Online social games, played within social networks or games requiring social interaction with peers, are revolutionizing the nature of video-games due to their social aspect and the ability of users to compare their performance with their friends or people in their network. Social comparison features, such as leaderboards, individual scores, achievement badges and level maps, are commonly used in online games to enforce the social interaction of players. However, one of the biggest challenges that the social game industry is currently facing is the ability to increase user enjoyment, and keep its players engaged in the games. To probe more deeply into whether and how players’ continuance intention is influenced by social comparison processes, we combine two theoretical lenses: social comparison theory and self-efficacy theory. We conducted real-world data collection to measure the impact of social comparisons in player perceived enjoyment, online social gaming self-efficacy and game continuance. The results indicate that upward identification and downward contrast are the most influential comparison elements in game continuance. The results of these two comparisons have significant implications for both the theoretical application of social comparison in online settings and for the practical implications of future game design.

在社交网络中玩的在线社交游戏或需要与同龄人进行社交互动的游戏，由于其社交方面以及用户将自己的表现与网络中的朋友或人进行比较的能力，正在彻底改变视频游戏的性质。社交比较功能（例如排行榜，个人分数，成就徽章和等级图）通常用于在线游戏中，以加强玩家的社交互动。但是，社交游戏行业当前面临的最大挑战之一是如何提高用户的娱乐性并保持其玩家参与游戏的能力。为了更深入地探讨玩家的持续意图是否以及如何受到社会比较过程的影响，我们结合了两个理论视角：社会比较理论和自我效能感理论。我们进行了现实世界的数据收集，以衡量社交比较对玩家感知的娱乐，在线社交游戏的自我效能和游戏持续性的影响。结果表明，向上识别和向下对比是游戏持续性中最有影响力的比较元素。这两个比较的结果对于在线环境中的社会比较的理论应用以及未来游戏设计的实际影响都具有重要意义。