A Study for Success Factors in On-line Games

The last few years have represented a boom for the online gaming industry. Internet-based online games have been an increasingly popular form of entertainment. The gaming industry estimates there will be over 26 million online gaming participants in 2002. The rapid development of online game content and related information technology will increase the size of the industry and have a profound impact on many aspects of our lives and our society. This paper develops the exploratory LISREL model for identifying the factors affecting the players' loyalty to a specific brand of online game. The concepts of flow, word of mouth, feedback, challenge, social norms, and online community activities, etc, are all introduced into the model, as the independent variables directly and indirectly affecting loyalty. Based on data collected from an online survey, the validity of the model has been tested and interesting conclusions have been developed concerning the relationships between loyalty and flow, word of mouth, and other independent variables. It is hoped that this result might provide useful guidelines for developing successful online game content.