Exploring the Key Factors Influencing the Continuance Use of Serious Games of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)

Serious games have been widely used in the protection of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). However, there is still a lack of understanding of the key factors affecting the continuance use of serious games for ICH and their mechanisms. Therefore, this study extends the S-O-R model to examine the effects of utilitarian characteristics and enjoyment characteristics of serious games on users’ continuance use intention. This study takes the ICH-themed game “Nishan Shaman” as the research object, inviting 430 participants to play the game and collecting data. The results showed that authenticity of cultural elements, information richness, aesthetics and interactivity have significantly positive impact on perceived usefulness and enjoyment respectively. Both perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment positively predict continuance use intention, and the influence of perceived enjoyment is stronger. In addition, cultural identity plays a positive moderating role between authenticity and perceived enjoyment, and between perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness. The research results provide empirical evidence for optimizing the design, development and promotion of serious games for ICH.