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Focusing on the social influence processes in the context of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), this study aims to investigate the nomological network of social influence factors, a topic seldom explicitly articulated in the literature in this unique context.

This study adopts a mixed-methods approach to develop and test a context-specific model of social influence processes in MMORPGs. First, the authors conducted qualitative interviews with MMORPG players to identify the drivers shaping players' perceptions of social influences. Second, the authors formulated and tested a research model with quantitative data collected from 450 respondents of an online survey.

Through the qualitative study, the authors identify leader enthusiasm, social support and social presence as the critical drivers of social influence factors. The result of the quantitative study validates the influences of the critical drivers and demonstrates the impact of social influences on MMORPG players' we-intention to continue playing games.

This research extends the social influence theory by identifying contextualized drivers that shape MMORPG players' perception of social influences determining their we-intention to continue playing games. MMORPG service providers can draw on these drivers to leverage social influences to increase players' we-intention of continuance.

Massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are representative metaverse games that are thriving in academia and the industry. This study aims to develop an integrated model based on Yee's motivations and the Proteus effect to explore individuals' intentions of playing MMORPGs.

The data were gathered by conducting an online survey (n = 441) for the players of World of Warcraft, an MMORPG. The collected data were analyzed with a structural equation model.

The outcomes of this research reveal that the Proteus effect positively influenced the intentions of the players to play the game via mediations of social, immersion, achievement motivations and enjoyment. Furthermore, the players influenced by the Proteus effect, which enables avatar embodiment and identification, exhibited a stronger intention to play MMORPGs.

This research is one of the first attempts to establish a theoretical framework involving the Proteus effect and Yee's motivations. In addition, the findings of this study imply that the Proteus effect should be considered when investigating the individual experience of metaverse games.

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) create quasi-real social systems in which players can interact with one another, and quasi-real economic systems where players can consume and trade in-game items with virtual currency. The in-game currency price, an important indicator of a virtual economy, is highly contingent on players’ behavioral interaction in MMORPGs. The purpose of this paper is to adopt a network perspective to examine how topological characteristics of social networks in an MMORPG, namely, network externalities, density, and closure, would exert impacts on the in-game currency price.

Players’ behavioral data were collected from a popular MMORPG in China on a weekly basis for 52 weeks. With a time series analytical approach, the empirical model for the price function of in-game currency was estimated with vector autoregression.

The results show that the number of core avatars and network density are positively associated with in-game currency price, while network closure has a negative effect on in-game currency price. However, in-game currency price is found to have no significant relationship with the trade volume of the currency.

This study fills in an important research gap by investigating factors influencing the in-game currency price of MMORPGs from a network perspective, which contributes to the existing literature of network effects and advances our understanding about how players’ interaction will influence the dynamics of a virtual economy. The findings could offer useful insights for online game companies to better understand their players’ social interaction and consumption behavior.

Achievement is considered to be an important value for students. The purpose of this paper is to explore what achievement values were derived from playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), especially for high-engaged MMORPGs players.

The research employed two approaches to collect data: focus group and a web survey of online game players were conducted. Moreover, an addiction-engagement scale was used to ensure all participants were genuinely highly engaged MMORPGs players in data collection process. There are 12 highly engaged players were recruited as focus group members in Phase 1. The online survey yielded 315 responses, of which 267 were considered valid, and 177 of those were considered to be genuine highly engaged players in Phase 2. In the study, exploratory factor analysis was performed to reveal underlying structure of achievement values.

The result focussing on popular MMORPGs reveal that highly engaged players derived six achievement values from playing MMORPGs, including fantasy satisfaction, adventure, victory, socialization ability, self-actualization, and advancement of wealth and status.

In view of the prevalence of MMORPGs, it is imperative to draw attention to understand students’ achievement values derived from playing MMORPGs. By doing that, educators know how to bridge students’ achievement values to their academic performance.

Sociability is considered to be important to the success of educational MMORPGs. The purpose of this study was to access the relative weights of these sociability factors which the authors garnered from the literature on educational MMORPGs.

The authors used fuzzy‐AHP approach to access the relative weights of these sociability factors they garnered from the literature on educational MMORPGs. To do this, a questionnaire using a pair‐wise comparison data input format was administered to 242 school teachers to gather assessments for the factors.

The authors found five most important factors affecting sociability – cooperation, team‐based reward, discussion of strategy, reputation, and social navigation.

Although prior studies have identified various factors that facilitate sociability in educational MMORPGs, the relative importance of these factors has not been determined. The results can not only be used to help educational MMORPG developers focus on the most important sociability factors and propose specific guidelines for designing educational MMORPGs, but can also identify the best design strategy for promoting sociability of educational MMORPGs.

The purpose of this paper is to show how both the presentation and limitation of visual choices in massively multiplayer online role‐playing games (MMORPG) avatar creation interfaces tends to exclude or favor different real life social groups.

A novel method combining both quantitative and critical analysis of the syntagmatic‐paradigmatic structure of MMORPG avatar creation interfaces is used to inform the findings of this study.

This study concludes that as cultural interfaces, current fantasy themed MMORPGs remediate socially exclusive values both from fantasy literature and from their own game lore. The socially exclusive values deal largely with extreme and immutable racial and sexual dimorphism.

Interfaces which present users with color palettes and/or smooth slider‐based body modifiers do not lend themselves well to this method of analysis. In addition to this, only a handful of the popular MMORPGs are analyzed within the body of this work.

This paper demonstrates that MMORPG players and designers need to be more aware about how they are constructing and embedding social values in their worlds. Avatars are critical conduits for online social dynamics and embedding socially exclusive values may transfer negative ideologies from old media to new.

This paper offers one of the earliest critiques of embedded values in avatar creation interfaces of MMORPGs. The paper aims to begin discussion on an overlooked area of now popular media that has not received any critical attention regarding its embedded messages of social inclusiveness or exclusiveness.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, this study seeks to provide a framework for, and endeavor to gain, an in‐depth understanding of the decision‐making process in relation to playing or not playing massively multiplayer online role‐playing games (MMORPGs) by using qualitative data from interviewing both players and non‐players. Second, it seeks to establish a better measure and model using an ethnographic decision tree model that describes the decision‐making process of internet users. Finally, for cross‐validity purposes, it aims to verify the model using quantitative data from face‐to‐face surveys of players/non‐players in an online gaming context.

A two‐phase mixed method is adopted here. During the first phase, the decision tree development phase, to capture the concerns of internet users who are facing the choice of playing MMORPGs or not, qualitative‐based procedures are used to identify decision factors and organize them into a decision tree for better understanding a research problem. In the second phase, the decision tree verification phase, to test the predictive capability of the composite model, a quantitative‐based survey instrument, which represents the decision criteria identified in the first phase, is adopted for data collection and analysis.

The results revealed that 14 criteria, formulated as a decision tree, were identified in the model‐building phase. In the model‐testing phase, 137 decision processes were successfully predicted and 17 predictive pathways led to a decision against the factual, giving a predictive rate of 89 per cent.

The study bridges the gap between the research in online games and in decision making. At the theoretical level, the decision tree model can provide a more comprehensive and in‐depth explanation of the online games‐playing phenomenon. In practice, marketers can easily become aware of the user considerations and identify exactly what needs to be done to fulfil users' criteria for playing MMORPGs. And, from a methodological standpoint, a mixed method can help researchers improve techniques used in study for building more predictive models.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether children’s online play and participation in massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) is leading to the development of virtual retail shopping motivations and behaviours. This exploratory study also examines the influence of age-related differences in children’s social and consumer development vs adults and gender on this.

The study was conducted using two focus groups and ten in-depth interviews with 20 French children between the ages of eight and 12 years.

Results show that children’s online play and participation in MMORPG communities is leading to the development of virtual retail shopping motivations and behaviour through the purchase of virtual tools and accessories by all children using virtual in-game money. But these motivations are very gender specific due to the overarching importance of gender-specific motivations for achievement. Boys engage in virtual retail shopping because they need in-game progress and power gains, while girls engage in virtual retail shopping because they need social status enhancement.

Research should be conducted on children in different age groups. All aspects of the process and consequences of children’s participation in online gaming communities should be examined more comprehensively. Quantitative research is required. Results may also vary with country and cultural context.

First, children between eight and 12 years of age are active consumers (influencers and buyers) for all companies. MMORPGs provide the perfect setting for better understanding of children’s motivations and behaviour regarding virtual retail shopping because they provide virtual in-game money for different achievements that children use to engage in such behaviour. Second, MMORPG companies can benefit by taking into account gender differences in children’s motivations and the importance of the games’ social dimensions and interactions when designing the games.

First, the risks of playing computer games for children in terms of playing violent games and leading a virtual life must be considered and studied carefully by public policy officials. Second, public policy officials that look into online gaming should take into account gender differences in children’s motivations and the importance of the games’ social dimensions and interactions when monitoring online games. These are issues that are not only developing children’s abilities as social actors but may well be promoting excessive materialism aided by the formation of online peer groups.

This is the first study on children’s online play and participation in MMORPGs in the consumer context and will help us to understand children’s mind-set and motivations for retail activities in this unique retail setting. The study results show that children’s online play and participation in MMORPGs is leading to the development of virtual retail shopping motivations and behaviour that are very gender specific unlike adults.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) have become complex social worlds. As such, playing these games requires more than accomplishing simple objectives: it is also a process of socialization into a community of gamers. Through our observation of players’ activities we describe how MMORPGs provide opportunities for learning social skills such as: how to meet people; how to manage a small group; how to coordinate and cooperate with people; and how to participate in sociable interaction with them. We show how this social learning is tied to three important types of social interaction that are characteristic of MMORPGs: players’ self‐organization, instrumental coordination, and downtime sociability. We conclude by discussing the societal impacts of our findings and how the features of MMORPGs could be repurposed in environments specifically designed for social learning.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ways in which information acts as a commodity in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and how players pay for items and services with information practices.

Through meta-theoretical analysis of the game environment as a set of information systems, one of retrieval and one social, the paper shows how players’ information practices influence their access to game content, organizational status and relationship to real-money trade.

By showing how information trading functions in MMORPGs, the paper displays the importance of information access for play, the efficiency of real money trade and the significance of information practice -based services as a relatively regular form of payment in virtual worlds. Players furthermore shown to contribute to the information economy of the game with the way in which they decide not to share some information, so as to prevent others from a loss of game content value due to spoilers.

The subject, despite the popularity of online games, has been severely understudied within library and information science. The paper contributes to that line of research, by showing how games function as information systems, and by explaining how they, as environments and contexts, influence and are influenced by information practices.