Why do people play on-line games? an extended TAM with social influences and flow experience

  • Authors:

  • Chin-Lung Hsu;Hsi-Peng Lu

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Information Management, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC;Department of Information Management, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC

  • Venue:
  • Information and Management
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

On-line games have been a highly profitable e-commerce application in recent years. The market value of on-line games is increasing markedly and number of players is rapidly growing. The reasons that people play on-line games is an important area of research. This study views on-line games as entertainment technology. However, while most past studies have focused on task-oriented technology, predictors of entertainment-oriented technology adoption have seldom been addressed. This study applies the technology acceptance model (TAM) that incorporates social influences and flow experience as belief-related constructs to predict users' acceptance of on-line games. The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 233 users about their perceptions of on-line games. Overall, the results reveal that social norms, attitude, and flow experience explain about 80% of game playing. The implications of this study are discussed.