Unveiling The Gamers’ Life ——A Case Study Of The Participation Motivation And Behavior Patterns Of The Players Of "The Glory Of Kings"

Mobile network technology has gone through rapid development in recent years.It gradually replaces the Internet access via desktop computers,and mobile games greatly enrich people’s cultural life.The mobile game "Glory of Kings" has been popular for six years,and become famous for its daily live users of over 100 million."Glory of Kings" is also one of the highest-grossing mobile games globally.In view of the popularity and representation of the game,this study takes the gamers of "Glory of Kings" as a sample and uses a mixed research method to explore the essential behavior patterns behind the contemporary game culture phenomenon.Firstly,by using the qualitative methods of participatory observation and in-depth interviews with 12 senior players,this study analyzed their participation motivation and behavior patterns.Afterwards,the data of 403 players were collected through a survey to further verify the relationships among demographic variables,motivation,behavior patterns and perceptions of the game.The qualitative analysis showed that the gamers of "Glory of Kings" were motivated both internally and externally.Specifically,their participation was influenced by four main intrinsic motivations:cultural entertainment,competitive achievement,game immersion,and social interaction.In addition,there were four external motivations:game environment,core play,auxiliary mode,and payment mode.These internal and external motivations resulted in five main behavior patterns,namely,consumer behavior,competitive behavior,learning behavior,aggressive behavior,and social behavior.The survey results showed that game motivation was influenced by such demographic variables as gender and age.There was a significant correlation between game behavior patterns and motivation.However,there was no significant correlation between gamer satisfaction and game loyalty.In fact,gamers’ addiction resulted from their habits or lifestyles.The present study added fresh interpretation to the uses and gratification theory in playing mobile online games.In the end of the study,the reference significance of the study was discussed.