Question How important are our avatars? Survey on avatars... I'd appreciate your help :)

[r__green]

Hi everyone! 🙂

Are you stuck at home and feel like helping out some gaming researchers to potentially win a prize?

If you are aged 18 YEARS OR OLDER and PLAY GAMES ON A WEEKLY BASIS, I would be really grateful if you could please complete my survey for my Master’s thesis. It should take about 20-25 minutes.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RSRYKKH

I’m interested in how we interact with our gaming avatar/character and how much it matters to our gaming experience. You can complete the survey regardless of the type of avatar you mainly use (e.g., it can be a human, car, animal, alien… anything)!

You will go in the draw to win a $50 AUD Coles/Myer voucher. If you’re a research participant from the University of Adelaide, we can also award you participation credit.

Thank you for reading my post and (hopefully) completing the survey!

 

[Zoid]

I completed the survey. Best of luck with your research!

This survey seems to be most applicable to RPGs with custom or selectable characters. It also seems most applicable to folks who spend the majority of their time playing as a single avatar, since it asks lots of questions about how one identifies with their avatar, singular.

I'm afraid you may not have gotten very good data from me since I spread out my gaming time broadly over different games with a wide variety of player characters, and since I play many games that don't have a player "avatar" at all, but maybe some of it will be useful.

I'd love to know more about the design of your study! I'm curious - what sort of analysis do you hope to do on this data once it is collected? What sorts of conclusions do you hope to draw from the COVID-19 questions, gaming addiction questions, and general mental health questions?

EDIT: grammar

 

[Frindis]

Same as @Zoid and I am also curious as to to the design. The majority of the questions were not about avatars and for me, it seemed like it was more about COVID 19 and it's psychological effects. Some of the questions were also very similar, which I did not quite understand: especially the ones about how you relate to your avatar.

 

[Johnway]

i've done the questionnaire. I would say perhaps to change the main questions to relate to "whenever you play a game that you can customize your character (stats, backstory, appearance)" as a lot of the questions i could safely say no when there was no chance to customize my character. I play POE and most of the stuff wasn't applicable to me.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

Done but I felt like this is more for MMORPG players, especially those who pour extra real-world money into customization. Some questions felt really "same-ish" and good luck interpreting my answers based on that game I play now.

Also dumb me thought at first this is about avatars like the images we use on the internet forums/social media etc. I am not the brightest lol.

 

[Zloth]

Also dumb me thought at first this is about avatars like the images we use on the internet forums/social media etc. I am not the brightest lol.

That's what I would assume - too. There's tons of games with no avatar at all out there if it's in-game, and games where you play a whole set of characters with avatars.

Oh man, now I have this song stuck in my head!

 

[I Will Haunt You]

@Zloth

I'll up you one.

View: https://youtu.be/urNyg1ftMIU

 

[r__green]

I completed the survey. Best of luck with your research!

This survey seems to be most applicable to RPGs with custom or selectable characters. It also seems most applicable to folks who spend the majority of their time playing as a single avatar, since it asks lots of questions about how one identifies with their avatar, singular.

I'm afraid you may not have gotten very good data from me since I spread out my gaming time broadly over different games with a wide variety of player characters, and since I play many games that don't have a player "avatar" at all, but maybe some of it will be useful.

I'd love to know more about the design of your study! I'm curious - what sort of analysis do you hope to do on this data once it is collected? What sorts of conclusions do you hope to draw from the COVID-19 questions, gaming addiction questions, and general mental health questions?

EDIT: grammar

Hi Zoid. Thank you so much for completing the survey and for your comment! I appreciate your feedback, and yes - very good points!

Some researchers have suggested that avatars are really important to us, and that we are 'attached' to them. It's been suggested that we mainly create them to reflect 'better', 'idealised' versions of ourselves (to compensate for any areas we perceivably lack in the 'real world'). There's even been some people who recommend avatar-based interventions in psychology! I agree that avatars seems most applicable to MMORPGs, but since the research recommendations seem to cover gaming more broadly, we are hoping to recruit gamers from all genres. For our data analysis, we are looking to see whether avatar identification (i.e., the extent to which we identify with our avatars) is an important, unique factor that contributes to regular gaming. Or, is it the case that avatar identification is trivial in comparison to other factors (e.g., stress, depression) that contribute to more 'excessive' gaming habits? (please note: I use the term 'excessive' loosely and do not mean any offence to fellow gamers out there!). Specifically, we will conduct a hierarchical regression to test this moderation hypothesis.

Great question about COVID-19! We included these questions to provide some context to our data. It's likely that during self-isolation, we have had behavioural changes due to work/study/social changes. By asking about your typical gaming habits before and since COVID-19, we might be able to see whether you have been gaming more (which provides some context for our data).

I hope I have answered your questions. Please feel free to share any other thoughts/questions you may have. I'm a bit biased, but I think it's really interesting to hear people's thoughts/views on their avatar! Thanks again

 

[r__green]

Same as @Zoid and I am also curious as to to the design. The majority of the questions were not about avatars and for me, it seemed like it was more about COVID 19 and it's psychological effects. Some of the questions were also very similar, which I did not quite understand: especially the ones about how you relate to your avatar.

Hi there, Frindis. Thank you for your time and for leaving a comment! Please see above for my response to Zoid regarding the design and some background info for our research
I agree that some questions are similar - we did not design those avatar questions; they were from The Player Identification Scale (Van Looy et al. 2012), if you'd like to check it out. The questions pertaining to psychological wellbeing and avatar identification will be used in our analyses (not in relation to the COVID-19 questions).
I appreciate your feedback and thank you again!

 

[r__green]

i've done the questionnaire. I would say perhaps to change the main questions to relate to "whenever you play a game that you can customize your character (stats, backstory, appearance)" as a lot of the questions i could safely say no when there was no chance to customize my character. I play POE and most of the stuff wasn't applicable to me.

Hi Johnway. Thank you so much for completing the survey and for your constructive feedback

 

[r__green]

Done but I felt like this is more for MMORPG players, especially those who pour extra real-world money into customization. Some questions felt really "same-ish" and good luck interpreting my answers based on that game I play now.

Also dumb me thought at first this is about avatars like the images we use on the internet forums/social media etc. I am not the brightest lol.

Hi there, thank you so much and thanks for your constructive feedback That's not dumb at all! Sorry, I should have clarified the type of avatars we were interested in. You're right though because avatars are everywhere these days... even my little Netflix logo lol.

 

[r__green]

That's what I would assume - too. There's tons of games with no avatar at all out there if it's in-game, and games where you play a whole set of characters with avatars.

Oh man, now I have this song stuck in my head!

Hi Zloth, you're right! Thanks for the comment, and song (hahaha it's in my head now too).

 

[Zoid]

Hi Zoid. Thank you so much for completing the survey and for your comment! I appreciate your feedback, and yes - very good points!

Some researchers have suggested that avatars are really important to us, and that we are 'attached' to them. It's been suggested that we mainly create them to reflect 'better', 'idealised' versions of ourselves (to compensate for any areas we perceivably lack in the 'real world'). There's even been some people who recommend avatar-based interventions in psychology! I agree that avatars seems most applicable to MMORPGs, but since the research recommendations seem to cover gaming more broadly, we are hoping to recruit gamers from all genres. For our data analysis, we are looking to see whether avatar identification (i.e., the extent to which we identify with our avatars) is an important, unique factor that contributes to regular gaming. Or, is it the case that avatar identification is trivial in comparison to other factors (e.g., stress, depression) that contribute to more 'excessive' gaming habits? (please note: I use the term 'excessive' loosely and do not mean any offence to fellow gamers out there!). Specifically, we will conduct a hierarchical regression to test this moderation hypothesis.

Great question about COVID-19! We included these questions to provide some context to our data. It's likely that during self-isolation, we have had behavioural changes due to work/study/social changes. By asking about your typical gaming habits before and since COVID-19, we might be able to see whether you have been gaming more (which provides some context for our data).

I hope I have answered your questions. Please feel free to share any other thoughts/questions you may have. I'm a bit biased, but I think it's really interesting to hear people's thoughts/views on their avatar! Thanks again

Cool! Thanks for the thorough response. I think studying the psychology of how we represent ourselves in games is really interesting. I also think it's wise to include the COVID-19 questions so that your data can be contextualized, since heightened stresses and isolation during this time period could skew the data.

Are there other studies on gaming habits that you're looking at to determine a metric for "normal" vs "excessive" gaming?

I think it's good to try to reach a broader population of gamers than just MMORPGs, but I do want to point out that you might get messy data from people that play non-avatar based games. The game I've spent the most time in recently doesn't have a player selectable or customizable character, so answering questions about how I related to this character as if they were an avatar I created was tough. Do you think those sorts of answers will muddy the waters?

That might be my bad for not understanding who you were targeting with the survey.

Anyway, best of luck and thanks for sharing your research with us! Would love to hear about the results when you're all done.

 

[r__green]

Cool! Thanks for the thorough response. I think studying the psychology of how we represent ourselves in games is really interesting. I also think it's wise to include the COVID-19 questions so that your data can be contextualized, since heightened stresses and isolation during this time period could skew the data.

Are there other studies on gaming habits that you're looking at to determine a metric for "normal" vs "excessive" gaming?

I think it's good to try to reach a broader population of gamers than just MMORPGs, but I do want to point out that you might get messy data from people that play non-avatar based games. The game I've spent the most time in recently doesn't have a player selectable or customizable character, so answering questions about how I related to this character as if they were an avatar I created was tough. Do you think those sorts of answers will muddy the waters?

That might be my bad for not understanding who you were targeting with the survey.

Anyway, best of luck and thanks for sharing your research with us! Would love to hear about the results when you're all done.

Thank you again, Zoid, for your comment and thoughts It's awesome having a discussion about it and hearing your thoughts!
Very good question about normal vs. excessive gaming. It's arbitrary, isn't it! We used Petry et al.'s (2014) screening measure for excessive gaming (which is based on the current DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for 'Internet Gaming Disorder'). The reference is: Petry et al. (2014). An international consensus for assessing Internet Gaming Disorder using the new DSM-5 approach. Addiction, 109 (9), 1399-1406. The DSM-5 indicates that five of the criteria need to be met, but we aren't 'diagnosing' people. It's merely a screening tool because we recognise that the lines between regular gaming and 'excessive' gaming is blurry, especially given the times we're in!

Interesting point about the messy data and yes - you're definitely right, so that's something we will point out in our discussion of the results. Since posting the survey, others have shared this concern, so it's been great to reflect on how we can improve our surveys for next time

Thanks so much again for spending the time to reflect on your answers, experiences, and thoughts with us. This information adds richness to our data, so it's much appreciated!

 

[I Will Haunt You]

It's an interesting survey, but one I don't really "get". While I like to dress up my avatars and make each look as unique as possible they are essentially the same as actors I watch in a movie. I am sharing their experiences, not living them myself. Just a bonus that I get to make some cosmetic and superficial decisions on their behalf.

It's a rare occurrence where two different characters can experience a vastly different outcome in multiple playthroughs so physical customization is very important to me, but never to the extent where I actually believe I am representing myself within a game or letting a characterization act for me. It's always about, for example, making my female nightelf be as different as possible from my male nightelf because they will share nearly 90% or more of the same experiences throughout their leveling. Same starting area, same quests, same dungeons, same dialog, etc.

 

[Zoid]

Thank you again, Zoid, for your comment and thoughts It's awesome having a discussion about it and hearing your thoughts!
Very good question about normal vs. excessive gaming. It's arbitrary, isn't it! We used Petry et al.'s (2014) screening measure for excessive gaming (which is based on the current DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for 'Internet Gaming Disorder'). The reference is: Petry et al. (2014). An international consensus for assessing Internet Gaming Disorder using the new DSM-5 approach. Addiction, 109 (9), 1399-1406. The DSM-5 indicates that five of the criteria need to be met, but we aren't 'diagnosing' people. It's merely a screening tool because we recognise that the lines between regular gaming and 'excessive' gaming is blurry, especially given the times we're in!

Interesting point about the messy data and yes - you're definitely right, so that's something we will point out in our discussion of the results. Since posting the survey, others have shared this concern, so it's been great to reflect on how we can improve our surveys for next time

Thanks so much again for spending the time to reflect on your answers, experiences, and thoughts with us. This information adds richness to our data, so it's much appreciated!

Awesome. Thanks for providing that source, and best of luck with your project!

 

[r__green]

It's an interesting survey, but one I don't really "get". While I like to dress up my avatars and make each look as unique as possible they are essentially the same as actors I watch in a movie. I am sharing their experiences, not living them myself. Just a bonus that I get to make some cosmetic and superficial decisions on their behalf.

It's a rare occurrence where two different characters can experience a vastly different outcome in multiple playthroughs so physical customization is very important to me, but never to the extent where I actually believe I am representing myself within a game or letting a characterization act for me. It's always about, for example, making my female nightelf be as different as possible from my male nightelf because they will share nearly 90% or more of the same experiences throughout their leveling. Same starting area, same quests, same dungeons, same dialog, etc.

Hi there, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Thank you so much for your comment and for sharing your thoughts. It's very interesting to hear about your experiences and the extent to which avatars actually represent meaningful, personal aspects of gaming. Thanks again, it's much appreciated

 

[Dan]

I completed this as an MMO player, but I don't care that much about the character that I have created Only the time I have invested into it.

 

[r__green]

I completed this as an MMO player, but I don't care that much about the character that I have created Only the time I have invested into it.

Hi Dan, thank you so much for completing the survey and for leaving a comment I appreciate your extra insight!