The Impact of Evolving Character Customization on Emotional Engagement and Player Behaviour in RPGs

Evolving character appearance in role-playing games can deepen players' emotional investment in their avatars, but it does far less to change how they actually play. This study examines dynamic visual customization in Baldur's Gate 3, focusing on illithid transformations that respond to narrative choices, and combines discourse analysis of 23 Reddit threads, a survey of 149 players, and interviews with 10 participants. The findings point to a clear asymmetry: visual evolution strongly reinforces emotional connection to the character and the story, while its influence on decision-making is comparatively weak and inconsistent.

The emotional effects are the study's most robust result. Of survey respondents, 93.9% agreed that dynamic appearance created an emotional connection to their character, and players frequently and manually altered their appearance to preserve visual coherence when the game's systems fell short. Behavioural influence was far less pronounced. Only 61.7% of respondents reported that their appearance shaped in-game decisions, and in interviews, 8 of 10 participants said changing appearance did not alter their roleplay choices. Many had already designed their characters around anticipated transformations, suggesting that visual change tends to confirm rather than redirect existing intentions.

These patterns lead the authors to qualify the Proteus Effect, the proposal that avatar appearance shapes user behaviour, by showing that its influence is mediated by narrative structure and player agency. The authors recommend that designers acknowledge transformations within the fiction, offer reversal or disguise options, and support ongoing customization beyond character creation. The evidence rests on self-reported data from a single game and a small, self-selected sample, so its generalizability to other titles and player populations remains to be established.