The role of social network sites on the relationship between game users and developers: an evolutionary game analysis of virtual goods

Hao Chen () and Hai-Tao Chen ()
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Hao Chen: Jilin University
Hai-Tao Chen: Jilin University

Information Technology and Management, 2021, vol. 22, issue 2, No 1, 67-81

Abstract: Abstract Social network sites (SNS) have gradually permeated into people’s daily life recently, providing a new perspective for promoting the virtual market in games. The impact of SNS on users’ purchase decision for virtual goods and developers’ decision to create them has to be determined given the dilemma of online games. However, prior studies do not focus on the relationship between users and developers in the game on virtual goods and neglect the role of SNS. Thus, this study adopts an evolutionary game method to model the supply–demand relationship on virtual goods and examine the impact of SNS on it. Results indicate that psychological effect on purchasing and cost of time spent on playing influence strategic changes of both parties. Furthermore, SNS effectively stimulates users to purchase virtual goods and developers to increase virtual good creation by reversing the impact of perceived enjoyment. This study contributes to the theoretical research on SNS games and virtual goods and provides insights into game developers’ performance improvement.

Keywords: Virtual goods; Social network sites; Evolutionary game model; Online games (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/s10799-021-00325-9

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