Motives to Play a Mobile Location-Based Augmented-Reality Game of Non-Adopters: The Case of Pokémon Go

The fast development of technologies such as Location-Based Service (LBS) and Augmented-Reality (AR) change the mobile game industry. Pokemon Go is a well-known location-based AR game. Few previous studies have studied the Pokemon Go’s acceptance, but not with the non-adopters. The purpose of this paper is thus to apply the established theory, Technology Acceptance Theory (TAM), together with other potential determinants both the supporting and barrier factors to examine the intention to play the game of non-adopters. This work develops a research model including 6 factors: perceived enjoyment, subjective norms, privacy concerns, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness, and intention to play Pokemon Go and 12 hypotheses. Data were collected from 215 samples who were full-time students or full-time employees. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were applied to test the measurement model and proposed research model. Intention to play of non-players is directly enhanced by perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and subjective norms. Privacy concerns indirectly influence intention to play via perceived usefulness. Subjective norms affect perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and perceived usefulness respectively. Enjoyment and subjective norms also have indirect impacts on playing intention. The findings provide the guidelines to design for location-based AR game developers and the suggestions for the game providers. This study is one of few studies applying the TAM to location-based AR games and non-adopters. This work also incorporates meaningful factors that could explain the substantial changes in non-adopters’ motives to play. Findings yield the contrary results in the context of Pokemon Go in Thailand, contributing to the literature of location-based AR games