Why do people play on-line games? An extended TAM with social influences and flow experience

On-line games have been a highly profitable e-commerce application in recent years. The market value of on-line games is increasing markedly and number of players is rapidly growing. The reasons that people play on-line games is an important area of research. This study views on-line games as entertainment technology. However, while most past studies have focused on task-oriented technology, predictors of entertainment-oriented technology adoption have seldom been addressed.This study applies the technology acceptance model (TAM) that incorporates social influences and flow experience as belief-related constructs to predict users’ acceptance of online games. The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 233 users about their perceptions of online games. Overall, the results reveal that social norms, attitude, and flow experience explain about 80% of game playing. The implications of this study are discussed.