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Are Online Mobile Gamers Really Happy? On the Suppressor Role of Online Game Addiction

  • Jun Jie Hew
  • , Voon Hsien Lee
  • , Soo Ting T’ng
  • , Garry Wei Han Tan
  • , Keng Boon Ooi*
  • , Yogesh K. Dwivedi
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

Drawing upon the Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory and Flow Theory, this study aims to investigate the effects of environmental stimuli that are unique to the mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) environment (i.e., immediacy, social interaction, and competition) in inducing the state of flow, which is expected to be the basis of online game addiction and subjective happiness among the online mobile gamers. Besides, this study explores the uncharted role of addiction in suppressing the effect of flow on happiness through the theoretical lens of Rational Addiction Theory. The results indicate that all environmental stimuli are directly and positively related to the state of flow, which relates directly and positively to online game addiction and subjective happiness. Online game addiction is found to have a direct and negative association with subjective happiness, on top of its suppressor role that negatively mediates the relationship between flow and subjective happiness.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)217-249
Number of pages33
JournalInformation Systems Frontiers
Volume26
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2024
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

  • Competitive mediation
  • Flow Theory
  • Hedonic information systems
  • Mobile commerce
  • Mobile gaming
  • Online game addiction
  • Rational Addiction Theory
  • Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • Information Systems
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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