此篇研究主要是在探討什麼原因導致網路遊戲使用者持續地在遊戲中付費。對於遊戲開發公司和遊戲廠商,如何讓遊戲使用者不斷地在遊戲中付費是非常重要的議題。此研究鎖定免費增值模式下的遊戲,主要是因為免費增值模式的遊戲在近年來蓬勃發展,市場擴大快速,遊戲開發公司紛紛投入此商業模式,再加上使用者會購買遊戲中的虛擬商品去提升角色能力、等級或是裝飾用,因此導致使用者會有付費前的期待及付費後得到的實際感受。在過去的文獻中,大多數的學者只針對使用者對該資訊產品或服務的使用行為和第一次付費行為。但是,在網路遊戲裡,不斷付費的使用者才是遊戲廠商和遊戲開發公司所想要的使用者。此篇研究參考Expectation disconfirmation theory,發展出符合使用者在網路遊戲持續付費行為的模型,對於使用者的意向以及行為做分析研究,讓過去的理論架構能夠用在網路遊戲產業的現況。此份研究蒐集了999份有效的網路問卷,並針對樣本執行 PLS 以及 ANOVA 量化分析。根據分析結果,此份研究分析了持續付費使用者的特徵和行為,讓遊戲公司能夠更清楚的鎖定他們的目標客群。

This study aims to explore the causes that lead to online game users to continue to pay during a game. How to attract gamers to continue to pay money while playing a game is a critical issue for game development companies.
This study focuses on the freemium game, which is due to the market boom in gaming in recent years. Because the market has expanded rapidly, game development companies have invested in business models, and, coupled with the game users’ tendencies to purchase virtual goods to enhance game play or add decorations to a game, gamers have expectations before they pay and actual performance that comes after they pay. Previous studies typically focused on gamers’ first pay for a game. However, gamers who constantly pay for a game are the type of users that game makers and game development companies want.
The study applies expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT) to develop a model that demonstrates how gamers continuously pay for a game. We collected 999 valid respondents via the internet, and used PLS and ANOVA to analyze data. This study analyzed the characteristics and behavior of gamers who continuously pay for games. The results showed that gaming companies should focus on performance quality, and meet gamers’ expectations. Moreover, investigated from the result, we suggested that gaming companies should not ignore gamers who hold a high expectation toward the game. The significant result showed that high expectation gamers are likely to re-purchase in the game since they tend to achieve their sense of accomplishment, entertainment and other psychology feelings in online games.

Chapter 1. Introduction 1
Chapter 2. Theoretical Background 3
2.1. Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) 3
2.1.1. The Simplified Expectation Disconfirmation Model 3
2.1.2. The Complete Expectation Disconfirmation Model 4
Chapter 3. Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Development 7
3.1 Research model 7
3.1.1. An Expectation Disconfirmation Model of Gaming Repurchase Intention 7
3.1.2. Disconfirmation (Gap) 7
3.1.3. Expectations 9
3.1.4. Actual Performance 10
Chapter 4. Methodology 13
4.1. Research Design 13
4.2. Data collection 14
4.3. Measure 18
4.4. Instrument validation 19
Chapter 5. Results 21
5.1. Results of research model 21
5.2. Comparison of two different types of gamers 24
5.2.1. Comparison of demographic data 24
5.2.2. Comparison of gamer’s disconfirmation 26
Chapter 6. Conclusion 28
6.1 Discussion 28
6.2 Limitation and future research 29
References 31
Appendix A 34

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