오늘날 게임 산업은 지속적으로 성장하고 있는 추세이다. 이런 배경에서 게임 이용자들은 다양한 게임 장르를 경험하고 있으며, 또한 게임 내의 승률을 높이기 위한 다양한 활동에 많은 관심을 가지고 있다. 게임 이용자 들은 자신이 즐기는 게임 캐릭터들의 승률 및 픽률과 같은 다양한 정보들을 인터넷 검색을 통해 수집하고 있 으며, 그에 따라 자신이 즐기는 게임 플레이어의 밸런스에 관해서 많은 관심을 나타내고 있다. 본 연구자는 밸런스 관련 다양한 연구를 탐색하는 과정에서 게임 속의 밸런스를 맞추는 기준이 있다면, 또한 그 기준에 대 한 예측이 가능하다면 그 기준을 중심으로 이용자들의 다양한 밸런스 패치 활용 및 게임 전략 수립에 도움이 될 수 있을 것으로 판단하였다. 본 연구에서는 플레이어들의 밸런스 패치가 중요하게 인식되고 있는 MOBA 장르 게임을 중심으로 밸런스 패치 예측 기준을 수립하는 데 초점을 맞추었다. 특별히 밸런스 패치를 진행할 때 캐릭터들의 특성 및 개발자의 패치 코멘트, 그리고 승률 및 픽률 변화에 따른 이후 패치 로드맵까지 고려 할 수 있는 체계를 제시한 점에서 큰 의의가 있다고 볼 수 있다. 이를 통해 개발자는 플레이어들의 밸런스를 더 쉽게 맞출 수 있도록 유도하고, 플레이어는 밸런스 패치를 예측하여 더욱 효율성 있는 게임 전략을 실행할 수 있도록 유도하여 MOBA 장르 게임의 이해관계자 모두에게 도움이 되는 정보를 전달할 것이다.

Digital games are conducted by the interaction between players and characters. Even if it’s same in the MOBA games, the characters in these games are not the ones which players can bring themselves in. But they do occur player’s semiotic process by controlling them. To prove this hypothesis, this study analyzes the correlation between MOBA game player and game character based on the player’s consumption behavior. The two MOBA games, League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm have been selected for the study, by the reason of semiotic difference between the characters. As focusing on the particular structures of MOBA games, this study can confirm the characteristic of this game genre.

The global online game market remarkably has been growing by each year and its profitability has been increasing as well. The online game companies, however, are facing a big trouble. Although a great number of online games have been so popular fast, they would have been disappeared fast because they have not made their players reuse repeatedly. The successful game companies need to attract the players continuously and make sustainable profit by making a longer product life-cycle. Fun has been regarded as an antecedent of intention to play games and game satisfaction in most of prior research of online game or the motive to play games. But fun in these researches was dealt in a view of short term. The fun which can get the players to replay and make relationship with the game companies needs to be investigated in terms of long-term. Therefore we examine the fun as a key antecedent of the drivers of customer equity in game companies. The multiplayer online battle arena(MOBA) games such as league of legend(LOL, Riot games), DOTA Ⅱ (Nexon), CHAOS online(CHAOS, Sesi Soft) and so on, have strived to develop their sustainable and competitive factors. Even though MOBA is one of online game genres and derived from Real time strategy (RTS), it continues its popularity in the world because its companies are striving to make sustainability by upgrading their game characters continuously. That is, it is that they are extending their game product life cycle. The players who feel bored with the old characters can play with another new characters having their own game strategies and balance. Besides, there are more features to make their players satisfied and replay like the interaction in game communities and active E-sports league in common MOBA game attributes. The MOBA is one successful model of online game genres so far due to their continuous effort to make their sustainability in the game market. We research the framework which affects customer equity in MOBA game companies in the study.