Online games are becoming one of the most profitable online entertainment businesses. Nevertheless, online game players may have diverse motivations for playing online games, which in turn influence their behaviors and preferences in playing online games. Through factor analysis for dimensionality reduction, this study identifies two underlying motivational factors: (1) the need for exploration, and (2) the need for aggression. From these two factors, this study clusters online gamers into three segments: (1) the aggressive gamers, (2) the social gamers, and (3) the inactive gamers. The aggressive gamers score highest on both factors. The social gamers score high on the first factor, but score lowest on the second factor. The inactive gamers score lowest on the first factor, and score in the middle on the second factor. Significant differences exist in consumer behaviors across different segments of online gamers. Theoretical supports for the two motivational factors are discussed, and managerial implications for online game service firms are provided.
With the advancement of multimedia technologies and the wide access of broadband Internet, online games are becoming one important online entertainment business (Koo, 2009, Nojima, 2007 and Williams et al., 2008). Actually, the worldwide market size of online games reached US$ 8.6 billion in 2007, and it is predicted that, in the future 4–5 years, the global market of online games will keep on a double-digit growth and it will hit US$19.1 billion by 2011 (Zhao, 2008). At the same time, online game service firms have developed two major revenue models (Lin and Sun, 2007 and Nojima, 2007): (1) subscription fees: gamers have to pay (monthly) subscription fees to the game service provider for playing online games, and (2) the sale of virtual items: gamers do not have to pay subscription fees. The revenue mainly comes from the selling of virtual assets or equipments to gamers.
As more and more people play online games, their motivations for playing online games are becoming more diverse. Being able to articulate these motives provides the foundation to investigate how different segments of online gamers are motivated differently, and how these motivations are correlated with usage pattern in playing online games.
Although previous research has extensively studied online gamers’ motivations and proposed various frameworks for the motivations for playing online games (e.g., Chou and Ting, 2003, Hsu and Lu, 2007, Wan and Chiou, 2006, Yee, 2006a and Yee, 2006b), the focus was on individual levels rather than on market segments. To fill in this void of knowledge, this study groups online gamers based on their motivations with an aim to investigate the differences among different motivational segments in usage patterns and responses to marketing offerings in online games. Thus, the research results will become more actionable for online game service providers to take different strategies for different market segments.
This study examined online gamers’ motives for playing online games and discovered two factors underlying these motives. The first factor is the need for exploration, and the second factor is the need for conquering. Based on these two factors, online gamers can be categorized as aggressive gamers, social gamers, and inactive gamers. These three groups of gamers showed significant differences in their behavioral characteristics in online games such as the money spent on games or willingness to purchase or bid for virtual assets. Online game service providers should develop different marketing strategies for different segments of online gamers. This study thus enriches research works on the motivations for playing online games by segmenting online gamers based on the motivational factors to investigate how various segments of online gamers differ in their usage patterns in online games.
This study mainly relies on online surveys to segment online gamers and investigate their usage patterns. Future research can use the databases of online game service providers for mining more patterns or rules concerning the features of online gamers’ activities in online games.
