narratives and their significance is founded on the "intersection of the world of the text and the world of the reader" (Ricoeur, 1991: 26). In their association with narratives, therefore, consumers not only think narratively (Woodside et al, 2008), but they are active story-builders who select and integrate available sources (Chronis, 2012), act as co-authors influencing the development of characters and plot (Buchanan-Oliver and Seo, 2012), and refigure commercial master narratives by bringing their own interpretations and biases (Chronis et al, 2012).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Substantiating Byzantium: The role of artifacts in the co‐construction of narratives

Chronis

2015

Acknowledging the abundance of narrative elements in servicescapes and anchored on the premise that consumption experiences are coconstructed, this research extends existing servicescapes scholarship by theorizing the role of material objects in the co-construction of narratives at storyscapes, that is, those servicescapes where narratives are at the center stage of the consumption experience. Using a museum exhibition of Byzantine heritage in Thessaloniki, Greece, the findings provide insight on the way in which consumers engage and "read" material artifacts in narrative co-construction. The emergent framework theorizes consumer participation as narrative substantiation and sheds light on its four constitutive narrative-construction processes (completing, relating, recontextualizing, and imagining) and on the ways in which consumers anchor these processes on artifact's materiality (artifactual knowledge, practicalness, intermateriality, and realness). Furthermore, this research offers an alternative approach to the existing language analogy according to which objects have their own voice and rhetoric. I see objects, instead, as contributing an evocative engagement according to which consumers unpack objects not only in their reference to the servicescape narrative but also in reference to their own personal and collective lives.