Identity Projection

Players think of and relate to their avatars in very different ways. Some choose to identify and personify their avatar with their own personality, while others objectify their avatar and see it as a pawn in an abstracted playing field. As the following graph shows, female players are more likely to see their characters as idealized version of themselves, and age has a greater effect on male than on female players.

Players who see their characters as idealized versions of themselves do not spend more time playing the game, but they do indicate a greater willingness to stay with the game indefinitely than players who disagreed with that statement, probably due to personal and emotional investment in their characters.

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Players were also asked to indicate how much they agreed with the statement, "I think of my avatars as a part of an extension of me." While there were no significant gender differences or age differences, there was a very clean positive correlation with hours played per week.

There was also a very clear positive correlation with indicated willingness to stay with the game indefinitely.

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Finally, respondents were asked to indicate their agreement with the statement, "I think of my avatars as just pawns in a game."

In full complement with the two data sets presented above, there was a negative correlation with both hours played per week and projected willingness to stay with the game indefinitely.

Together, these three data sets show how identification with the avatar affects game play per week and projected willingness to stay with the game, probably as a function of personal and emotional investment. Perhaps agreement with identity projection statements could be thought of a measure for emotional and personal investment into the game.