Abstract:

Virtual communities are new phenomena of post-modern times. In virtual communities, people spend a worthy of time to learn, play, and socialize with individuals from different locations. There are several media available in the Internet to form a virtual community. Massively Multiple Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) are one of these media in which individuals can create a character representing themselves and get immersed to the interactive, fantasy world of the game. Millions of gamers are currently involved in MMORPGs. Thus, there is a big interest both in academic and business environments to understand what is going on in these environments.

The current study adopted a scale addressing the motivations of game play among Turkish MMORPG players. Main factors underlying the game play behaviors of Turkish MMORPG players were particularly emphasized. The scale was expanded with a personal information form to examine the relationship between the game playing motivations and certain variables such as age, sex, educational background and success. The survey was administered to the players of two popular MMORPG games in Turkey in which all players were Turkish. With the assistance and permission of the manufacturer, the survey form was announced on social networking groups of the players. In this regard, participation in the survey was voluntary.

While analyzing the data, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine whether the original factor structure was retained. Then, relevant parametric tests were conducted on the scale factors to see the differences between the levels of the background variables. In addition, a structural equation model was proposed regarding the interrelationships among the motivators of game play.

The current study is important since there are only a few studies in the literature investigating the MMORPG players in a real gaming setting with a large and representative sample. Findings will be presented and discussions will be realized in relation to the current and relevant literature followed by implications and suggestions for further research.

Keywords:

MMORPG, online games, motivations of game play, gamer demographics.