Exploring Determinants of Users Adopting Blockchain-Based Real-World Asset Farm Games: From Cognition via Affections to Conation

Abstract

Real-World Asset Farm (RWAF) games are an emerging class of blockchain-based applications that tokenize real-world agricultural assets — including land, crops, livestock, and produce — as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), enabling players to engage in both virtual gameplay and tangible financial investment. Despite their growing commercial and academic prominence, the psychological mechanisms underlying individual adoption of RWAF games remain poorly understood. This study develops and empirically tests an integrated adoption model that bridges the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), the Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), and a revised Awareness–Interest–Desire–Action (AIDA) framework, reconceptualized as a three-stage cognition–affection–conation process. The model captures users' financial investment perceptions (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and perceived risks) and gamification perceptions (hedonic, utilitarian, and content gratification) as dual affective pathways that mediate the relationship between technology awareness and behavioral intention. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was applied to survey data collected from 362 respondents in China. Results indicate that awareness is the most influential determinant of adoption intention, operating both directly and indirectly through all affective mediators except social influence. Among the affective constructs, facilitating conditions, content gratification, and utilitarian gratification exert the strongest effects on behavioral intention. Importantly, financial investment perceptions produce stronger mediating effects than gamification perceptions, suggesting that instrumental motivations dominate the adoption calculus for this dual-purpose technology. These findings advance theoretical understanding of adoption processes in technologies that integrate financial and entertainment functionalities and offer actionable guidance for RWAF game developers, marketers, and policymakers seeking to expand user engagement in blockchain-based gaming ecosystems.