Motivational and Affordance-Based Drivers of Continued Engagement in Virtual Worlds: A Human–Computer Interaction Perspective

This study integrates uses and gratifications (U & G) theory and affordance theory to model how user motivations and perceived affordances influence continuance intention in virtual worlds. Using survey data from 500 metaverse users, the analysis was conducted with the PROCESS macro (Model 80) and 5,000 bootstrap samples for mediation analysis. The findings reveal that both personal and social motivations positively predict cognitive, sensory, and relational affordances. Perceived value is significantly enhanced by personal motivation, sensory affordance, and relational affordance. Continuance intention is positively influenced by cognitive affordance, relational affordance, and perceived value, whereas sensory affordance has no direct effect. Mediation results highlight relational affordance and perceived value as the strongest mediators, with cognitive affordance playing a smaller role. The direct effect of social motivation on continuance intention was not significant. These results emphasize the crucial role of relational and cognitive affordance alongside perceived value in sustaining long-term engagement in virtual worlds.