Exploring player cocreation dynamics on the gaming platform: Interplay of goal fulfillments, orchestration actions, and platform affordances

Hung, Hsiu-Yu; Kumar, Ajay; Kumar, V.; Lin, Chih-Cheng; Tan, Kim Hua

Abstract

Understanding player co-creation dynamics on gaming platforms is crucial for fostering engagement and driving innovation in digital marketing. This study investigates these dynamics on the Roblox platform, proposing an integrated framework that connects platform capabilities with player-driven orchestration actions and the pursuit of diverse goals − a model applicable to various digital marketing contexts. We identify three types of gaming platform affordances and three types of developers’ orchestration actions, ultimately shaping co-creation activities in terms of creative and social engagement. Using web crawling and text mining methodologies, we analyze a large, longitudinal dataset from Roblox developers engaged in co-creation projects. We employ three observable metrics to quantify co-creation activities, applying different perspectives including equality-based, effort-based weighted, and specialized measures of creative and social engagement. Our findings confirm the direct effects of platform affordances and orchestration actions on co-creation activities, with post-hoc analyses revealing goal fulfillment as an important antecedent mechanism. To validate our results, we conducted a two-stage survey with 206 experienced Roblox developers, providing additional robustness to our empirical findings. This research advances our understanding of digital co-creation and offers practical implications for designing more engaging and innovative gaming platforms. As gaming and digital marketing converge, particularly in the evolving metaverse landscape, this study underscores the importance of leveraging co-creation dynamics to enhance user engagement and drive platform growth.

Citation

Hung, H.-Y., Kumar, A., Kumar, V., Lin, C.-C., & Tan, K. H. (2024). Exploring player cocreation dynamics on the gaming platform: Interplay of goal fulfillments, orchestration actions, and platform affordances. International Journal of Research in Marketing, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.12.003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 19, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Dec 31, 2024
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2024
• Deposit Date: Mar 10, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 1, 2026
• Print ISSN: 0167-8116
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-8001
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2024.12.003
• Keywords: game developers; Roblox; creation; co-creation; platform affordances; goal fulfillment 2
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/46460183
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167811624001137?via%3Dihub