Facebook and web games have become the new social network sites (SNSs), so the game users experience a new virtual playing situation. The purpose of this study is to investigate “the influence of players’ experience to play OPEN! CITY” and “the difference of players’ consumption behavior and brand attitude before and after experiencing the games”.
Both the quantitative and qualitative methods are used in this study. First, this study utilized questionnaires through the Internet. The purposive samples were collected from the OPEN! CITY game forum. Furthermore, this study elected a high “immersion experiences” players and a low “immersion experiences” players to conduct in-depth interviews.
This study collected 262 samples through the on-line questionnaire survey. The results are as follows: First, the on-line game players emphasize on sensory experiences. Second, players with different immersion levels have different experiences. Third, the acting experiences are the most effective variable to predict player’s brand attitude and consumption behaviors. Then, there are different experiential marketing between the entity situation and the virtual situation. Finally, SNSs become a new factor in experiential marketing.
Based on the above finding, this research suggest: First, to introduce a new brand or merchandise by utilizing the social game. Second, to invent virtual characters is for increasing the loyalty. In addition, this study suggests for the further researches to add different variables of the personality of social game players, and extend to research more types of social games.
