The Impact of Social Support of Guild Members and Psychological Factors on Flow and Game Loyalty in MMORPG

The objective of this study is to identify the relationships in which social support influences flow and game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. For the study, focus group interviews were carried out with MMORPG gamers and, as a result, important factors such as social support and self-esteem were found. Based on prior research and the focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, the independent variables of social support and character control were identified. Character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables with flow and loyalty as the dependent variables. The research model and hypotheses were developed and then verified empirically. The data was collected from 244 WOW gamers to verify the research model and SEM analysis was then used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. The results were as follows: First, social support had a statistically significant impact on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity had a clear effect on self-esteem. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, flow and loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on flow.