Research On Online Game Players' Purchase Intention Based On Social Presence Theory

Online game is a kind of popular entertainment,and also an important online communication platform.As a kind of virtual community,online games connect virtual world and real world to some extent.While different from other virtual communities,it creates great commercial value.In academic circles,the network game research in sociology,psychology and communication studies,marketing,and other fields has gained rich research achievements,the researchers pay more attention to online game motivation and behavior,online game addiction,online game with personalities.According to researcher's personal experience and internship experience in a game company,the virtual social relationship formed in the interaction of online game players is an important factor affecting the continuous consumption of players.Therefore,this research which based on social presence theory,constructs a 6-factors model of factors affecting social presence,and explore the social presence perception's effect on players' purchase intension,as well as the gender comparison of both social presence and purchase intension.The study mainly collected data by questionnaire survey,and collected 383 valid questionnaires.The questionnaire data were analyzed using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 20.0 software,and the hypothesis was tested.Key Findings:(1)There are 6 factors that influence social presence,from the point of game technology,including sociability and interactivity,and from the point of players,including personal emotional connection,self identity,group identity and game proficiency.Among them,the sociability effect is the most,and the interactivity effect is the least.(2)Loyalty and satisfaction play a full intermediary role in the impact of social presence on game purchase intention,and the intermediary effect of loyalty is higher than satisfaction.(3)Female players' social presence and purchase intension is generally higher than the male players,and emotional connection factors for female players had a greater influence on the social presence,while male players are not affected by emotional connection factors.Based on the above study,this paper puts forward some suggestions for online game marketing,including enhancing game's sociability,providing platform to display achievement,emphasizes the social cooperation;Focus on the social attributes of the game and enhance the team's sense of belonging;Build the game brand,hold offline meeting and so on.