"Gang Up Online With Offline Friends,Go Dating Offline With Online Friends":Research On Social Capital Of Mobile Gamers And Its Influencing Factors

Nowadays playing mobile online games gradually changes from an entertainment activity to a routine social behavior,affecting people's daily topics and social interactions,which becomes a fertile area for exploration.This study collected responses from 521 players of "Game for peace",a typical mobile FPS game in China and the Social Capital Theory was used to elucidate the underlying mechanism.The analytical results indicate that(1)Mobile gainers have higher offline social capital and higher bridging social capital.Their online social capital is strongly related to offline social capital;(2)Motivation,using habits,online&offline relationship networks of mobile gamers as well as the use of social technologies in mobile online games will affect the mobile gamers' social capital.But the performance of mobile gamers will not.Specifically,this study found that "achievement" motivation no longer had a negative impact on social capital.In addition,if the online relationship maintenance's cost is low or there is a cracking cost-performance ratio,online socializing will replenish offline socializing,vice versa.What's more,mobile gamers gain extra social capital through online&offline modality switching such as "Gang up online with offline friends,go dating offline with online friends",causing the possible interpenetration of online game world and offline daily life.To sum up,mobile online games also provide the "third world" for gamers.By creating avatars in the online games and interacting with other gamers,mobile gamers build an online&offline,internal&external linkage network.Moreover,mobile gamers no longer pursue the pleasure of level up which brought about by the victory of the online games,but forge more relationships and build communities in online games in order to gain the warmth of the emotional destination.