The Effect of Self-Control on Impulsive Buying of In-Game Virtual Goods on Players of Mobile Legends Bang-Bang Game Maya Mardi Yanti, Aftina Nurul Husna, Laili Qomariyah
Universitas Muhammadiyah Magelang
Abstract
Playing online games is means of entertainment for young people today. One of the most popular games in Indonesia is Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which not only offers mobile multiplayer online battle games, but also sells virtual goods, such as heroes, skins, and virtual money (diamonds). There is a tendency for some young people to buy virtual goods impulsively so that purchases become unreasonable and cause regret. One of the factors that influence impulsive buying is self-control. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of self-control on impulsive buying of in-game virtual goods by Mobile Legends players. The sample of this research was 200 players aged 16-32 years who were obtained by purposive sampling. Respondents were accessed via social media and player community groups. Data were collected using self-control scale and in-game virtual goods impulsive buying scale, then analyzed using Simple Linear Regression Analysis. The results showed that self-control is statistically significant influencing the impulsive buying of in-game virtual goods (R = -.271, R2 = .073, F (1,198) = 15.668, p<0.05). The better the player^s self-control, the less likely he is to make impulsive purchases of in-game virtual goods. However, the effective contribution of the independent variable to the dependent variable is relatively small, only 7.3%. It was discussed that 92.7% of impulsive buying is probably influenced by other factors, such as age, gender, mood influences, and materialism. These findings suggest that game players do not make impulsive purchases by controlling themselves. They also need to consider finances and needs more when making a decision to buy something.
Keywords: self-control,impulsive buying, in-game virtual goods, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, online gaming, virtual consumerism
