Analysis of 3D virtual avatars for video game experience

Avatar personalization may contribute to the engagement in a video game. This exploratory study investigated which features a 3D virtual avatar should have for the user to experience Body Ownership. 10 participants (aged 20 to 30) participated in this study. For each participant three avatars were created based on a single picture of them from the shoulders up. The three software that created the avatars are Avatar SDK, Wolf 3D and Character Creator. After the avatars were created every participant filled out a questionnaire and rated each avatar according to the features. The features that the participants were asked to rate were skin color, hair color, hair style, shape of the face, personal details (e.g. freckles and moles), body shape, height and clothes. The results show that the participants had the highest level of Body Ownership with the avatar from the Avatar SDK, which was rated the highest on the features skin color and shape of the face. Most of the participants would choose the avatar created by the Wolf 3D software to play a video game with, because it has a more cartoon-like look. When the participants were asked what they thought would be the most important features the highest rated answers were skin color, shape of the face and hair color.