摘要
本研究嘗試應用社會網絡的概念，找出線上遊戲玩家的網絡關係，過去線上遊戲的相關研究為使用者行為、心理需求、網路犯罪法令等研究。線上遊戲屬於虛擬社群，針對虛擬社群的特性，本研究採用社會網絡分析法（Social Network Analysis；SNA）設計五個線上遊戲問題來探討衡量玩家之間程度中心性、中介中心性與網絡密度。其程度中心性結果顯示當伺服器合併後玩家彼此間的網絡關係與社會網絡規模是會提高的，所以伺服器的合併可以拉近不同伺服器玩家彼此間的關係，玩家程度中心性都維持在一定程度水準之上。但從社會網絡的的角度來看，伺服器人數與程度中心性可能有關係，比較群體中心性和網絡密度的關係，顯示群體中心性與密度之趨勢相當一致，玩家人數之分佈是影響程度中心性和密度之共同因素。廠商在實施合併伺服器時，並未考慮玩家網絡關係，因此出現原伺服器玩家的程度中心性非常高，合併後玩家的程度中心性卻大為降低的現象。中介中心性在伺服器合併前後都很低，這可能也是影響線上遊戲經營的重要因素之一。本研究整理觀察發現，伺服器合併事件前後，程度中心性較高的一部份玩家隨著事件影響減弱甚至消失，但另一部份玩家在事件後仍不受影響，這一部份玩家極可能在遊戲社群團體中擔任最重要的中心人物或是社會地位較高的玩家。廠商在遊戲的經營上若能關注這些玩家的互動與意見，則有助於線上遊戲的長期經營。
並列摘要
Compared with relevant studies that focused on user behaviors, psychological needs, and laws regulating cybercrimes in the past, this study applies the social networking concept and attempts to identify the network relationship between online gamers. As online games constitute virtual communities, this study adopts the Social Network Analysis (SNA) to design five questions about online games in order to explore the degree centrality, betweenness centrality and network density with regard to the characteristics of virtual communities. As shown by the result of degree centrality, the scale of network relationship and social networking between players are significantly bolstered when servers merge. As a result, server mergers not only tighten the relationship between gamers, but also keep the degree centrality above a certain level. However, from the perspective of social networking, there might also be a link between the number of players and the degree centrality, as the group centrality shows a fairly consistent trend with the network density when the group centrality and the network density are put together for comparison, with the distribution of the number of players being the common factor that influences both the degree centrality and network density. Since game manufacturers usually do not consider the network relationships between players when implementing server mergers, the phenomenon that the degree centrality of players becomes so much lower after servers merge ensues. Meanwhile, the phenomenon that the betweenness centrality is low both before and after servers merge might also be another important factor that influence the management of online game business. After observation and analysis on the data before and after servers merge, this study concludes that while some players with higher degree centrality may have pull themselves out of the online games, some others who remain insusceptible to the mergers are more likely to be important central figures in the community groups or players with higher social status. Meanwhile, if game manufacturers are willing to focus on the interactions between and opinions from those players, the long-term management of online games will certainly be improved.