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What are the most important avatar customization features?
20 August 2008 | PlayOn authors archive
Avatar customization systems vary greatly across virtual worlds: some allow users to customize a few high-level features from a limited list of options, while others give the users almost total control over their appearance. We wanted to assess the relative importance of each customization feature to uncover which parts of a user’s virtual body matter most to them. To do so, we asked players in each of our three games to evaluate the importance (1: not important to 5: essential) of each character design feature provided by the avatar customization system in their environment of choice. Also, participants were asked to answer how much time they spent customizing each of those features (1 = almost none, 5 = a great deal). The results were more surprising than we anticipated – read more below for a detailed description of our findings.
Our results showed that the most important avatar customization features in WoW were hair style (mean=4.16, Std. = .941), facial characteristics (mean = 4.16, Std. = 1.094) and hair color (mean = 4.04, Std. = 1.040). Character skin color (mean = 3.08, Std. = 1.233) was the least important feature. The rank amount of time spent customizing each avatar feature was similar to the importance. In other words, users spent the most time customizing the features they think matter most.
In Maple Story the most important feature was, again, hair style (mean=3.93, Std. =1.104), followed by hair color (mean = 3.37, Std. = 1.356) and weapon (mean = 3.38, Std. = 1.480). Shoes (mean = 2.38, Std. = 1.192) was the least important feature. As before, users spent the most time customizing features that were most important to them.
Finally, the most important features in Second Life were the avatar’s body (mean = 4.35, Std. = 1.01), torso/legs (mean = 4.20, Std. = 1.10) and hair (mean = 4.18, Std. = 1.20). Skin tone (mean = 3.92, Std. = 1.256) was the least important customization option. Interestingly, Second Life users spent a great deal of time on almost all of the possible character features, to the exclusion of skin tone (mean time = 3.33, Std. = 1.405).
Overall, it seems as if hair style and color are considered “high impact” features by users across the three environments, and this despite wide differences between the capabilities of each customization system: given the dozens of options offered by SL, for instance, it is interesting that hair style/color was still listed as the most important option, just as it was in WoW or MS with their much more limited systems. In our next post, we will discuss possible reasons why “hair matters” so much.
Comments (5)
A significant thing about skin tone in Second Life: most avatars wear skins that are not modifiable. Skins are purchased or available as freebies. Generally, but not always (as in real life), purchased skins are of better quality, but the key thing is that skin tone is a received quality, given, as a result of the unmodifiable nature of the skin.
I would love to conduct a study on EQ2′s system that allows the player to visually display any armor model they have loaded onto their displayed equipment tab vs their actual equipment that provide their stats.
It has always fascinated me that no other game that I am aware of has cashed in on this system, which essentially destroys the “high-end clone army” issue by allowing any player to equip any item usable by their class to be displayed.
It removes any instance of people “losing their look” due to necessary gear upgrades.
The only possible negative aspects that I have found:
no longer able to visually discern your opponents class or quality of gear in pvp conflicts.
Potential for “realism abuse” by having tanks in dresses and such.
Both of these concerns can be handled by opt-out options that disable the “displayed gear” of opposing faction, or specifically in a pvp conflict, or to all players.
It would be similar to when EQ2 implemented their alternate character models: if you like them, enable them, if you abhor them, disable.
I would love to get in contact with some of the people in charge of EQ2 to see if I could establish some research on this topic.
It’s really important to have a huge choice of customization for your avatar. As games get bigger with more people playing, the need to look different from everyone else becomes a big deal and helps to establish what your goals are to other players.
I play Maplestory, and since there is a limited number of clothing, skin, and face types it gets to the point were I’ve seen everything.
Now if we could change the height, weight, and dimension of our characters, we could have a wider base of varization and it would make hanging around other players and exploring more interesting. Right now we’re forced to play with others, sometimes even people we don’t like to gain exp and level. So different looks on people would make it more interesting and a little easier to be with those people.
Oh, one more thing; there should definitely be avatars mods that can only be obtained through a difficult quest or something along those lines. It gives a reason to do something more difficult instead of following the crowd.
Every high level in wow looks the same! All the gear is the same! After a while I wonder if I should just go totally consumerist IRL and get that Armani or whatever outfit just so I can have that expensive clone-look. Also I worry about the whole GLAMPUNK appearance. The smokin’ shoulders and the impossible blades that just get dumber and dumber lookin, longer, thicker and lit up like Christmas! I cant agree with Ryan QUESTING for that Arnie body? Let’s not carry the Narcissism too far !!!! Oh what the hell its all fantasy! Have fun
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August 20th, 2008 at 7:39pm
Posted by NBarnes
I really think more games need to let people vary height and build more. Having everybody exactly the same height and weight gets a little weird.