To Explore Female Players Decision-Making Processes in MMORPGs: A Preliminary Model

摘要

The genre of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) has become increasingly popular with the group of young. Online games have emerged as an important and interesting research area in a variety of academic and official settings. This study adopts ethnographic decision tree modelling (EDTM) which integrates qualitative and quantitative paradigms to model the decision-making process of whether or not to play online games by female undergraduate students. The model is built based on qualitative data gathered through in-depth interviews of 29 respondents, where 18 criteria for playing online games are elicited. The model will be tested using qualitative and quantitative data from interviews, and a structured questionnaire in the further study. Armed with the results, this study provides online game industries an understanding of the decision-making process of female players, and reveals theory standpoints for the researchers with similar interests.