Dress to impress but not for success – BSc Thesis
Title: Dress to Impress but not for Success – how Immersion and Identity Affect the Game Play Experience via the Visual Design of the Avatar
Title in Swedish: Dress to impress but not for success – En studie om hur immersion och identitet påverkar spelupplevelsen genom en avatars visuella uttryck
Authors: Hanna Josephson, Jonathan Haag
Institution: Stocholm University (SU), Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV), Sweden
Date and language: Spring term 2022, Swedish
Type: Thesis at BSc level degree project 15 HP (sv: Självständigt arbete på grundnivå [kandidatexamen])
Key words: World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, immersion, identity, glamour, transmogrification, avatar, gear, armour
Advisor: Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari
Abstract
World of Warcraft (WoW) and Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) are currently two of the biggest, in terms of player base, massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) in the world. Both games allows the player to customize the avatar’s appearance in multiple ways, for example by changing the appearance of the avatar’s gear or physical attributes. Previous studies suggest that the freedom to be able to customize an avatar both elevates as well as worsens a gaming experience. This study focuses on two of the most important aspects of a game experience, immersion and identity, and examines how these are affected by the avatar customization.
The study’s question is thus: “How can concepts such as immersion and identity in MMORPGs af ect players’ gaming experience when players can change the look of their avatar during the game?” To answer this, grounded theory was used as a research strategy and questionnaires, containing both closed and open questions, were used as a data collection method. The data has been analyzed by applying thematic analysis and descriptive statistics.
The results show that both FFXIV- and WoW-players value the freedom in the avatar’s customization and don’t create their avatars as a version of themselves. Despite this FFXIV- and WoW-players experience immersion and the expression of identity differently from one another. The conclusion was that FFXIV-players value the expression of identity higher than the WoW-players, who instead experience a higher level of immersion than the FFXIV-players.