Volume 30 Number 1, 2025

Peacocks or Eagles: Analyzing Factors Influencing Gamers' Purchase Intentions in Online Free-to-Play Games Through Social Identity Theory

Wen Ling Hsu ^a, Chia Chien Wu ^{b, *
a} Department of Marketing and Logistics Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan
wenling801@gmail.com
^{b, *} Department of Business Administration, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan
s10634020@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The Otaku economy has become a focus of attention owing to Covid-19, and online gamers can chat, make friends, and keep in touch through games to enhance their feelings. Most players have only experienced free content games, as practitioners often use free game software plus game accessory sales to attract consumers. Moreover, the cognition of games and mall props will affect gamers' purchase intention. Targeting massively online free games, this research analyzes consumer behavior in the society of online free games by using variables like network exposure, social interaction design, and network convergence. This research distributed questionnaires through online gaming unions and online communities to identify the factors influencing gamers' purchase intention of equipment and apparel. According to the research results, factors like network exposure, social interaction design, and network convergence will influence the willingness to purchase achievement and vanity props in large-scale online free games. Hence, gamers can be divided into two categories: (1) the vanity type (peacock), who likes gorgeous apparel and will use online games to create his perfect images in mind through characters that differ from his true self. (2) the feature type (eagle) aims to improve the effects and efficiency of tasks to obtain self-identification in games through purchasing props. These insights offer valuable guidance for game developers and marketing professionals in designing targeted monetization strategies and user engagement mechanisms.

Keywords: online free games, network convergence, vanity, purchase intention

Cite this article: 

Hsu, W.-L., Wu, C.-C., 2025, Peacocks or Eagles: Analyzing Factors Influencing Gamers' Purchase Intentions in Online Free-to-Play Games Through Social Identity Theory, International Journal of Business, 30(1), 003. https://doi.org/10.55802/IJB.030(1).003