Why Free Online-Game Players Purchase Virtual Items
| Autor: | Chu-Yu Liu, 劉楚瑜 |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2009 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 97 In the era of economic downturn, online games instead create more business opportunities for the game company. The boost of stay-at-home economy makes more free online games appear like mushrooms. Therefore, how to attract players to join the games and to spend money on purchasing virtual items have become the company''s marketing purposes. The study combines three main parts: Guo & Barnes (2007) proposed the factors of players’ motivations and purposes to purchase virtual items which are revised to seven factors: “Game Content and Quality” “Critical Mass” “Social Influence” “Game Community” “Perceived Enjoyment” “Character Competence” “Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy” ; Abercrombie & Longhurst (1998) proposed " Spectacle/ Performance Paradigm " on “Imagination” “Narcissism” “Performance”, and Sheth, et al., (1991) proposed five components of consumer values on “Functional Value” “Conditional Value” “Social Value” “Emotional Value” “Epistemic Value.” By using the method of depth interview, we talk to different types of players and try to find out if there are differences between them on purchasing virtual items. According to the study, each interviewee has the same consistency of view of purchase factors on “Game Content and Quality” “Character Competence” “Perceived Enjoyment,” which is also related to the second question of the research: the factors of the purchase and Spectacle/ Performance Paradigm are closely related. Through the game items provided for the characters, the players are able to show to themselves or to other players by performance, and further more to fulfill their perceived enjoyment. So these kinds of virtual items have “Functional Value” “Social Value” and “Emotional Value”; in the different views, the factors of the purchase will influence the perception of virtual items because of the different personal background. For example, the female interviewee G, H have the same opinion except on “Game Community.” The main reason is they have different purposes on spending money. The female interviewee G mentions that she focuses on friends, classmates, and colleagues in reality. Therefore she agrees with purchase factors of the game community; the female interviewee H, who is a housewife, mentions that she plays online games and spends money on them just because she has nothing to do at home, so she thinks the game community doesn’t affect her. On field of the types of virtual items and purchase factors, we find “Game Content and Quality” “Character Competence” “Perceived Enjoyment” will influence all the purchase factors, which is also in agreement on the second research question mentioned: the relevance of purchase factors and Spectacle/ Performance Paradigm. In addition, on the relevance of virtual items types and values, we find lucky envelopes mainly consist of “Functional” “Social” “Epistemic” values; weapons and instruments mainly consist of “Functional” and “Social” values; costumes and pets mainly consist of “Functional” “Emotional” “Epistemic” values; while consumables consist of “Functional” value. Meanwhile the study also concludes that virtual items have other three values such as the different values between virtual world and reality, the values of money exchange, and values of different points of views between males and females. Moreover, the study concludes the factors of players’ entering games and purchasing virtual items are varied. For example, critical mass is the key factor when players begin to play the game; but the interviewees don’t think that is the main factor when buying virtual items. To sum up, when players begin to play games and purchase virtual items, they have different motivations and purposes. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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