Home> Archive> 2017> Volume 7 Number 7 (Jul. 2017)
IJSSH 2017 Vol.7(7): 505-512 ISSN: 2010-3646
doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2017.V7.875

Why Do People Play Online Games? The Perspective of Fit

I-Ho Hsieh and Meng-Hsiang Hsu

Abstract—Mobile device has gained wide popularity among the mainstream users in recent years. For online social networking technologies are being rapidly developed, convenience of mobile devices has changed the user behaviors. The emergence of mobile games has been grown to be one of the dominant influences in the game market. Prior research has explored the players’ motivation and the capabilities of mobile game. However, few studies have aimed to integrate these two concepts by fit and to examine their effects upon user behaviors from the game designer's point of view. According to the perspective of Fit and Uses and Gratifications Theory, this study firstly explores the alignment between Capabilities of Mobile Game (CoMG) and players’ motivation. Sequentially, the further investigation into the user behaviors includes attachment for communities, participation and retention for mobile games. Using survey data collected from an online questionnaire completed by 427 players of mobile game. Multiple perspectives of strategic alignment, fit as covariation and fit as matching, were employed to empirically validate the research model. The results of the study verify that (1) the alignment between CoMG and player’s motivation. (2) The alignment is positively associated with attachment. (3) The attachment is significantly enhanced by alignment between CoMG and players’ motivation. (4) The attachment positively affects participation. (5) The attachment has a positive effect upon retention, too. Finally, both theoretical and practical implications as well as suggestions for future research are provided based on the findings in this study.

Index Terms—Fit/alignment, uses and gratifications theory, attachment, mobile game.

The authors are with National Kaohsiung First University of Science of Technology, Taiwan (e-mail: zj8112car@yahoo.com.tw).

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Cite: I-Ho Hsieh and Meng-Hsiang Hsu, "Why Do People Play Online Games? The Perspective of Fit," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 505-512, 2017.

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