A Personal Values-Based Approach to Understanding Users’ Co-Creative and Co-Destructive Gaming Experiences in Augmented Reality Mobile Games

Abstract

Background: Understanding how users evaluate their experiences has been recognized as being fundamental to designing services that meet the users’ needs and support the emergence of positive rather than negative value outcomes in service use. Still, the current literature does not explicitly describe how the users’ value determination unfolds or how the levels of experienced value could be measured to support service design. We address this gap in the context of augmented reality (AR) mobile games by scrutinizing users’ personal values as a potential basis for achieving such an understanding. Method: Through a qualitative content analysis of 43 in-depth laddering interviews with active Pokémon Go gamers in Finland, we uncover the focal personal values associated with the game. Furthermore, we determine the connection of these values to the users’ co-creative and co-destructive gaming experiences. Results: Our study defines eight personal values highlighted in Pokémon Go. The focal co-created values include pleasure, a sense of belonging, ambition, activity, and a healthy life. The most co-destroyed values in the game include social recognition and responsibility. Interestingly, the value of sociality is highlighted in both the co-creative and the co-destructive gaming experiences. While the findings may not be generalizable beyond the studied AR mobile game context, this study explains how users’ personal values may serve as a basis for understanding the value structures of other digital service users to support service design. Conclusion: Our study contributes to the literature by introducing personal values as a potential basis for understanding users’ value-based drivers and service experiences to support the design of digital services. We theoretically conceptualize the users’ dynamic value creation process based on personal values and, using empirical findings, offer novel insights into the value co-creation and co-destruction phenomena in AR mobile games.