Howest University of Applied Sciences

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.

• Dynamic avatar appearance strongly strengthens emotional connection to a character: 93.9% of 149 surveyed players agreed it created an emotional bond with their character.
• Players often manually altered their appearance to preserve visual coherence when the game's systems failed to keep it consistent, showing how much they value visual continuity.
• Visual evolution had far weaker influence on gameplay behaviour: only 61.7% of respondents said their appearance shaped in-game decisions, and 8 of 10 interviewees said changing appearance did not alter their roleplay choices.