Title: Exploring customer preferences for online games

Authors: Seung Baek

Addresses:

Abstract: Online content providers who use the internet to distribute content experience an extremely competitive business environment. To survive in this environment, they have started charging a fee for the content that they provide. However, there have been very few success stories in commercialising online content. Although one of the few success stories is the online game, it still faces the customers| psychological resistance to paying a high fee for playing games. Without examining customers| perceived prices for online games, many online game producers have tended to decide prices from their own perspectives. Although many online game-related research works have focused on psychological and technical aspects, very few works have examined online gamers| preferences carefully. This study aims at exploring online gamers| preference by measuring their WTP (willingness to pay) for online games. More specifically, this study explores how the interaction attributes of an online game affect customer preferences.

Keywords: online games; willingness to pay; content providers; content pricing; gamer preferences; conjoint analysis; online gaming; customer preferences; internet.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAMC.2005.007721

International Journal of Advanced Media and Communication, 2005 Vol.1 No.1, pp.26 - 40

Published online: 04 Sep 2005 *

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