Social network games : the link between enjoyment and popularity

• Main Authors: Chua, Alton Yeow Kuan, Banerjee, Snehasish, Lee, Chu Keong
• Other Authors: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Social sciences::Communication; Social Network Games; Enjoyment
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/145205
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Despite the rapid proliferation of SNGs, the various factors of enjoyment and their influence on SNGs’ popularity attract little research attention. Hence, the objective of this paper is two-fold. First, it attempts to formulate a theoretical framework that specifies the factors affecting enjoyment in SNGs. Second, it seeks to investigate the degree to which different enjoyment factors in the theoretical framework affect SNGs’ popularity. On the basis of the literature, five enjoyment factors in SNGs, namely, emotion, control, immersion, social interaction and usability have been identified. The dataset comprised 100 randomly selected SNGs from a recommended list in Facebook. Enjoyment factors for each SNG were evaluated by a team of three coders while the popularity of each SNG was measured in terms of the number of Monthly Active Users reported in Facebook as of April 2012. The results from the regression analysis indicate that the five enjoyment factors collectively account for 54.80 % of variability in the popularity of SNGs. Furthermore, emotion, control and social interaction were significant antecedents of popularity. The paper concludes with a few limitations and offers some directions for future research.