Retaining players over an extended period of time is a long-standing challenge in game industry. Significant effort has been paid to understanding what motivates players enjoy games. While individuals may have varying reasons to play or abandon a game at different stages within the game, previous studies have looked at the retention problem from a snapshot view. This study, by analyzing in-game logs of 51,104 distinct individuals in an online multiplayer game, uniquely offers a multifaceted view of the retention problem over the players' virtual life phases. We find that key indicators of longevity change with the game level. Achievement features are important for players at the initial to the advanced phases, yet social features become the most predictive of longevity once players reach the highest level offered by the game. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for designing online games that are adaptive to meeting the players' needs.
While many studies have put efforts to contribute to understanding player retention, much of the findings have been drawn from a snapshot view---players aggregated by demographic features yet not considering within a game. Like human life itself, players face different challenges and engage in specific actions depending on their levels. For example, @cite_11 observed that online game players are more likely to play alone in an early stage, but become socially active at higher level. Players need to collaborate with one another to defeat strong monsters or complete difficult quests as their level elevates. Moreover, players enjoy an entirely different in-game experiences once they achieve the maximum level, as they become socially active without consuming much game content @cite_4 . This means that factors leading to higher levels or being retained may be different across the entire player lifetime within online games.
@cite_4 @cite_11
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We analyze mechanisms of player retention and commitment in massively multiplayer online games. Our ground assumptions on player retention are based on a marketing model of customer retention and commitment. To measure the influence of gameplay, in-game sociality, and real-life status on player commitment, we use the following metrics: weekly play time, stop rate and number of years respondents have been playing the game. The cross-cultural sample is composed of 2865 World of Warcraft players from North-America, Europe, Taiwan, and Hong-Kong who completed an online questionnaire. We differentiate players in terms of demographic categories including age, region, gender and marital status. Graphical virtual worlds add two new layers to the old question what determines friendship formation. First, it is possible to distinguish between off-line (player) and online (avatar) characteristics. Second, these environments offer new possibilities for studying friendship formation. By tracking friendship requests and their acceptance rate, researchers are able to distinguish between with whom players want to become friends and with whom they actually do become friends. This article examined friendship formation in Timik, a graphical virtual world targeted at Polish teenagers. Homophily, preferential attachment and status were tested as possible underlying mechanisms. Results showed that preferential attachment and status drove invitations: Players wanted to become friends with high-status players. However, high-status players were also more likely to reject offers. Homophily only played a minor role. Players preferred players of the same avatar class and similar age but of the opposite sex. Too simil... We examine the social behaviors of game experts in Everquest II, a popular massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO). We rely on Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) to examine the anonymous privacy-protected social networks of 1,457 players over a five-day period. We find that those who achieve the most in the game send and receive more communication, while those who perform the most efficiently at the game show no difference in communication behavior from other players. Both achievement and performance experts tend to communicate with those at similar expertise levels, and higher-level experts are more likely to receive communication from other players. ABSTRACT Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are one of the most interesting innovations in the area of online computer gaming. Given the relative lack of research in the area, the main aims of the study were to examine (a) the impact of online gaming (e.g., typical playing behavior) in the lives of online gamers, (b) the effect of online socializing in the lives of gamers, and (c) why people engage in gender swapping. A self-selecting sample of 119 online gamers ranging from 18 to 69 years of age (M = 28.5 years) completed a questionnaire. The results showed that just over one in five gamers (21 ) said they preferred socializing online to offline. Significantly more male gamers than female gamers said that they found it easier to converse online than offline. It was also found that 57 of gamers had engaged in gender swapping, and it is suggested that the online female persona has a number of positive social attributes in a male-oriented environment.