Player Commitment to Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs): An Integrated Model

Abstract The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) phenomenon has generated significant interest on the part of consumers and software publishers. Despite considerable efforts to improve the technological quality (e.g., graphics, networking) of the games, little effort has been directed toward understanding the motivation that leads to successful and continued use of MMORPGs. The primary goal of this study is to identify the factors that influence player commitment to MMORPGs. We hypothesize that the key to obtaining loyalty is to motivate players to embrace ownership of the game by enhancing their ability to control their game character and to develop an online social identity. To achieve loyalty, two different strategies were proposed: (1) an ownership-enhancing strategy based on psychological ownership…