Part A. A survey will be conducted in HK on consumers of games. The sample will target game-playing individuals aged between 14 and 45. We will not focus exclusively on youths because, contrary to popular misconceptions, games are a mainstream entertainment form consumed by people from different age groups (e.g. the average age of online gamers is 28 in the US). We will use a telephone survey with 1,000 representative samples. The questionnaire probes into respondents’ consumption practices, values, effects, psychographics, socio-economic attributes, and reception to clustered products. A similar survey will be conducted in three major Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou) on the same age group. The questionnaire will be modified to fit the mainland setting. We will cooperate with local survey agencies and/or universities to conduct these surveys.
Part B. We will carry out participant observation in major game sites in HK and China including cybercafés, arcades, school campuses, game virtual worlds (online participant observation), and homes. PI, Co-Is Chew and our RA will do participant observations in these sites to investigate consumption practices, preferences, and problems. After a few months of participant observation, a selected group of gamers (around 40) will be identified for in-depth interviews.
Part C. We plan to conduct detailed analyze the contents of a few well-received game products in each of the six major game genres (online games, mobile games, handheld games, console games, computer games, and arcade games) in HK and China. We will focus (though not exclusively) on locally developed games. Data on game contents will be useful for examining game products creative clustering potentials, localization strategies, socio-cultural effects, and consumption preferences. They will also be used as supplement information for triangulation. The work will be mainly carried out by the PI, Co-Is and the RA.
(the 13th months – 24th months)