Abstract
Mobile games with role-playing features are currently one of the most popular types of mobile games on the market. From the viewpoint of game development, it is crucial to encourage players to continue playing these games. The relationship of a player with his/her game character/avatar is an important factor for game design. However, few studies have explored the effects of game character design on character/avatar identification in mobile games. The results of these studies can be used to evaluate the aforementioned effects and can be used as references for game design development. The present study aimed to explore the character design factors that can affect character identification through interface experiments. The study results were as following: Various character design factors affected the players’ character identification types, especially the sense of embodied presence and wishful identification. Game developers can use these results as references for studying gaming psychology and for designing and developing mobile games.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Barr P, Biddle R, Brown J (2006) Changing the virtual self: avatar transformations in popular games. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Australasian conference on interactive entertainment, Perth, Australia, pp 83–90
Bessière K, Seay AF, Kiesler S (2007) The ideal elf: identity exploration in World of Warcraft. Cyberpsychol Behav 10(4):530–535
Chiou H (2006) Quantitative research and statistical analysis in social & behavioral sciences. Wunan Publishing, Taipei
DailyView (2016) Is not tired to play, the top 10 mibile games in the early half year of 2016. Network Big Data Analysis of DailyView. http://dailyview.tw/Daily/2016/06/27. Accessed 1 Sept 2016
Google Play (2016) Pokémon GO. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nianticlabs.pokemongo&hl=zh_TW. Accessed 2 Sept 2016
Google Play (2018) Application: games. https://play.google.com/store/apps/category/GAME?hl=zh_TW. Accessed 26 Jan 2018
Guitton MJ (2010) Cross-modal compensation between name and visual aspect in socially active avatars. Comput Hum Behav 26(6):1772–1776
Hallford N, LaMothe A, Hallford J (2002) Swords and circuitry: a designer’s guide to computer role-playing games. CENGAGE Learning, Course Technology Independence, Boston
Hooi R, Cho H (2014) Avatar-driven self-disclosure: the virtual me is the actual me. Comput Hum Behav 39:20–28
Jai B-R (2002) Cinnecting culture. Department of Applied Sociology and Institute of Sociology, Nanhua University, Taiwan
Jansz J, Avis C, Vosmeer M (2010) Playing the Sims2: an exploration of gender differences in players’ motivations and patterns of play. New Media Soc 12(2):235–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444809342267
Li C-J, Yang T-A (2005) A research of performance and personality of on-line game players in “Lineage”. Kaohsiung Normal Univ J 19:85–104
Lin H, Wang H (2014) Avatar creation in virtual worlds: behaviors and motivations. Comput Hum Behav 34:213–218
Lin P-Y (2007) The research of the player in the on-line game: take “World of Warcraft “as an example. National Chung Cheng University. Master thesis
Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (2015) “Digital game survey” 16 to 35-year-old players accounted for the overall 80%. https://mic.iii.org.tw/IndustryObservations_PressRelease02.aspx?sqno=400. Accessed 28 Aug 2017
Park S, Chung N (2011) Mediating characters of self-presentation desire in online game community commitment and trust behavior of Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games. Comput Hum Behav 27:2372–2379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb
Schau HJ, Gilly MC (2003) We are what we post? Self-presentation in personal web space. J Consum Res 30(3):385–404
Soutter ARB, Hitchens M (2016) The relationship between character identification and flow state within video games. Comput Hum Behav 55:1030–1038
Suh K-S, Kim H, Suh EK (2011) What if your avatar looks like you? Dualcongruity perspective for avatar use. MIS Q 35(3):711–729
Van Looy J, Courtois C, De Vocht M, De Marez L (2012) Player identification in online games: validation of a scale for measuring identification in MMORPGs. Media Psychol 15(2):197–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2012.674917
Van Reijmersdal EA, Jansz J, Peters O, van Noort G (2013) Why girls go pink: game character identification and game-players’ motivations. Comput Hum Behav 29(6):2640–2649
Watts M (2016) Avatar self-identification, self-esteem, and perceived social capital in the real world: a study of World of Warcraft players and their avatars. Graduate Theses and Dissertations of University of South Florida Scholar Commons. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6155. Accessed 30 Aug 2016
Yee N (2006) The demographics, motivations, and derived experiences of users of massively multi-user online graphical environments. Presence Teleoperators Virtual Environ 15(3):309–329
Zhao Y, Wang W, Zhu Y (2010) Antecedents of the closeness of human-avatar relationships in a virtual world. J Database Manag 21(2):41–68
Acknowledgement
This study was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, MOST 105-2410-H-155-058. The authors are grateful for this support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Li, E.C., Liang, YW., Lu, HN., Chen, JY. (2019). The Effect of Character Design on Character Identification for Mobile Games. In: Bagnara, S., Tartaglia, R., Albolino, S., Alexander, T., Fujita, Y. (eds) Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018). IEA 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 824. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96070-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96071-5
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)