EXAMINING THE SOCIAL INFLUENCE ON COLLEGE STUDENTS FOR PLAYING ONLINE GAME: GENDER DIFFERENCES AND IMPLICATIONS

Online games represent a burgeoning market sector of increasing economic importance. However, most previous studies have focused on the utilitarian perspectives of the technology. In other words, there is limited the investigation to social influence on college students' attitude. The aims of this study is to understand the effect of social influence on college students' attitude in playing online game and to discuss gender effect of social influence on college students' attitude of playing online game. Focus group interview and survey of the mix research method were conducted. The authors find: (a) the effect of social influence affects college students' attitudes to online game. Female students are much easier to be affected than male ones, (b) Males tend to be more interested in playing online game than females, and (c) Gender difference might be caused by involvement and benefit while they play online game.