A Longitudinal Study of Game Perceptions from the Perspective of Yin-Yang Theory

With the advent of ubiquitous and convergence era, games have revolutionized with the trend of network and diversification. Game users, additionally, have generalized without limitation of sex, age, and social status. Based on the Yin-Yang theory, this study investigates the change of users´ perceptions both negative and positive sides on games with the recent trends of game industry: generalization, diversification, and networking. Longitudinal data that are collected by nationwide interviews in Korea from 2002 to 2005 have been analyzed. The results show that positive perceptions have increased whereas negative perceptions have not changed significantly during the time. Especially males, the 20s, and middle class group show substantive changes in positive perceptions. This result implies that as the game industry develops with the recent trends game perceptions move positively among the game users, and explains that such changes are led by young and RPG/RTS users. Since the Korean game market is in its mature stage with the change of diversification and networking, the results of this study contributes to make predictions on future phenomena in other developing countries