1. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng1 Online Gamers' Consumer Behaviors: A Motivational Perspective Fan-Chen Tseng, Department of Multimedia and M-Commerce, Kainan University tfckn01@mail.knu.edu.tw

2. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng2 Outline Introduction Online Gamers’ Motives for Playing Online Games Factors underlying the motives for playing online games Theoretical implications Segmenting online gamers based on their motives Motives and Behavioral Responses to Marketing Offers Managerial Implications Conclusion and Future Research Directions

3. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng3 Introduction (1) Online games are prospering: stable growth rate in Taiwan since 2006, expected to continue Many types of online games have evolved Online gamers may have different motives for playing online games Purpose of this study: investigating online gamers’ motives for playing online games and the influence of these motives on their usage behaviors in online games

4. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng4 Introduction (2) Hypothesis 1 – Online gamers with different motives show differences in: age, gender, education, occupation Hypothesis 2 – Online gamers with different motives show differences in: Status of playing online games Preferred types of online games Amounts of money willing to spend monthly Willingness to purchase or bid for virtual assets

5. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng5 Online Gamers ’ Motives for Playing Online Games (1) Two factors underlying the motives for playing online games The need for exploration: – challenging the extremes of the games, exploring new frontiers in the games, seeking new friendship in the games, …. The need for conquering: – killing the characters of other gamers, winning over other gamers, …

6. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng6 Theoretical implications The need for exploration: – the presence of Optimum Stimulation Level (OSL) – When the stimuli from the environment fall under an individual’s OSL, he/she will be satiated and this satiation results in a higher intrapersonal drive for novelty, complexity, variety, or change Online Gamers ’ Motives for Playing Online Games (2)

7. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng7 Theoretical implications The need for conquering: – Murry’s (1938) proposed 28 Psychogenic Needs – the need for aggression: the need to assault or injury an object. Or to murder, belittle, harm, punish, or ridicule a person. – In the virtual world of online games, gamers can easily satisfy this kind of need through virtual characters. Online Gamers ’ Motives for Playing Online Games (3)

8. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng8 Online Gamers ’ Motives for Playing Online Games (4) Segmenting online gamers based on their motives Hypothesis testing for H1: significant differences exist in gender and occupation, but not in age and education

9. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng9 Motives and Behavioral Responses to Marketing Offers (1) Status of playing online games: current players (%)ex-players (%) Aggressive gamers70.229.8 Social gamers59.140.9 Inactive gamers42.557.5

10. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng10 Motives and Behavioral Responses to Marketing Offers (2) Preferred types of online games : role-playing games (%)puzzle games (%) Aggressive gamers 33.347.4 Social gamers 70.54.5 Inactive gamers 50.415.7

11. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng11 Motives and Behavioral Responses to Marketing Offers (3) Amounts of money willing to spend monthly: ＜ 166 NTD (%) ＞＝ 166 NTD (%) Aggressive gamers 38.661.4 Social gamers86.413.6 Inactive gamers81.918.1

12. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng12 Motives and Behavioral Responses to Marketing Offers (4) Willingness to purchase virtual assets : Willing to purchase (%)Not willing (%) Aggressive gamers71.928.1 Social gamers36.463.6 Inactive gamers41.758.3

13. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng13 Motives and Behavioral Responses to Marketing Offers (5) Willingness to bid for virtual assets : Willing to bid for (%)Not willing (%) Aggressive gamers 56.143.9 Social gamers6.893.2 Inactive gamers17.382.7

14. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng14 Managerial Implications For aggressive gamers: promoting functional virtual assets to enhance the power of gamers’ characters For social gamers: promoting non-functional virtual assets, which are used for enhancing the appearances or personalities to enhance interactions in the game. For inactive gamers: research must be conducted to understand why some gamers become inactive—for detecting defecting gamers and winning them back

15. ECDL 2009 Fan-Chen Tseng15 Conclusion Discovered two factors underlying gamers’ motives: the need for exploration and the need for conquering Online gamers can be categorized as aggressive gamers, social gamers, and inactive gamers, based on these two factors. These three groups of gamers showed significant differences in their behavioral characteristics in online games. Future studies on consumer behavior in online games can extend the present study by integrating customer personalities and motives in their models.