온라인게임 개발전략에 관한 탐색적 연구 : 게임 커뮤니티 활용을 중심으로

Abstract

Online game business has emerged as the most lucrative entertainment industry, with over 20 million platers. The popularity of online games can be attributed to the presence of numerous PC Bangs around the country, which have pushed online games into the mainstream culture while broadband internet services facilitated online game play. The age distribution of online game players is expanding and a variety of new games are under development to target certain age groups. While the online game market continues to expand, with many new online game publishers entering the market, relatively little is known about which factors are strategically important for successful development of online games. A conceptual framework is proposed, and a structural equation modeling, for Identifying the factors affecting the market success of online games, is developed. The concept of online game community, idea generation, systematic development strategy, flexible development process, utilizing demo-version, outsourcing, etc, are ail introduced into the model, as the independent variables affecting the success level of online games directly and indirectly. Based on data collected from questionnaire survey, the validity of the model has been tested and interesting conclusions have been developed concerning the relationships between these variables. Statistical results show that utilizing online game community and system atic development strategy is the key for successful online game development. Other interesting results concerning game development strategy are also provided. It is hoped that this result might provide the useful guidelines for developing the successful online game contents. With a better understanding of key success factors, online game developers should be able to make adjustments in their development and marketing plans, providing them with a sustainable advantage over their competition.