Replaying online games for flow experience and outcome expectations: An exploratory study for the moderating role of external locus of control based on Turkish gamers' evaluations

Abstract

Online game playing represents a prominent consumption pattern of the digital world. The online games market is therefore a major topic of concern for behavioral research to understand and explain the consumer responses. One vital consumer response that should be examined in this regard is the replay intention in online games. Therefore, this study holds the topic from a holistic perspective by not only focusing on one single online games category and aims to explain replay intention through the flow experiences and outcome expectations and explore the existence and role of locus of control in this framework. 507 people from Turkey were surveyed in this study, and gathered data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The main findings were: 'challenge' and 'interactivity' as representatives of flow experience in the games do have positive effects on replay intention, the utilitarian and hedonic outcome expectations of gamers are positively related to their replay intentions, and external locus of control moderates all these relationships. As a result, various implications and suggestions are offered for the gaming research and the gaming sector.