CHI '09 - Body and Mind: A Study of Avatar Personalization in Three Virtual Worlds

Paper By: Nicolas Ducheneaut, Ming-Hui "Don" Wen, Nicholas Yee, Greg Wadley

Commented On: n/a

Summary: 

This paper talks about avatar creation specific to three games, World of Warcraft, Maple Story, and Second Life. The authors administered a questionnaire to more than a hundred users of these games, to see which features users most cared about, and what goes on in the head of a user when they are making an avatar. They found that users generally try to make an idealized version of themselves by cutting off a few pounds or reducing their age by a couple years. Also, they tend to focus on hair when creating their avatar, and they focus least on shoes. People also associate personalities with their characters that resemble what the person wants to be.

My Thoughts:

This was a good paper. Since I want to go into game programming, it is good to know what people look for in avatar creation. If I ever have to design one, I'll be ready. Having played a few games in my life, I have noticed that avatar creation things usually have a ton of hair options. Now I know it's because people care about hair a lot more than the other options. One thing I didn't like was that they used the BMI to judge if people were compensating for their weight. BMI doesn't measure how fat someone is. It messures their weight relative to their height. That weight could be mostly muscle. For example, my BMI says I'm overweight, but you probably wouldn't think that by looking at me. By using the BMI, they are coming to conclusions that are not justified.