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Computer based and, more recently, online games have become a universal feature of popular culture. The drive for realism and dramatic fantasy demands some of the most sophisticated software, hardware, animation and graphic design performance standards in the information and communication technology domain. The associated skills endow companies and localities with significant competitive advantage. Korean participation in the market is among the highest in the world and acknowledged for its potential in its industrial policy.
This study examines the lifestyles and motivations of Korean online game players and, in particular, the relationship between e-lifestyle and motives to use online games. Users of online games were clustered in terms of four e-lifestyles: information-seekers, electronic purchasers, members of the cybersociety and fun-lovers. The study categorised online games into four types: MUD games, simulation games, role playing games and shooting games.
The research shows that e-lifestyle influences motives to use online games and that the types of online games played have an important effect on the relationship between e-lifestyle and motives to use online games.
Introduction
The Internet has been the driving force behind the recent changes in Korean game industry. The Korean online industry is showing an outstanding rate of growth with the development of the Internet. The size of the global online game market has shown an increase of 44 per cent from US$4.5billion in 1999 to US$6.5billion in 2000 (www.mct.go.kr). In Korea, the size of the online game industry has an extremely high rate of growth: 500 per cent from 20 billion won (euro16 million) in 1999 to 120 billion won (euro96.5) in 2000 (www.cpb.or.kr). As a country, Korea is supporting the development of the online game industry in order to build its global competitiveness, aiming at being the third largest game exporter in the world.
Because online games are used in many places, by people of all ages, they are part of new cultural patterns. This phenomenon has led the government to focus investment on the online game industry. The online game industry is expected to have a promising future because of its probable role in human life in the twenty-first century and growing interest in it resultimg from increasing personal leisure time.
In spite of the growing importance of the online...