The Role of Fashion in the Characters of Online Games

Abstract

This research study aims to discover the relationships amongthe fashion of characters, storytelling, and game satisfaction inMassive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games(MMORPG) inorder to examine the influence of the fashion of characters ingames on storytelling and game satisfaction, and to identifythe following constructs: fashion of characters, storytelling, andgame satisfaction. The global game market has grown rapidly every year sincethe introduction of computer games. The size of the globalgame market in 2010 was 6 billion dollars, and the onlinegame market captured 64.2% of the total market. The competitionin the online game market has become increasingly fiercein South Korea. Millions of people now spend several hoursper week on MMORPGs, which have several features that attracta large number of users. First, the world of MMORPGsis open and user-oriented. Many game users interact with eachother in the same space and play games in their own way. MMORPGs also have continuous updates, which allow for thedissemination of sequence stories and provides new content togame users. Many MMORPGs are released each year, and each has itsown story, characters, and system to attract and satisfy gameusers. However, due to the maturity of the game market, thereare a few differences among the games (particularly in referenceto game systems and services). Therefore, the fashion ofcharacters in the game can serve as one of the important elementsthat provide enjoyment for users who partake in the onlinegame industry. As is the case in the real world, gameusers in the virtual world prefer beautiful and chic charactersto ugly characters. Good-looking people are likely to have better interpersonalinteractions and thus develop more satisfying interpersonal relationships,while ugly people frequently fail in interpersonalinteractions. Regardless of age, people like to make friendswith others who are outwardly attractive. In online games, the characters represent all of the players,even though players are free to choose what role they want toplay. In addition, many gamers spend money to purchase itemsin order to have unique character appearances and fashionstyles. People who play games desire to express their identity andaesthetic sensibilities through their characters. The apperance ofthe characters is the main component that game users use toexpress their own personalities within the MMORPGenvironment. Stories and storytelling are the most efficient means bywhich to understand customer psychology. Using the Internet,many people upload their experiences and other useful informationonto their blogs or community sites and share theseinformation pieces with friends as well as with unknown communitymembers. People naturally think in narratives ratherthan in arguments or in paradigms, and stories that includerousing incidents, experiences, and summaries/nuances of person-to-person and person-and-brand relationships within specificcontexts enhance strong feelings of presence while playing agame. An existing game user’s story can influence new gameusers. Game users share their experiences and the pros andcons of the game with other game users through blogs orgaming community websites. Through these postings, thosewho were not initially interested in a particular game eventuallydevelop an interest. Game users tend to share their useful information with othergame users by using game communities and do so without anymonetary profit. In visiting these gaming community websites,game users look for new and/or humorous information. An onlinegaming community consists of a group of users who interactwith each other via the Internet, create fantasy roles, developonline relationships, share common interests, and indulgetheir need for entertainment by playing their own virtual roles. As new users gather more information regarding a particulargame and increase their level of experience within this realm,the probability of them choosing said particular game increases. The satisfaction that customers attain from online games isan emotional reaction that occurs in response to an assessmentfrom the experiences of playing said games. Many influentialfactors exist that correspond with product features and affectthe satisfaction level of consumers with regard to onlinegames. These include the connection speed, stability of serverconnectors, emotional experience, services, challenges presentedwithin the games themselves and interpersonal relationshipsformed with other players. Online games use an internationalset of standards (reliability, usability, functionality, efficiency, maintainability, and portability) for their evaluation, which issuitable for a given purpose such as software quality characteristics(ISO/ICE 9126, 2001). Visual stimulation can more easily lead to immersion thanother forms of stimulation, and online gaming mainly uses thisvisual stimulation through the gamer’s monitor so that gamerstend to be immersed in a game and feel satisfied. Data collection resulted in 235 usable responses fromMMORPG users, and the accompanying demographic informationincluded age, gender, education, employment, andtime spent per day on gaming. The user age in the sample ranges from 15 to 44, and therewere 178 respondents (75.7%) ages 21 to 31 (average 27) and51 respondents over 35 years of age (10.2%). Males made up91.1% of the sample, and females made up 8.9% (21 in total). The majority of participants reported spending approximately2.4 hours playing games each day. The mean score of each sub-construct is calculated and usedfor further analysis, and the measurement model provides asatisfactory fit to the data. The fit indices are as follows: χ2(11) = 34.151, which is statistically significant (p < .001);goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = (.958); normed fit index (NFI) =(.947); incremental fit index (IFI) = (.963); comparative fit index(CFI) = (.963); and root mean square error of approximation(RMSEA) = (.095), indicating a high level of validityfor the measures. Thus, the measures of the gaming customers’data demonstrate adequate convergent validity. Examination of the overall model fit reveals the Chi-squarestandard coefficient of fashion of character on storytelling,which is found to be .805 (t=7.716) and which is significant(p < .001). The standard coefficient of fashion of character ongame satisfaction is found to be .556 (t=3.111), which is significant(p < .005). The standard coefficient of storytelling ongame satisfaction is found to be .516 (t = 2.997), which issignificant (p < .005). Thus, all hypotheses are supportedbased on the results of the analyses. The fashion of character in MMORPGs is an important elementfor game satisfaction even though it differs from onegame to another. Many games provide various options forfashioning one’s game character. However, online game companiesshould increase game satisfaction further by providingservices such as altering a character’s appearance, clothes, andfashion. In addition, the game environment should supportplayers’ desires to manage the fashion of their characters. Inthis research model, the storytelling of game users has a positiveinfluence on game satisfaction in MMORPGs, as hasbeen shown to be the case by many previous research studiesin this field. For further research, it is necessary to conduct the samesurvey in several countries as well as across other online gamegenres.