Strengthening Loyalty of Online Gamers: Goal Gradient Perspective
基于目标梯度理论，研究关系长度、深度和广度如何通过目标接近感知和动机影响在线游戏玩家的忠诚度，对游戏运营和营销有参考价值。
The growing popularity of online gaming emphasizes the importance of understanding how loyalty among online gamers can be strengthened. The goal gradient theory has not yet been adopted to examine how relationship characteristics (i.e., length, depth, and breadth) impact online gamer loyalty. Therefore, this study develops hypotheses based on that theory and uses structural equation modeling to test them. Responses from 5,144 online gamers were used for the analysis and the results indicate that relationship length, depth, and breadth were positively related to goal proximity (defined as the perception that a goal is close), which was further positively related to motivation to attain gaming goals, and consequently online gamer loyalty. This study is the first to explore—by using the goal gradient theoretical perspective—how relationship length, depth, and breadth are related to online gamer loyalty.