Consumer Tribes in Virtual Worlds: Case Audition Online Game

Abstract

An explanation of player motivations in purchasing commodities in virtual worlds provides the foundation of understanding how players make sense of virtual products differently to one another and how motivations of virtual consumption relate to in-game social interactions. In the article, virtual ethnography was used to explore the meanings of consuming goods in a virtual world - Audition Online Game. Participant observation, informal interviews and technological supports such as screenshots, video records were conducted during data collection process. Three different ethnographic themes that make sense of virtual consumption to three different groups of consumer tribes (newbie, independent players and subgroup members or couples) are found. Simultaneously, the explanations of how in-game consumers pervade in the system of consumption and change their relationships with marketers are also revealed. The results contribute to consolidate the similar value of virtual consumption and real consumption to social relationships. This current article also suggests marketers not try to shape the market but adapt it, and based on different types of social interactions to stimulate continuously different groups of players, especially protagonists.