Create Your Self: Self-Concept and Avatar Creation

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Players with low self-esteem experience significantly greater difficulty and lower avatar recognizability when attempting to create an 'actual self' avatar compared to those with high self-esteem.See it on page 5
02
Creating an 'ideal self' avatar appears to be a more consistent experience across different levels of self-esteem, suggesting that focusing on aspirational traits may mitigate some of the friction associated with self-representation.See it on page 5
03
Avatar creation serves as a critical first-impression touchpoint; players who struggle to connect with their avatar during the initial customization phase may face negative impacts on their overall game enjoyment and engagement.See it on page 5
04
The relationship between self-esteem and avatar creation is context-dependent, with significant variations observed across different game titles such as Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.See it on page 5
05
Developers should consider implementing guided customization prompts or support features to assist players with low self-esteem, as these users are more likely to struggle with the identity-alignment process during character creation.See it on page 5
06
Research indicates that the avatar is a psychologically complex extension of the player, and the ease of the creation process is a measurable predictor of how well a player identifies with their virtual representation.See it on page 6

Summary

Create Your Self: Self-Concept and Avatar Creation Connor E Leshner Michael G. Reynolds Psychology Psychology Trent University Trent University Peterborough, Ontario, Canada Peterborough, Ontario, Canada [email protected] [email protected] Abstract things people experience when they begin a game, and every other Self-concept, and by exte...

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