Influencing Play through Design

Abstract

This thesis aims to examine if the visual features of virtual identities that players use to represent themselves within different game worlds may influence their interactions within those game worlds. If such a correlation exists the thesis aims to build a better understanding of the level of influence these visual features have on how a player interacts within a game world. In order to identify and evaluate any correlations between differences in visual avatar features compared to any differences in playstyle the research involved conducting an online survey in addition to a small scale observation study. To differentiate the players and create groupings to better identify differences the thesis examines the concepts of player types (Bartle, 1995) and player motivations (Yee, 2005). Through the use of which it was able to properly explore a player's behaviour and the influencing motivations behind it, while being able to compare these motivations to the visual features the player’s virtual identity may possess.