Understanding leisure gaming and urban community development in China

Abstract

This study seeks to examine local community perspectives toward gaming development in China. It seeks to develop a framework for understanding socio-cultural acceptance of gaming development through examining the impacts of social influence and community attachment to gaming development support via the mediation of perceived social and economic impacts. A pilot test was conducted with 191 respondents prior to the main survey, which yielded 694 complete responses. The research found perceived positive social impact was the most important factor influencing support for gaming development. Residents who perceived themselves as having a certain degree of social influence felt gaming had stronger positive impacts than negative impacts and, consequently, they were supportive of further gaming development. There are direct positive relationships between residents’ community attachment and perceived positive social impacts of gaming. The study concludes with implications for theory and practice, limitations and future research directions.