Factors Associated with Intention of Sustainable Use in Players of the Wii Fit or Smartphone-Based Fitness Applications

Abstract

The Wii Fit (Nintendo, Kyoto, Japan) is the most commonly used exergame platform for balance training. We explored diverse factors associated intention of sustainable use of either the Wii Fit or smartphone-based fitness applications. Then, we analyzed differences in such factors between users of the Wii Fit and those of smartphone-based fitness applications. We selected followers of the Instagram, Facebook and Twitter of the Wii Fit or smartphone-based fitness applications as the subjects for the current questionnaire survey that was performed between September and November 2020. For the current study, we used four concepts: presence, enjoyment, flow and intention of sustainable use. Then, we proposed the following five hypotheses: “Presence might have a significant positive effect on flow,” “Presence might have a significant positive effect on enjoyment,” “Enjoyment might have a significant positive effect on flow,” “Enjoyment might have a significant positive effect on intention of sustainable use” and “Flow might have a significant positive effect on intention of sustainable use.” The current questionnaire study includes a total of 301 subjects, who comprise 188 men (62.5%) and 113 women (37.5%). Moreover, the subjects are composed of 167 (55.5%) users of the Wii Fit and 134 users (44.5%) of smartphone-based fitness applications. We found that all the five hypotheses were accepted for users of the Wii Fit. We also found, however, that the following three hypotheses were accepted for users of smartphone-based fitness applications: “Presence might have a significant positive effect on flow.,” “Presence might have a significant positive effect on enjoyment.” and “Enjoyment might have a significant positive effect on intention of sustainable use.” Based on our results, it can be concluded not only that flow has a significant effect in mediating between presence, or enjoyment, and intention of sustainable use in users of the Wii Fit. Our results also indicate, however, that enjoyment has a significant effect in mediating between presence and intention of sustainable use in users of smartphone-based fitness applications.