The gaming experience over the
last decade has evolved tremendously and player-customized avatars, or virtual
doppelgangers, are becoming more realistic every day. Past studies have shown
women may prefer avatars that don't look like them but a new study by USC
Institute for Creative Technologies and University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign shows no gender difference or negative effect on player's
performance or subjective involvement based on whether a photorealistic avatar
looked like them or like their friend.
The study is the latest to
examine benefits to using self-similar avatars in virtual experiences, and
builds primarily on a study by Gale Lucas that analyzed players' performance
and subjective involvement with a photorealistic self-similar avatar in a maze
running game. Results showed effects based on avatar appearance as well as
gender differences in participants' experiences. The new findings reveal how
important it is to carefully consider the extent to which high fidelity
self-similar avatars align with the purpose and structure of an interactive
experience before development.
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