Customizing your rewards: how avatar customization levels influence video game engagement
Date
2025
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Research on avatar customization lacks insight into how the quantity and quality of options impact the player experience. This study examines how increasing customization options and using those options affects players’ engagement with video games. It proposes that customization can directly be related to avatar perception, by way of the avatar matching a type of player’s self, based on self-discrepancy theory (actual, ought, and ideal self), and avatar embodiment. It proposes that those two types of avatar perception are interrelated and mediate the link between customization and engagement: hypothesizing that using more customization options will boost transportation, enjoyment, boundary expansion, and psychological need satisfaction, directly and indirectly. To test these relationships, 71 undergraduate participants at the University of Delaware were assigned to one of four conditions, each varying in avatar customization level. Using Mass Effect 3, participants created an avatar based on their assigned condition, played the game, and completed a survey assessing their experience. Path analysis included two models: one controlling for customization time and one without, due to collinearity. Results showed that customization did not affect other variables under study. Actual self-matched avatars predicted embodiment. Embodiment and actual self-matched avatars predicted psychological need satisfaction, and there was an indirect relationship between actual self-matched avatars and psychological need satisfaction through embodiment. Ideal self-matched avatars increased transportation, enjoyment, and psychological need satisfaction in model one. Enjoyment was not predicted by ideal self-matched avatars in model 2, but ought self-matched avatars increase enjoyment in both models. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of how self-representation and embodiment shape player experiences and contributes to the scant literature on avatar customization.
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Keywords
Avatars, Digital games, Embodiment, Immersion, Self-discrepancy theory, TEBOTS