Research on the Impact of Purchase Intention of Non-Functional Virtual Goods in Online Games Based on Cultural Identity: A Case Study of “League of Legends”

Abstract

Under the industrial background of the global in-game purchase market exceeding 120 billion US dollars, the cultural and psychological driving mechanism of non-functional virtual goods (NFVGs) has become a key research topic. This study takes “League of Legends” as the empirical field, integrates the theory of social identity and the theory of symbolic consumption, and through a questionnaire survey of 621 active players, reveals the core path by which cultural identity influences the consumption of NFVGs through the mediation of value perception. The research finds that belonging identification and self-esteem identification constitute a dual driving force. Both trigger consumption behavior through a complete mediating mechanism of value perception - among which belonging identification mainly activates social values, manifested as players strengthening group belonging through the exclusive skin of the city-state. Self-esteem and identity dominate the transformation of emotional values and drive personality expression behaviors such as limited skin collection. The influence of functional value has been significantly weakened, confirming the non-instrumental nature of NFVGs. In-depth interviews further deconstruct the differentiated effects of cultural symbols: Real cultural symbols (such as the “Blue and White Porcelain” skin) increase the sense of belonging and willingness to pay of Eastern players by 32%, while fictional cultural symbols (such as the “Demasia” theme) rely on the immersion of the world view (the conversion rate of highly engaged players is greater than 41%). These findings have overturned the “pragmatism” paradigm of game consumption and established the core logic of “cultural identity → internalization of value → symbolic consumption”. Propose transformative inspirations for industrial practice: For community-type players, cultural circle markers (such as camp badges) need to be developed; for individual-type players, emotional narrative carriers (such as hero legendary skins) should be created, and the investment in functional attributes should be systematically weakened. The study simultaneously exposed sample bias and the absence of cultural regulation mechanisms. And suggested that the localization design strategy be deepened through cross-cultural comparative experiments in the future.