Being in The Game: Effects of Avatar Choice and Point of View On Psychophysiological Responses During Play

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Being in the Game: Effects of

Avatar Choice and Point of View on
Psychophysiological Responses During
Play
a b
Sohye Lim & Byron Reeves
a
Yonsei University , Seoul, Korea
b
Department of Communication , Stanford University , California,
USA
Published online: 01 Dec 2009.
To cite this article: Sohye Lim & Byron Reeves (2009) Being in the Game: Effects of Avatar Choice and
Point of View on Psychophysiological Responses During Play, Media Psychology, 12:4, 348-370, DOI:
10.1080/15213260903287242
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15213260903287242
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Media Psychology, 12:348–370, 2009
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1521-3269 print/1532-785X online
DOI: 10.1080/15213260903287242
Being in the Game:

Effects of Avatar Choice and Point of View on
Psychophysiological Responses During Play
SOHYE LIM
Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
BYRON REEVES
Downloaded by [Eindhoven Technical University] at 01:51 05 January 2015
Department of Communication, Stanford University, California, USA
The innovative features of multi-player computer games offer com-

pelling opportunities for self-representation during interactions,
and the ways in which these avatars are chosen and manipu-
lated may change interactive experiences. This study investigated
the effects of avatar choice (choice vs. no choice) and visual
point of view (POV; first-person vs. third-person) on the physio-
logical arousal and subjective evaluations of game experiences. A
2 (Avatar Choice, No Avatar Choice) 2 ( first-person POV, third-
person POV) 2 ( female players, male players) mixed-design
experiment was conducted (N D 22). The results demonstrated that
being able to pick the character that will represent the player in the
game leads to greater arousal, especially for males. Visual POVs
alone did not affect the game player’s arousal, but moderated the
effect of avatar choice on the game player’s heart rates. Avatar
choice produced a more pronounced effect in the third-person
POV (where the ‘‘camera’’ was located behind the avatar) in which
avatar choice was visually more reinforced than in the first-person
POV (where the ‘‘camera’’ was the eyes of the avatar). The results
also revealed that the gender of the game player was a significant
factor in game play experience. The results suggest theoretical
implications of video game self-representation and effects on game
player’s psychophysiological responses.
Interactive games are a complicated art form that generate an unprecedented

level of active, psychological involvement. Conventions borrowed from other
Address correspondence to Sohye Lim, Communication Research Institute, Yonsei

University, 134 Shinchondong, Seodaemungu, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea. E-mail: sohei
lim@gmail.com
348
Avatar Choice and Visual POV in MMORPGs 349
media deepen emotional engagement, and computer graphics and sound

technologies are pushing the frontier of media richness even further. This
study examines the opportunities that interactive games provide to create,
negotiate, and manipulate self-representations, one of the most compelling
new features of games. New computer games facilitate immediacy through
features that manipulate the way players are represented in the gaming
environment. The more these features succeed in maximizing the sense of
self-involvement, the more compelling the gaming experiences become.
Avatar choice and visual point of view (POV) are media elements that
have special bearing on this sense of self-involvement. Specifically, avatar
choice reinforces the fact that the onscreen characters are surrogates for
players. Players select and customize the three-dimensional image that will
represent them on the screen. This imprinting further deepens when game
players invest significant psychological and monetary resources to ‘‘nurture’’
the avatars by advancing them in the game and interacting with other players.
At the same time, POV visually determines the way in which game players are
represented in the game environment and also the way in which the game
environments are presented to them. In the first-person POV, the player has
no third-person avatar to represent him/her, whereas in the third-person
POV the player is represented by an onscreen third-person character. Both
features (i.e., avatar choice and POV) alter the way players are represented in
the game, which, we hypothesize, will alter their psychological experiences.
The psychological responses of game players are increasingly relevant
as video games evolve into rich and complex media. In addition to the self-
report measures, physiological measures are incorporated for this study. Most
common physiological measures employed in video game studies include
skin conductance (also known as electrodermal activity; Arriaga, Esteves,
Carneiro, & Monterio, 2006; Hopkins, Fletcher, & Lang, 1994; Lang, Bradley,
& Schneider, 2003; Schneider, Lang, Shin, & Bradley, 2004), heart rate (HR;
Arriaga et al., 2006; Ballard & Wiest, 1996; Calvert & Tan, 1994; Flem-
ing & Rickwood, 2001; Griffith & Dancaster, 1995; Ricarte, Salvador, Costa,
Torres, & Subirats, 2001), and electromyography (EMG; Lang et al., 2003;
Ravaja, Saari, Salminen, Laarni, & Kallinen, 2006). Whereas EMG measures
the electrical activity in the muscle groups (e.g., zygomatic and corrugators
muscle groups) associated with facial expressions, skin conductance and HR
indicate the activation level of autonomic nervous system (i.e., sympathetic
and parasympathetic).
Specifically, skin conductance indicates the activation level of the ec-
crine sweat glands, which is entirely under the control of the sympathetic
nervous system (SNS). Usually measured on the palm of the hand, skin
conductance is a reliable measure of arousal. Arousal is commonly defined
as an increase in the activation of the SNS in physiological terms, and skin
conductance is proven to be an excellent operational definition of arousal
in various studies (Ravaja et al., 2006). Moreover, sympathetic arousal may
350 S. Lim and B. Reeves
be associated with a number of important psychological processes, such as

attention (e.g., allocation of resources to both encoding and storage; Grabe,
Lang, Zhou, & Bolls, 2000) and affective intensity of a stimulus experienced
by a subject (Dawson, Schell, & Filion, 2000).
Unlike skin conductance, interpretations of HR are complicated since the
heart is under the dual control of the SNS and the parasympathetic nervous
systems (PNS; Bradley, 2000; Lang, 1994). Increased cardiac parasympathetic
activity causes the heart to slow down, whereas increased cardiac sympa-
thetic activity causes the heart to speed up. Since SNS and PNS may be
coactivated, coinhibited, or covary independently (Ravaja, 2004), changes in
HR are determined by the relative contributions of SNS and PNS at a given
time; that is, an increase in HR denotes that sympathetic activation is having

a greater effect on HR than parasympathetic activation. Likewise, a decrease
in HR indicates that parasympathetic activation is having a greater effect on
HR than sympathetic activation.
Results from various media-related studies show that HR acceleration
may be associated with increased emotional arousal, stress, or internal focus of
cognitive effort (e.g., mental arithmetic), whereas HR deceleration may imply
attentional engagement during perception (e.g., viewing typical media stimuli)
or negative valence of the stimuli (Bradley, 2000; Lang et al., 2003; Ravaja,
2004). That being so, changes in HR may be attributable to many disparate
processes, and thus need to be interpreted as being closely related to the
media content presented to users. Because video game playing is a complex
media activity that requires both intense cognitive concentration and emo-
tional involvement, it is very likely to elicit activation of both PNS and SNS.
Despite certain interpretative difficulties associated with physiological
measures, there are numerous reasons why the game player’s physiological
responses provide a useful window into understanding the game player’s
psychological experiences. Complementing verbal measures, physiological
responses offer high-resolution, continuous, and contextual data ‘‘during’’
game play without interference. Furthermore, physiological measures are
regarded as more objective and may provide valuable information that is not
available to the game player’s conscious awareness (Ravaja, 2004). Utilizing
both HR and skin conductance, this study investigates how avatar choice and
visual POV affect the player’s autonomic arousal. In addition, self-reported
arousal, valence, and presence serve as subjective markers of the player’s
emotional experiences.
AVATAR CHOICE: DECIDING WHO YOU ARE

IN THE GAME WORLD
The degree to which players feel that their own avatars represent themselves
is central to understanding the players’ psychological experiences in the
game. Avatars in contemporary games have gradually evolved from crude

icons (e.g., Pong, PacMan) to sophisticated embodiments that communicate
personality, emotion, and purpose (e.g., Lara Croft, Star Wars Galaxy).
Also, more games provide players with a wide array of choices regarding
their characters, including gender, appearance, professions, and clans. For
example, in World of Warcraft, the players make a number of choices with
regard to their avatars’ race, gender, profession, and appearance. Depending
on their role, characters may have innate traits or talents, such as strength,
intelligence or magical powers, and players are given numerous opportu-
nities to alter and acquire new traits as the games unfold. The possible
combination of attributes is large, and most players spend considerable
time and money customizing and adorning their avatars to distinguish them
in all possible ways from the avatars of other players. Choosing and per-
sonalizing ‘‘my’’ avatar directly manipulates the way ‘‘I’’ am represented in
the game. Therefore, a player can demonstrate their own unique blend of
personality, skills, and roles through the act of choosing and personaliz-
ing an avatar in the game world. In all character personalization, choices
abound.
Traditionally, offering choices is related to numerous psychological ben-
efits (Iyengar & Lepper, 1999). The gains provided by choice are linked to
a sense of personal control (Rotter, 1966; Taylor, 1989; Taylor & Brown,
1988) and feelings of intrinsic motivation (deCharms, 1968; Deci, 1981; Deci
& Ryan, 1985). Primarily, the concept of individual choice has been virtually
equated with intrinsic motivation and personal ‘‘self-determination’’ (Botti
& Iyengar, 2004). In contrast, the absence of choice and control has been
shown to have detrimental effects on intrinsic motivation, task performance,
and health status (Brehm, 1966; Deci, Spiegel, Ryan, Koestner, & Kaufman,
1982; Schultz & Hanusa, 1978).
Despite the fact that choice is a central component of most interactive
media, only a small number of studies have investigated its psychological
consequences for media use. In the gaming context, Cordova and Lepper
(1996) investigated the effects of choice on learning within a computer
game. Subjects had either the opportunity to make several choices about
which icon will represent them in the game and what player name they
would use, or they played the game with the icon and name assigned by
an experimenter. The results showed that people who had choices showed
a significant increase in motivation and depth of learning as evidenced by a
preference for more challenging versions of the game, greater use of complex
operations, and an emphasis on strategic play.
An increase in the self-relevance of an activity may be the psychological
mechanism by which choice increases intrinsic motivation and promotes
positive cognitive and emotional states. Most studies on choice have ma-
nipulated choice so that the ‘‘self ’’ becomes intrinsic or ‘‘endogenous’’ to a
task (Botti & Iyengar, 2004). Among various activities that involve choice,
making choices about representing the player’s self in a virtual environment

might increase a sense of self-relevance. The choice of one’s own avatar is a
process in which the linkage of the player to an onscreen surrogate becomes
explicit and this may increase a player’s sense of self-relevance during the
gaming activity. Accordingly, the first hypothesis for this study is:
H1 : Game players’ arousal (i.e., skin conductance) during game play will be
greater when they play the game with an avatar of their own choice
than when an avatar is assigned.
The psychological studies of choice suggest that valence, measured as

liking for an experience, is positive when choice is offered. Several studies
have demonstrated that individuals who are offered choice will show more
‘‘enjoyment’’ of a variety of activities (Cordova & Lepper, 1996; Iyengar &
Lepper, 1999; Langer & Rodin, 1976), including learning, problem solving,
and video game play. Based on these findings, this study proposes that there
is an intrinsic hedonic value in choice: that is, choosing one’s own avatar
will result in a more positive subjective experience for game players. The
second hypothesis is:
H2 : Game players will feel more positive valence when they play with
avatars of their own choice than when they play with assigned avatars.
FIRST-PERSON VERSUS THIRD-PERSON:

VISUAL POINT OF VIEW
POV is another central feature that has been actively incorporated in game
design. The theoretical discussion of the effects of POV as a feature influ-
encing a player’s game experience originated with the ‘‘first-person shooter’’
genre. For example, in Doom, which established the gaming genre of a
real-time, three-dimensional first-person shooter perspective, players see the
world as if they were the character they control. In first-person POV, players
lack a full view of their bodies as the characters navigate an environment.
On the other hand, in third-person POV, players can see their entire avatar
(something impossible when the camera is the eyes of the avatar), which
also allows players to see what is behind and around them. For example, in
Tomb Raider, players appear to follow their character with the game camera
positioned just over the avatar’s shoulder.
POV may substantially influence identification with action and char-
acters. The use of camera POV is a primary storytelling technique that
has been used by cinematographers for many years. Different POVs can
manipulate and frame the way a movie audience processes the story line and
empathizes with characters (Zettl, 1990). In this sense, the visual POV acts as
a formal feature of video games that determines the player’s psychological

connection to the avatar by visually presenting how separate the visual
representation of the character is from the player. Depending on the player’s
POV, incoming sensorial information is processed in a frame where locations
are either centered around another person (third-person POV) or one’s own
perspective (first-person POV).
The first-person POV means the centralization of the experiential space
around one’s own body (Klatzky, 1998). Vogeley and Fink (2003) defined
the first-person perspective as the ‘‘centeredness of one’s own multimodal
experiential space upon one’s own body, thus operating in an egocentric
reference frame’’ (p. 38). For example, in the first-person shooter games,
the player might only see the hand and the gun. The fact that there is no
character that is ‘‘visible’’ as a separate entity may give players a greater sense
of self-control due to its egocentric reference frame. On the contrary, in the
third-person POV, mental states may be ascribed to someone else (Aguirre &
D’Esposito, 1999; Klatzky, 1998). A third-person POV presents the character
onscreen, portrayed as corporally separate from the player. This separation
in visual representation likely detaches the player from the character even
more than in the case of a first-person POV game.
Whereas most research on the first-and the third-person POV has been
conducted in the field of neurocognitive psychology (David et al., 2006;
Vogley & Fink, 2003; Vogley et al., 2004), there is no empirical research on
how POV affects gaming experiences per se. It does, however, generate com-
ments from game designers. For example, Toby Gard (2000), who designed
the Lara Croft character for Tomb Raider, argued that although differences
in points of view might seem slight, they are absolutely fundamental. Gard
(2000) described this distinction as the player ‘‘controlling’’ the character
in the third-person game, but ‘‘becoming’’ the character in the first-person
game. For example, in the first-person POV, the interaction between the
game player’s ‘‘self ’’ and the game environment seems to be more imme-
diate than in the third-person POV, in which there is a visually embodied
representation mediating the player’s interactions. Due to these psychological
repercussions, the visual immediacy in the interaction between the player
and the onscreen representation of the first-person POV is hypothesized to
increase the player’s arousal response.
H3 : Game players’ arousal (i.e., skin conductance) during game play will be
greater when they play the game from the first-person POV than from
the third-person POV.
Furthermore, since POV determines the way a player’s choice is visu-

alized, POV is hypothesized to moderate the effect of avatar choice such
that the consequence of choosing will be more visually manifest in the
third-person POV than in the first-person POV. In the first-person POV,
avatar choice is not apparent on the screen; the choice serves merely as a
cognitive demarcation of ownership, but it is not visually reinforced during
the game play. In the third-person POV, there is a visible and separate entity
that experiences the consequences of a player’s game activity. Players who
choose their own avatars may be more engaged in the game play since they
may feel a greater sense of responsibility, but only when the target of the
responsibility is visibly embodied on the screen. Accordingly, avatar choice
is predicted to intensify the game player’s arousal in the third-person POV,
but not in the first-person POV.
H4 : The avatar choice will increase game players’ arousal (i.e., skin conduc-
tance) during the game play in the third-person POV, but not in the
first-person POV.
Although sympathetically mediated HR changes may resemble what is

hypothesized in H3 , simultaneous PNS activation and the combinatory effect
on HR yield a less definitive prediction on how HR may respond under
different game play conditions. Thus, the following research question is
formed to explore the effect of avatar choice and visual POV on the game
player’s HR.
RQ1 : How do choosing one’s own avatar and the visual POV in the game
affect the game player’s HR?
Recently, a sense of presence emerged as a central dimension for un-

derstanding game experience (Lee, Jin, Park, & Kang, 2005; Schneider et al.,
2004; Tamborini et al., 2004). Usually described as a sense of ‘‘being there,’’
presence defines the extent to which media experiences are perceived as
real (Lee, 2004). A compelling sense of presence during game play arises as
a result of the game’s content, structural features, and player characteristics.
In particular, Wirth et al.’s (2007) model on spatial presence accentuates
‘‘self-location’’ as a primary dimension of presence. The concept of self-
location provides the basis on which we can assume that the egocentric frame
addressed in the first-person POV may facilitate the player’s presence. In
fact, a recent study (Kallinen, Salminen, Ravaja, Kedzior, & Sääksjärvi, 2007)
examined the effect of visual POV in game play on presence (participants
did not choose their avatars): the first-person POV caused the player to
experience a greater sense of presence.
However, in this study, avatar choice is predicted to serve as a game
feature that moderates the effect of visual POV on the sense of presence. Fol-
lowing from the findings presented in Kallinen et al. (2007), it is hypothesized
that the player may feel a greater sense of presence in the first-person POV
than in the third-person POV when the player did not choose their avatars
(H5a ). However, when a player’s avatar is personally chosen, the effect
of POVs may be attenuated since the already-strengthened psychological

connection between the player and the avatar is not as influenced by the
visual representation (H5b ).
H5a: When game players do not choose their avatars, they will experience
a greater degree of presence in the first-person POV than in the third-
person POV.
H5b : When game players choose their own avatars, there will not be a
significant difference in their experience of presence between the third-
person POV and the first-person POV.
GENDER AND GAME PLAY EXPERIENCES
There is no research showing that females and males respond differently

to avatar choice and visual POV; however, it is true that there are gender
differences in game play and audiences. Evidence indicates that video and
computer game play is more popular among males than among females
(Barnett et al., 1997; Dominick, 1984; Greenfield, 1994; Sakamoto, 1994).
Griffiths, Davies, and Chappell’s (2004) demographic survey of a popular
online game Everquest showed that 81% of online game players are male.
Males not only comprise the majority of the gaming population, but they
also spend more time playing than females (Colwell & Payne, 2000; Ride-
out, Vandewater, & Wartella, 2003). This study explores the role of gender
in determining emotional response related to media structures (i.e., avatar
choice and POV); however, no specific hypotheses are offered.
RQ2 : How does the game player’s gender interact with avatar choice and
the visual POV with regard to his/her psychophysiological responses?
RQ3 : How does the game player’s gender interact with avatar choice and
the visual POV with regard to his/her subjective responses?
METHOD
Participants
Twenty-two participants (11 Males, 11 Females) were recruited at a large
Western university.
Design
This study used a 2 (choice) 2 (POV) 2 (gender) mixed design. Choice
and POV were the within-subjects factors; gender was a between-subjects
factor. For choice, there were two levels: choice and no choice. In the
choice condition, participants were given an opportunity to choose their
own avatars from a set of six different characters before game play. In the
no choice condition, the experimenter assigned participants predetermined
avatars.
The gender of the avatars was matched with the gender of the par-
ticipants; that is, female participants chose from six female characters and
male participants chose from six male characters. In the no choice condition,
players also saw six alternative avatars, but they were assigned an avatar
instead of choosing one. Separate sets of six characters were used for the
choice and the no choice conditions to prevent participants from having
to choose from five characters when the choice condition followed the no
choice condition. For the no choice condition, the specific avatar chosen
by the previous participant was assigned to the participant to offset the
difference that might arise from playing different avatars across the condi-
tions. POV had two levels: first person and third person. In the first scene,
the player is fighting a bandit character from the first-person POV, and the
picture shows only the enemy. The third-person POV scene shows a combat
scene with both the avatar and the enemy. Gender refers to the gender of
participants.
Stimuli
The game used for the experiment was World of Warcraft, a popular
MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) released in
November, 2004, by Blizzard Entertainment (Irvine, California). The online
game allows for full customization of avatars. For the purpose of this study,
two sets of six female avatars and six male avatars were premade (i.e., four
sets of six characters in total).
Four different game activities were designed to represent the most com-
mon activities in the real game. These four activities include (1) buying
a specific item (i.e., coarse thread) from a nonplayer character and later
trading it with a teammate; (2) combating bandits controlled by the game;
(3) collecting a game item (i.e., linen cloth) from bandits; and (4) sending
the collected linen cloth to another player using the in-game mail sys-
tem. The game was played with a computer, controlled by a keyboard and
mouse.
To guide the participants in carrying out the game tasks successfully,
there was an online confederate who played the game with the participant.
The experimenter informed the participants that there would be another
person playing the game who was located in the same building. The con-
federate played the game exactly according to the script (e.g., when to say
‘‘hi, [character’s name]!),’’ and was not blind to the participant’s experimental
condition. Each task was scripted to take five minutes. The player was
allowed to take as much time as needed to accomplish the tasks, but the
physiological data were collected for the initial five minutes of the game play
regardless of the participant’s progress on the task (total of 20 minutes for
all four tasks).
Procedure
Participants provided informed consent upon entering the laboratory. Next,
they filled out a questionnaire that surveyed their game usage and basic
demographics (e.g., gender, age, game usage, prior experience with World
of Warcraft). Participants were given a brief tutorial of the game, such as
how to move around the screen using the arrow keys (in both visual POV
conditions). The experimenter told each participant that their physiological
responses would be recorded through a standardized process using safe
equipment. The experimenter continued by attaching the necessary sensors
to the participant’s nondominant hand for measuring their skin conductance
and HR. In order to minimize any movement artifact that might result from
using both hands on the keyboard, the player was restricted to use only the
dominant hand to operate the keyboard and the mouse.
Once prepared, participants were instructed to rest quietly for 30 sec-
onds while baseline skin conductance and HR were recorded. The mean
value of the baseline collected during the initial 30 seconds was subtracted
from the rest of the physiological data of all other experimental condi-
tions, in order to calculate differences in scores. After the baseline session,
participants carried out the four tasks in four experimental settings (i.e.,
one condition was randomly assigned to each task). After each condition,
participants filled out a questionnaire that included Self-Assessment Man Ikin
(SAM) instruments and other evaluation items. There were three random as-
signments of task order. First, participants were randomly assigned an order
in which they would experience the two manipulations of choice (choice/no
choice). Second, once they chose or were assigned their characters, the order
of POV in which they played the game (first-person POV/third-person POV)
was randomly assigned. Next, participants were randomly assigned an order
in which they would undertake four tasks for each of the 2 (choice)
2 (POV) conditions. All of these order assignments were counterbalanced
according to a Latin square design so that an equal number of participants
were assigned to each. Upon completion, participants were paid, debriefed,
and dismissed.
Physiological Arousal
Physiological signals were measured, amplified, and recorded using a multi-
modality physiological monitoring device that encodes biological signals in
real time (ProComp Infiniti, Thought Technology, Montreal, Canada). An
accompanying biofeedback software application, Biograph Infiniti, coordi-

nated the sampling and storage of the physiology data.
Heart Rate
HR was recorded by attaching a blood volume pulse (BVP) sensor to a
fingertip of the participant’s nondominant hand. To measure the BVP, the
sensor bounces infrared light against the skin surface and measures the
amount of reflected light, which varies with the amount of blood present
in the skin. HR (in beats per minute) was derived from BVP data using the
software.
Skin Conductance
Skin conductance was recorded by attaching two skin conductance sensors
on two fingers of the participant’s nondominant hand. Skin conductance in
micro-siemens (S) was sampled at a rate of 32 times per second.
Analyses
For HR, the data were averaged over 30 second intervals to produce a
cardiac time series for each task session (five minutes). Once the mean
score per 30 seconds was calculated, the baseline HR before stimulus on-
set was subtracted from each score. For skin conductance, the tonic skin
conductance level (SCL) and nonspecific skin conductance response (NS-
SCR) frequency were analyzed. For SCL, a skin conductance time series was
created to observe changes in the overall level of skin conductance over
the course of game play. Using the same procedure employed for the HR,
the baseline skin conductance level before stimulus onset was subtracted
from each score to create the delta SCL. For nonspecific tonic responses,
SCRs were coded for frequency per minute for each condition. The criterion
for determining an NS-SCR was an increase of 0.10 S from valley to peak
during viewing. Physiological data were analyzed using repeated-measures
analysis of variance (ANOVA). The Huynh-Feldt correction was applied to
all degrees of freedom from within-subjects factors in which the assumption
of sphericity was violated.
Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)

Participants were asked to rate their emotional arousal and valence af-
ter each condition using a SAM (Lang, Greenwald, Bradley, & Hamm,
1993). The SAM instrument contained a graphic figure that depicted values
along two dimensions of emotional response (i.e., arousal and valence).
Each dimension contained five figures that reflected varying levels of that
dimension.
Presence
Presence was measured using three semantic differential scales, originally
used by Schneider et al. (2004). Participants rated the degree to which they
felt as though they were really there, the degree they felt they were in a
real place, and how much they felt that the other characters in the game
were real people. All questions were 10-point scales and three scores were
averaged to acquire presence. For the current study, the reliability for the
three items was ’ D .88.
RESULTS
Before testing the proposed hypotheses, statistical analyses were conducted

to rule out any confounding effects of the tasks and their order. For these
and all the following statistical analyses, the level of significance was cho-
sen to be .05. There were no significant effects of tasks or order for any
of the dependent measures—physiological and verbal. Multivariate analysis
of variance (MANOVAs) were conducted to detect any possible effects of
the demographic variables (i.e., age, game usage, knowledge of World of
Warcraft) on all the dependent measures; no significant interaction or main
effects were found.
H1 . Effect of Choice on Arousal

H1 predicted that the player’s choosing his/her own avatar would increase
the player’s arousal. Skin conductance data were analyzed using a 2 (choice)
10 (time) repeated-measures ANOVA. The results of both NS-SCR frequency
and SCL supported H1 . Choice produced a significant main effect for both
NS-SCR frequency, F (1, 20) D 4.73, p D .04, ˜2 D .18, and SCL, F (1, 20) D
5.08, p D .03, ˜2 D .20. Players displayed more frequent SCRs during the
game play when they played the game with an avatar of their own choosing
(M D 3.5, SD D 0.59) than when they played the game with the assigned
avatars (M D 3.1, SD D 0.57). On the other hand, the overall average SCL
was significantly greater when players chose their own avatars (M D 0.46,
SD D 0.12) than when they were assigned avatars to represent themselves
in the game (M D 0.09, SD D 0.15). However, no significant effect of choice
was found in terms of SAM arousal, F (1, 20) D 0.01, ns.
H2 . Effect of Choice on SAM Valence

H2 predicted that choice would lead to a more positive evaluation of the
game experience. The hypothesis was examined using an ANOVA. However,
no significant main effect of choice was found in terms of SAM valence, F (1,
20) D 0.13, ns; therefore, H2 was not supported.
H3 . Effect of POV on Arousal

H3 predicted that arousal would be greater for the first-person POV than for
the third-person POV. This hypothesis was tested by analyzing skin conduc-
tance (NS-SCR frequency and SCL) with a 2 (POV) 10 (time) repeated-
measures ANOVA. Neither NS-SCR frequency [F (1, 20) D 2.48, ns] nor SCL
[F (1, 20) D 0.77, ns] varied across different POVs. No significant effect of
POV was found in terms of SAM arousal either, F (1, 20) D 0.21, ns.
H4 . Choice POV Effect on Arousal

H4 was tested by conducting 2 (choice) 2 (POV) 10 (time) repeated-

measures ANOVAs of skin conductance (both SCL and NS-SCR frequency).
However, no significant interaction effect of choice and POV was found for
NS-SCR frequency, F (1, 20) D 0.22, ns, or for SCL, F (1, 20) D 0.52, ns.
No significant choice POV interaction effect was found in terms of SAM
arousal, F (1, 20) D 0.02, ns.
RQ1 . Choice POV Effect on HR

To examine RQ1 , a 2 (choice) 2 (POV) 10 (time) repeated-measures
ANOVA was run on HR data. In terms of main effects, choice produced a
significant main effect for HR, F (1, 20) D 5.8, p D .02, ˜2 D .23; choice
(M D 3.31, SD D 1.26) elicited a heart rate increase from the baseline,
whereas no choice (M D 1.94, SD D 2.06) elicited a slight heart rate
decrease. HR did not vary significantly across the POVs, F (1, 20) D 0.00,
ns. However, the Choice POV interaction was significant for heart rate,
F (1, 20) D 5.31, p D .03, ˜2 D .21. Figure 1 shows the average HR across
conditions.
Post hoc paired-sample t tests were run to statistically confirm the mean
differences. The t-test results revealed that, in the first-person POV, choice
(M D 1.24, SD D 1.3) and no choice (M D 0.18, SD D 2.28) did not produce
a significant difference for HR, t (21) D 0.43, ns. On the other hand, in
the third-person POV, the effect of choice on cardiac response was more
pronounced (M D 5.39, SD D 1.85 for choice; M D 4.05, SD D 3.25 for no
choice), t (21) D 2.61, p < .02.
H5 . Choice POV Effect on Presence

To examine H5 , a 2 (choice) 2 (POV) ANOVA was conducted. The analysis
yielded a significant interaction effect of choice and POV in terms of pres-
ence, F (1, 20) D 11.48, p < .01, ˜2 D .37. Figure 2 illustrates the interaction
effect.
FIGURE 1 Avatar choice visual point of view interaction effect on overall heart rate.
To examine H5a and H5b separately, post hoc t tests were conducted.
H5a predicted that, when game players do not choose their own avatars, they
will experience a greater degree of presence in the first-person POV than
in the third-person POV. A post hoc t test was conducted, and the result
supported H5a, t (21) D 2.78, p D .01. When players did not choose their
avatars, participants experienced a significantly stronger sense of presence
in the first-person POV (M D 5.46, SD D 0.29) than in the third-person POV
(M= 4.54, SD D 0.31). A post hoc t test supported H5b and demonstrated that,
when players chose their own avatars, POV did not result in a significant
mean difference, t (21) D 1.13, ns.
FIGURE 2 Avatar choice visual point of view interaction effect on presence.

RQ2 . Gender Choice POV for Physiological Responses

RQ2 explored whether gender interacts with choice and POV in terms of
game players’ physiological responses. For this analysis, gender was added
as a between-subject factor in the ANOVA model to examine SCR frequency,
SCL, and heart rate data.
Skin conductance: NS-SCR frequency and SCL. A 2 (choice) 2
(POV) 2 (gender) within-between mixed ANOVA yielded no significant
three-way interaction effect for NS-SCR frequency, F (1, 20) D 2.01, ns. A 2
(choice) 2 (POV) 2 (gender) 10 (time) within-between mixed ANOVA
on SCL did not yield a significant 3-way interaction effect of choice, POV,
and gender, F (1, 20) D 0.79, ns. Furthermore, choice and gender did not
interact in terms of either NS-SCR frequency, F (1, 20) D 0.02, ns, or SCL,
F (1, 20) D 1.28, ns.
The POV Gender interaction was significant for SCL, F (1, 20) D
4.43, p < .05, ˜2 D .18 (Figure 3). A post hoc paired-sample t test for
male participants was significant, t (21) D 2.05, p D .05: male participants
showed a significantly greater SCL in the third-person POV (M D 0.57, SD D
0.17) than in the first-person POV (M D 0.32, SD D 0.22). On the other
hand, a post hoc paired-samples t test for female participants indicates that
the difference across different POVs was not statistically significant, t (21) D
1.07, ns. A similar pattern of the POV Gender interaction effect appeared
for NS-SCR frequency data, although it was only marginally significant,
F (1, 20) D 3.88, p D .06, ˜2 D .16. No main effect of Gender was
found for NS-SCR frequency, F (1, 20) D 0.30, ns, or for SCL, F (1, 20) D
0.004, ns.
Heart rate. A 2 (choice) 2 (POV) 2 (gender) 10 (time) within-
between mixed ANOVA on heart rate was conducted to probe the possible
interplay of gender with the other two independent variables. The analysis
FIGURE 3 Visual point of view gender interaction effect on skin conductance level (SCL).
FIGURE 4 Avatar choice gender interaction effect on overall heart rate.
resulted in neither a significant three-way interaction effect of choice, POV,

and gender, F (1, 20) D 0.64, ns, nor a significant interaction effect of POV
Gender, F (1, 20) D 2.86, ns. There was no main effect of gender, F (1, 20) D
1.54, ns.
Instead, the analysis yielded a significant Choice Gender interaction
effect, F (1, 20) D 7.78, p D .01, ˜2 D .28. Figure 4 illustrates the result.
Post hoc paired-samples t tests indicate that choice elicited significantly
faster heart rates in male players (M D 7.99, SD D 1.78 for choice; M D
3.35, SD D 2.91 for no choice), t (21) D 4.23, p < .001. On the other hand,
choice did not significantly influence HR in female players (M D 1.35, SD D
1.78 for choice, M D 0.53, SD D 2.91 for no choice), t (21) D 0.26, ns.
RQ3 . Gender Choice POV for Subjective Responses

No significant gender-related effects were found with regard to SAM arousal.
Instead, gender had a significant main effect on SAM valence, F (1, 20) D
5.13, p D .03, ˜2 D .20. Overall, male participants reported a more positive
valence (M D 6.93, SD D 0.25) than female participants (M D 6.14, SD D
0.25). Furthermore, gender had an interaction effect with choice, F (1, 20) D
4.51, p D .04, ˜2 D .18.
Males felt more positive when they chose their characters (M D 7.32,
SD D 0.36) than when they did not (M D 6.54, SD D 0.30), whereas females
rated their gaming experiences more positively when they did not choose
their avatars (M D 6.41, SD D 0.30) than when they chose their avatars (M D
5.87, SD D 0.36). However, post hoc paired-samples t tests revealed that
the mean difference was only marginally significant for male participants,
t (21) D 1.77, p D .09, and not significant for female participants, t (21) D
1.14, ns.
No significant gender-related main or interaction effects were found with

regard to presence.
DISCUSSION
This study investigated how game players’ self representations influence

their game-play experiences. In many contemporary games, players’ rep-
resentations are largely determined by how their avatars are chosen and
visually rendered on the screen. Most notably, choosing one’s own avatar is
postulated to elicit greater arousal during game play than having an assigned
avatar. Avatar choice produced greater arousal as evidenced by an increase in

the game player’s skin conductance activity (i.e., SCL and NS-SCR frequency).
Furthermore, playing the game with the avatar of one’s own choice increased
HR. The resultant skin conductance activity suggests that HR acceleration
may be caused by greater activation of SNS. Conversely, HR deceleration in
the no-choice condition indicates a relatively greater influence of PSN than
SNS on HR. Nevertheless, this effect of avatar choice on HR is moderated by
the visual POV.
Whereas it was hypothesized that playing a video game in the first-
person POV would produce greater arousal than in the third-person POV,
visual POV alone did not affect either of the game player’s physiological
responses. Rather, it moderated the effect of avatar choice on HR. The com-
bination of avatar choice and the third-person POV resulted in a significant
increase in HR, but did not cause any significant differences in either of the
skin conductance measures. This nonsignificant variance in skin conductance
suggests that the increase in HR likely resulted from a decrease in cardiac
parasympathetic activity. The increase in HR caused by reduced PNS activity
may be interpreted as a reduction in attentional engagement, given that high
attention is related to parasympathetically mediated HR deceleration (Ravaja,
2004). The HR result implies that those who played the game with the avatar
of the player’s own choice in the third-person POV may have paid less
attention to the game screen due to a decrease in the cognitive load. The
results suggest that this specific condition might necessitate fewer cognitive
resources to play under than the other conditions do; the reason for the
ensuing reduction in attention, however, remains unclear within the scope
of this study and has yet to be definitively determined; future follow-up
studies will likely address this.
The game player’s experience of presence also demonstrates that avatar
choice and visual POV interact and have a combinatory effect on the player’s
experience of presence: that is, presence in the first-person and the third-
person POVs varied as a function of avatar choice. When the game players
did not choose their avatars, the first-person POV generated a greater degree
of presence than the third-person POV. When the game players chose their
avatar, there was little difference in presence between the first-person POV
and the third-person POV. Whereas Kallienen et al.’s (2007) study reported
that a greater sense of presence was evoked in the first-person POV than
in the third-person POV, this study’s results show that the effect of POV
on presence may vary as a function of other game features, such as avatar
choice.
The results also revealed that the game player’s gender was a significant
factor which determined many aspects of the game play experience. Specifi-
cally, neither avatar choice nor POV had a particularly large effect on females’
responses during game play. In contrast, however, males exhibited markedly
different physiological and subjective responses dependent on avatar choice
and POV. Avatar choice led males to exhibit significant HR acceleration

and to evaluate the gaming experience more positively, whereas females
were not significantly affected by avatar choice. Playing the game with the
avatar of their own choosing increased the male players’ HR indicating
a greater effect of cardiac sympathetic activity, which in turn enhanced
their positive emotions during game play. On the other hand, having no
choice significantly reduced their HR and self-reported positive emotional
experience. As previously discussed, however, there is neither any specific
theoretical framework, nor are there any empirical findings, which lead us to
believe that females and males respond differently to choice. Several possible
conditions under which the effects of choice might be compromised or even
reversed were suggested in order to identify possible explanations for the
gender difference in response to avatar choice.
Most pertinent to the result from the literature is the situation where
choice is restricted to attractive alternatives: that is, choosers are more sat-
isfied than non-choosers only when selecting from among more preferred
alternatives (Botti & Iyengar, 2004). The result of this study is similar to
Botti and Iyengar’s spillover explanation in terms of females’ dissatisfaction
with the avatar set. In the less preferred choice contexts, non-choosers
are detached from the negative affect from the decision-making process
while choosers are burdened with the pain of having to choose the ‘‘least
worst’’ option. It is possible that the avatar set used in the experiment (and
representative of the real-world game design) is not as attractive to females
as it is to male game players; that is, the gender difference in avatar choice
may have resulted from the possible extra emotional burden associated
with choosing among unwanted, or unappealing, alternatives for female
participants.
Furthermore, males and females responded significantly differently to
the first-person and the third-person POVs. The result showed that male
players were more aroused (i.e., greater skin conductance activity) when
they played the game from the third-person POV rather than from the first-
person POV. On the other hand, female players’ physiological arousal did not
vary across the first-person and the third-person POVs. In fact, female players
maintained a higher SCL and exhibited more frequent SCRs in the first-person
POV than in the third-person POV, but the difference in reaction was not
statistically significant. This gender difference in physiological responses for
POV might be explained by gender differences in visuospatial ability.
The results might be explained by the innate difference in navigation
strategies that have been verified by a number of scientific studies (Lawton,
1994; Pazzaglia & Cornoldi, 1999). Males maintain a ‘‘survey’’ perspective
when they imagine moving in the environment, while females maintain a
‘‘route’’ perspective and rely on landmarks and procedural strategies in-
volving knowledge of the route. The third-person POV provides a ‘‘survey’’
view of the environment, enabling players to better position their characters
in relation to cardinal directions (e.g., go towards the West) and other

global reference points. On the other hand, the first-person POV offers
an environment in which females’ ‘‘procedural’’ orienting strategies can be
more effectively employed, in the sense that the first-person POV literally
‘‘walks’’ the user through the environment. Players may engage themselves
to a greater extent in a visual environment in which their own navigation
strategies can be more successfully employed to explore the environment.
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research

As is always the case, conclusions from a single experiment should be
understood in terms of design choices and compromises. One limitation
is that the experiment tested only one game and thus did not fully reflect
the degree of variance that exists in real-world gaming. At the extreme of
‘‘no avatar choice,’’ there still are many popular games where players have
to take on the role of one character (e.g., Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, Gordon
Freeman in Half-Life). At the other extreme, there is a ‘‘constructive’’ choice
that allows you to create your own avatar by mixing an array of components
into a unique avatar of your own. Choosing as a ‘‘construction’’ might have a
significant psychological repercussion, different from choosing among those
premade alternatives.
Another limitation pertains to the relatively small size of the sample.
While the within-subject experimental design, common for physiological data
collection, generally requires a smaller sample size, increasing the sample
size could enhance the power of statistical analyses. Using just one video
game also limits the generalizability of the study. While MMORPGs include
a wide range of gaming activities, a more representative sampling of various
video games might have fortified the outcomes of the study. The limited
sampling of gaming activities also does not fully mirror the range of activities
game players actually engage. In real-world gaming, players manufacture
goods (e.g., clothes, medicine, leather goods, armory), profit from selling
goods, take on various roles (e.g., healer, leader) in communities, and receive
training to advance in their secondary career. Whereas this particular study
found no significant effects of gaming task type on the player’s emotional

responses, gaming context is another important variable to grasp the com-
plexity of interaction and the psychology involved in gaming.
Finally, unlike physiological arousal, this study found no meaningful
effects of the media features (i.e., avatar choice and visual POV) with regard
to the self-report measure of the user’s arousal. Such disagreement suggests
that certain differences in physiological arousal are not consciously perceived
by the media user. This discrepancy between the physiological and self-
report arousal accentuates the importance of incorporating physiological
measures to uncover the user’s autonomic responses that might be outside
of their consciousness.
The representation system that provides the player with an embodied

puppet onscreen that enacts and mirrors his/her own agency is a hallmark of
video game entertainment. Players’ attachment to their characters is a power-
ful enticement to continue game play. Whereas media features such as avatar
choice facilitate a rather short-term, online state of player engagement, this
state of engagement can progressively develop into an enduring attachment
as the player spends more energy and resources (i.e., time and money) in
a long-term timeframe. A number of psychological concepts, such as caring
and responsibility, might have significant underpinnings to attain a more
accurate understanding of player–avatar interaction and what it means to
the game play experiences. Game players’ attachment to and responsibility
for their avatars may serve as one of the strongest motivations for them
to continue playing video games. Other relevant questions that could be
examined by future research in the form of a long-term experiment or survey
studies might include: How is choice involved in the process of game players
building long-term bonding with their avatars? How should we measure such
attachment between game players and their avatars? Does such attachment
effectively predict game play hours or even game ‘‘addiction’’?
These future directions illustrate a few ways in which our understanding
of the gaming experience would benefit from future research. This study ex-
plored two properties of video games—avatar choice and visual POV—and
their effects on game players’ various responses. Taken together, the findings
provide strong evidence for the potentially powerful benefits, such as greater
player engagement and enjoyment that can result from the appropriate use
of game design features.
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Being in The Game: Effects of Avatar Choice and Point of View On Psychophysiological Responses During Play

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On: 05 January 2015, At: 01:51

Being in the Game: Effects of

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15213260903287242

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Being in the Game:

Department of Communication, Stanford University, California, USA

The innovative features of multi-player computer games offer com-

Interactive games are a complicated art form that generate an unprecedented

Address correspondence to Sohye Lim, Communication Research Institute, Yonsei

media deepen emotional engagement, and computer graphics and sound

be associated with a number of important psychological processes, such as

time; that is, an increase in HR denotes that sympathetic activation is having

AVATAR CHOICE: DECIDING WHO YOU ARE

game. Avatars in contemporary games have gradually evolved from crude

making choices about representing the player’s self in a virtual environment

The psychological studies of choice suggest that valence, measured as

FIRST-PERSON VERSUS THIRD-PERSON:

a formal feature of video games that determines the player’s psychological

Furthermore, since POV determines the way a player’s choice is visu-

Although sympathetically mediated HR changes may resemble what is

Recently, a sense of presence emerged as a central dimension for un-

of POVs may be attenuated since the already-strengthened psychological

GENDER AND GAME PLAY EXPERIENCES

There is no research showing that females and males respond differently

accompanying biofeedback software application, Biograph Infiniti, coordi-

Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)

Before testing the proposed hypotheses, statistical analyses were conducted

H1 . Effect of Choice on Arousal

H2 . Effect of Choice on SAM Valence

H3 . Effect of POV on Arousal

H4 . Choice POV Effect on Arousal

H4 was tested by conducting 2 (choice) 2 (POV) 10 (time) repeated-

RQ1 . Choice POV Effect on HR

H5 . Choice POV Effect on Presence

FIGURE 2 Avatar choice visual point of view interaction effect on presence.

RQ2 . Gender Choice POV for Physiological Responses

FIGURE 4 Avatar choice gender interaction effect on overall heart rate.

resulted in neither a significant three-way interaction effect of choice, POV,

RQ3 . Gender Choice POV for Subjective Responses

No significant gender-related main or interaction effects were found with

This study investigated how game players’ self representations influence

avatar. Avatar choice produced greater arousal as evidenced by an increase in

and POV. Avatar choice led males to exhibit significant HR acceleration

in relation to cardinal directions (e.g., go towards the West) and other

Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research

found no significant effects of gaming task type on the player’s emotional

The representation system that provides the player with an embodied

Aguirre, G. K., & D’Esposito, M. (1999). Topographical disorientation: A synthesis

enhancing interventions: Findings and ethical issues. Journal of Personality and

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