MisterShine
Member
I just disagree with the conclusions of their "findings", especially after having read the actual thesis.
Well now I have to do some research! I did some googling to read the papers cited by the article and it seems to flip back and forth between Trepte, Reinecke & Behr, 2009 and a similar study by Trepte & Reinecke 2010. Unfortunately both are behind paywalls, but here's a link to the abstracts and a quote from each I think is interesting:
http://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/full/10.1027/1864-1105/a000022 (2010)
"Avatar-player similarity was hypothesized to determine identification with the avatar, which in turn was suggested to enhance the enjoyment experience. In a quasi-experimental study, (N = 666) participants were asked to choose the personality features of an avatar for six different game scenarios"
So this study focuses on the players personality and not on their outward appearance. The abstract also specifies that in competitive games the avatar's dissimilarity to the player is actually favored. Only in cooperative games do people prefer characters similar to themselves. I'm curious what this could mean for single player games.
http://www.igi-global.com/article/creating-virtual-alter-egos-superheroines/3955 (2009)
"Participants created an avatar they would like to play with for five game descriptions and two gaming scenarios by choosing from a list of (pre-tested) masculine and feminine avatar features. Additionally, participants chose their avatars’ biological sex. The results reveal a mixed strategy: On the one hand, the avatar’s features were chosen in accordance with the game’s demands to facilitate mastery of the game.On the other hand, players strived for identification with their avatar and thus preferred avatars of their own sex. "
For the second study, it focuses on the balance between sexual identification with the avatar in contrast to what assists you with the gameplay. This is pretty interesting to me, but this doesn't seem to support what the Gamasutra article is saying here:
"While of course some players sometimes want to play as characters that are dissimilar to themselves, studies show that most players find gaming scenarios more entertaining when they can create characters that are more in accordance to their own appearance (Trepte, Reinecke & Behr, 2009). "
and here:
" but at the same time, the player’s identification with the avatar is very important for the enjoyment of the media (Trepte, Reinecke & Behr, 2010)."
I'm not sure if that is their own stretching of the results or if perhaps the research authors themselves made such claims in the full paper. Now I'm just more curious..