Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Innovation Diffusion In Sports Games

The explosive growth of user base,expanding market scale and changing game concept have made video games a popular cultural symbol worldwide,and the selection of seven e-sports games as official competition items of Hangzhou Asian Games also heralds a new stage in the development of e-sports industry.While the multiplayer online tactical games represented by "King of Glory" keep appearing in the mainstream discourse,the sports games represented by FIFA are slightly silent.Faced with this contrast,the study of FIFA series as an innovation born in the Internet era and the influence mechanism of its innovation diffusion can not only help the future development of sports games,but also promote the traditional sports industry to find new economic growth points through the deep integration of sports and games.This study takes the innovation diffusion theory as the basic basis,constructs the influencing factor model of FIFA series diffusion through rooting analysis in in-depth interviews,and dissects its diffusion mechanism.Through in-depth interviews with 15 game players and practitioners to obtain first-hand information,after three-level coding to abstract and generalize 296 original materials,we get out 59 concepts and 14 initial categories,and finally get four main categories such as personal characteristics of adopters,communication channels,game attributes,and environmental conditions,which provide a realistic basis for further research on the influence mechanism of innovation diffusion of sports and competitive games.It is found that Rogers’ innovation diffusion theory still has certain explanatory power for the spread of FIFA series in China.In terms of environmental conditions,policy intervention,favorable industrial and economic environment,technological level improvement,Chinese soccer cultural atmosphere and the silence of the disseminated soccer market all play a role in its diffusion;while in terms of FIFA’s own innovative attributes,it brings extremely realistic game experience with its official exclusive license and powerful simulation modeling technology,and itself has relative advantages and compatibility that are difficult to achieve in similar soccer games.For fans,the complexity of FIFA,which is born from traditional sports,is reduced and its visibility and observability are greatly enhanced;from the perspective of individual characteristics of adopters,individual differences of players are more reflected in emotional needs,habit preferences and interests;from the perspective of its diffusion channels,for early adopters,mass communication channels and worldwide communication channels still play a major role,but based on the special nature of the fan group,interpersonal communication channels are more important for target adopters.For early adopters,mass communication channels and global communication channels still play a major role,but due to the specificity of the fan base,interpersonal communication channels play a more prominent role in the behavioral decision and subsequent use of the target adopters.In terms of the diffusion mechanism of the FIFA series innovation,it is mainly manifested that firstly,the players’ memory construction of the soccer game influences their adoption behavior,secondly,under the commercial logic,the game industry completes the legitimacy construction by entering the framework of traditional sports and self-regulation,and thirdly,the players’ identity awakens the national consciousness and realizes the emotional compensation,which strengthens the adoption behavior and the subsequent continuous use.This study finally analyzes and reflects on the current situation of the development of sports games.First,the lack of mass communication channels for sports games represented by FIFA in the Chinese context,the homogeneous communication under interpersonal channels and the lack of mainstream media endorsement affect the further expansion of the game group;second,the incomplete career system and the unclear talent upward path limit the development space of the industry.The two-way intervention of scientific research and talent training in higher education has become an inevitable choice;third,the gap between national and local special legislation affects the legitimacy status of competitive games,and there is an urgent need to promote the benign operation of the e-sports industry from policy regulation,laws and regulations,and infrastructure construction;fourth,with the iteration of the game,players’ needs are constantly improving,especially the physical elements of sports games become its The development breakthrough,in the game itself to get transformation and upgrading at the same time,drive the peripheral industry to give new life.