Continuance intention to play games: the interaction of basic psychological needs, I-type and D-type epistemic curiosities

The duration of game playing varies from gamer to gamer. We explain the individual difference for keeping a game in psychological terms. With three basic psychological needs as competence, autonomy, and relatedness and the epistemic curiosity as interest (I)-type, and deprivation (D)-type, we propose a research model that the three needs are satisfied by the distinct game features and influence the continuing intention; and that two heterogeneous curiosities and age are explained by moderating the need-intention relationships. Survey data was collected from 500 smartphone users in South Korea and analysed with the multiple linear regression method. Resultingly, competence, autonomy, and I-type epistemic curiosity affected positively and D-type curiosity negatively on the intention. By the result of the dual moderator as I-type curiosity and the gamers’ age, we conclude that the game retaining is various by the gamers’ I-type epistemic curiosity and their age. Our research model is applicable to the gamer retention strategy for developers. © 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.