Modding video game brand authenticity

Various aspects of video game marketing and branding remain underexplored. For example, how players perceive the authenticity of a video game and how these perceptions might be influenced by player engagement behaviours. Brand authenticity involves a brand being seen to be dedicated to ideals, having a core set of values (Johnson et al. 2015), and is built-up in consumers’ minds by stable, consistent brand behaviour (Moulard et al. 2015). As a result, brand authenticity is desirable for brands to cultivate and to understand the relationship between their consumers and their brands (Lude and Prügl, 2018; Preece, 2015). Video game players are known for their many and varied engagement activities that are often hosted and disseminated through active online communities and networks (Kim, 2014). A common form of engagement for video game players is the creation of mods, and these are often encouraged by developers because they derive economic, social, and technical benefits from them (Curtis et al. 2022; Kim, 2014; Sotamaa, 2010). However, how modding might impact upon consumer perceptions of a video game brand’s authenticity remains unexplored. The results of this research suggest that perceptions of video game brand authenticity can be restored or altered by player modding engagement activities. However, this raises questions about whether players would always be happy to undertake such time consuming activities (Poor, 2014) as creating the AHEM mod to alter or restore a video game brand’s authenticity. Further research could be conducted exploring when and why players would be willing to undertake modding and engagement activities to restore or alter video game brand authenticity.