The anonymity and fantasy of games frees the player from the yoke of their real-life history
and social situation, allowing them to be more like the person they wish to be.
(Bessière, Seay, & Kiesler, 2007) Welcome back everyone, today I wanted to discuss
character creation and why it is so important to gamers.
When I say, "character creation" I am referring to a very broad sense of creating,
developing and customizing a character in game, everything from the character creation
menu, where you can select your race, body and face design, all the way to the gear you
collect and choose to wear and even skins, shaders and trinkets that you customize your
characters with.
As I researched this area, and as I started to realize how video game characters can fulfill
very real psychological needs, I couldn't help but think more and more about the impact
of microtransactions; microtransactions that affect how your character looks and behaves,
microtransactions that essentially impact character creation.
Whilst many channels have covered microtransactions in the wake of Shadow of War, Battlefront
II and Destiny 2, I wanted to give a different perspective to how microtransactions undermine
the psychology of playing games and character creation; how microtransactions can single-handedly
destroy motivation to play a game.
The title images used in this video was provided by Gammatrap, all patreon donations go towards
paying for the artwork to complement my videos, I don't take any donations myself.
This is myelin games and I hope you enjoy this commentary on Why Character creation
is so important and why microtransactions should stay away.
[INTRO] 1.
The ideal self.
"World of Warcraft players would create their main character more similar to their
ideal self then the players themselves were" (Bessière et al., 2007).
Have you ever made a character that resembled you, or at least parts of you, maybe your
hair, your eyes, or even your attributes or attitude, strength or the willingness to just
punch things.
Well, according to the research, chances are that you have, however the characters that
you create in game often blend elements of who you are, with elements of who you want
to be i.e. your ideal self.
Why is this important?
Firstly, injecting aspects of ourselves into our virtual characters, whether it be physical
appearance or even behavioral, grounds us to that character and allows us to be immersed
in the virtual world.
Having the option to create and customize characters that represent us, even in the
slightest of ways, increases immersion in the game.
Secondly, the ability to create characters that amalgamate who we actually are and who
we want to be may increase self-confidence and self-worth (McKenna & Bargh, 2000).
Normally, there is a discrepancy between who we actually are and who we want to be, reducing
that discrepancy by playing a character online may have positive benefits (McKenna & Bargh,
2000).
So, character creation is important in increasing immersion and potentially producing positive
feelings.
Of course, not everyone creates characters resembling themselves or ideal selves, say
for example, men creating female characters, there is a different set of motivations behind
this, and it may be as simply as preferring to look at a female body for hours on end
or choosing to experience activities from a different perspective.
Regardless, lets continue with the idea that character creation allows us to blend aspects
of who we are, with who we want to be, creating a better version of us and increasing our
immersion in the game world.
Now, when we beat that next boss, finish that raid encounter, pass that mission, part of
ourselves are achieving that, we are being stronger, faster, more agile, more intelligent,
better at coordinating a team, we are demonstrating aspects of our better selves, and that in
itself is internally motivating for players, but we are also often rewarded with loot,
new gear that we not only use to customize and update our better self but we also use
it to demonstrate our achievements to other players.
Character creation and customization is not just about the individual, but it is used
as a form of communication with other players in the game world.
2.
What does your gear say about you?
"When encountering an avatar, individuals appear to use visual cues encoded in the avatar
to form an impression of that avatar and its user."
(Fong & Mar, 2015)
How you customize and create your character impacts how other players perceive you.
For example, choosing to give your character tattoos may result in others perceiving you
as sensation seeking and risk-tasking (Wohlrab, Fink, Kappeler, & Brewer, 2009).
When you equip certain gear or loot in game, you are not only equipping gear that helps
you progress though the game, but you are customizing your character which in turn impacts
how other characters in the game perceive you, for games that feature raids or end game
content that requires teamwork, if you are wearing that gear, the gear you got from completing
that raid, other players now see you as a competent player or maybe even a competent
leader, or a powerful ally, or a source of knowledge or even just a team player.
Customizing your character changes and enhances how you interact with other players in game
and consequently increases immersion into the game (Cairns, Cox, Day, Martin, & Perryman,
2013).
3.
Immersion "Customization and immersion satisfaction
predict gamer loyalty, contributing to efforts to enhance gamer loyalty by means of avatar
and game designs."
(Teng, 2010) One of the words I have said over and over
again is immersion, the first theme, the ideal self, allows us to customize characters to
represent our ideal selves which increases immersion, the second theme, what does your
gear say, impacts our social interactions in game, which also has been shown to impact
immersion into the game.
Players who are immersed, play for longer and have tremendous brand loyalty (Teng, 2010).
How do you kill immersion?
Poorly implemented microtransactions.
Remember that sometimes we create characters to represent our ideal self, our best selves,
and in a game without microtransactions that is achievable, if I show dedication, motivation,
commitment, team-work, my best qualities I will eventually get the gear I want and be
able to customize my character in a way that represents me and my best self.
Nothing brings you back to reality quicker than realizing you cannot afford to customize
your character because the only way you can customize your character and express yourself
is through paying with real money.
This leads to players disassociating from their beloved characters, leading to less
immersion, leading to less play time, leading to less brand loyalty.
Social interaction in-game increases immersion, and we know that players interact through
the customization of their characters, so if you see a player wearing gear that can
be earned OR bought with real money, in my opinion is that the gear is devalued.
You then question whether the gear was purchased or earned, if it was earned it encourages
you to perceive the player as powerful, knowledgeable, a leader, purchased encourages you to perceive
the player as "that rich dude".
Questioning how that player obtained that gear, removes you from the play world, removes
the immersion, which leads to less play time, leading to less brand loyalty.
Microtransactions can be done correctly, but when they heavily impact character creation
and customization, the player will be removed from the fantasy of the game world, and that
will lead to the exact opposite of what game companies want, player abandonment; abandonment
of their characters, abandonment of the game and distrust towards the company.
That concludes this commentary on Why character creation is so important to gamers, if you
would like to support the channel and cannot think of a comment, you can leave the word
immersion, one of the most important things a game company should aim for, and something
that is easily undermined by microtransactions.
This is myelin games and as usual it has been a pleasure, peace.
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