Transportability and Presence as Predictors of Avatar Identification Within Narrative Video Games

Abstract

To understand how narratives may best be implemented in video game design, first we must understand how players respond to and experience narratives in video games, including their reactions to their player character or avatar. This study looks at the relationship that transportability, self-presence, social presence, and physical presence have with identification with one's avatar. Survey data from 302 participants (151 males, 151 females) were analyzed. Both transportability and self-presence explained a significant amount of variance in avatar identification. We discuss the implications of these findings for future narrative video game research.

Introduction

Even though video games have begun to contain increasingly complex narratives, our understanding of how video game narratives impact players' experiences is minimal. Perhaps the reason for this oversight is due, in part, to the lack of a theoretical framework for investigating narrative effects within a video game context. One way of creating this framework is to borrow theory from research on traditional media narratives and attempt to integrate these findings with those from the video game research field. Although some video game researchers argue that video games are such a drastically different medium from traditional narratives that it is impossible to apply the findings of traditional narrative research in this context,^1,2 such claims must be tested. As yet, it is unclear whether or not the theories and research gathered from the investigation of traditional narrative media will hold within the context of video game narratives.

This study aims to take steps toward examining the relationships between constructs from traditional narrative research and constructs important to the experience of video games. More specifically, this study determines the influence that transportability (an important factor in narrative research) and presence (an important factor in video game research) have on identification (an important factor in both narrative and video game research) with video game avatars in a narrative video game context.

Identification

A topic of particular interest within the context of video game research is the concept of identification, which has its roots in narrative research. Identification is the degree to which individuals like a character, perceive characters as being similar to themselves, or empathize with a character,^3,4 and is linked to both narrative enjoyment^5,6 and persuasive effects.^7,8 Indeed, the reason that identification is such a popular topic of research in video game contexts is because it is strongly associated with—and often predictive of—video game effects, both prosocial and antisocial.^9–16

Although both traditional narratives and narrative video games are populated with many characters, there is one large difference regarding the user's interactions with those characters: in video games at least one character is directly controlled by the user, and may have been designed by the user to represent themselves within the game world. In fact, Klimmt et al.¹⁷ distinguish player-controlled video game characters (i.e., avatars) from other media characters because of the level of control that the user has over an avatar, something that is not possible with a literary or television character. The ability to customize and control these game characters may increase identification far beyond what is possible in traditional media. This is because avatars may not only represent the self but also an idealized self that represents us as we want to be, a wishful identification self.^18,19 In many cases, we may not have much in common with the character we play as online, but we may identify with certain traits of our avatar, whether that is through perceived similarity, a sense of being embodied within the character, or viewing one's character as an idealized self.⁴

Some research has begun to identify elements of video games that enhance user identification, but this research has tended to focus on the formal features of video games (e.g., avatar customization) rather than the narrative features of the said games. However, one study²⁰ found that participants who played a first person shooter game with a narrative experienced significantly more identification with their avatar than the participants who played the non-narrative version of the game. Thus the narrative (or non-narrative) nature of a game appears to have a clear impact on identification experiences. If this is the case, then narrative video games may be especially likely to provoke identification and, through identification, effects. Therefore, one of the goals of this study is to identify factors that are likely to produce increased identification in narrative video games.

Narrative Involvement and Transportability

Narrative involvement refers to “the degree to which a message recipient is cognitively and affectively invested in a narrative,”²¹ and is a construct of special interest within the study of traditional narratives, predicting enjoyment,^22–24 and attitude and behavior change.^25–28

One way of assessing narrative involvement is to look at an individual's likelihood of becoming involved in stories in general, a characteristic referred to as transportability.^27,29 Past research has shown that transportability is highly predictive of the degree to which an individual will become involved with any specific story, both on a story and character level.^27–29 Indeed, Green and Jenkins³⁰ posit that transportability is also an important factor in the experience of interactive narratives (i.e., stories containing choice points).

Given this research, it is likely that transportability will also be an important factor in understanding the effects of video game narratives. With regard to transportability's likely impact on identification, research on traditional narratives (written, televised, radio, etc.) has found that transportability is a causal factor in increased identification with story characters.²⁹ Although no research has yet investigated this relationship within the context of narrative video games, it is reasonable to hypothesize that a similar pattern of results will be found.

H1: Transportability will be positively related to identification with one's own avatar in narrative games.

Narratives and Presence

Another important factor in understanding video game effects is presence. Presence has been defined in a variety of ways across the literature,^31–33 but can most broadly be defined as “a psychological state in which virtual (para-authentic or artificial) objects are experienced as actual objects in either sensory or nonsensory ways.”³⁴ This, in essence, means that when a person experiences presence, they feel like they are able to interact with the people and objects found there. Conceptually, presence can be distinguished from narrative involvement in that presence deals specifically with an individual's interactions with the virtual environment, not an individual's engagement with the narrative taking place within that environment.

Presence can be divided into three subtypes of presence: self-presence, social presence, and physical presence.³⁴ Self-presence is associated with feelings of embodiment in the avatar; a player may feel that their avatar's limbs are their own, for example.³⁴ This differs from identification in that identification is primarily concerned with how a player psychologically relates to his or her character's mental and emotional state, whereas self-presence involves only feelings of physical embodiment in the avatar. Although the two constructs are certainly related, it should not be argued that they are identical phenomena. Social presence involves the feeling that other social actors in a virtual environment (other players, nonplayer characters, etc.) are authentic, which they closely simulate real-world social actors.³⁴ Finally, physical presence refers to the degree to which the user feels that he or she can interact with objects in the virtual environment as if he or she were actual physical objects.³⁴

Although traditional narrative theories do not look at the various forms of presence, video game research suggests that the experience of presence tends to predict enjoyment, behavior, and attitude change in both narrative and non-narrative games.^35–38 Past research has suggested that there may be a link between identification and various types of presence, especially in contexts where players are able to customize their avatars.^36,39–41 As such, it is predicted that the three types of presence will be positively related to identification.

H2a: Self-presence will be positively related to identification with one's own avatar in narrative video games.

H2b: Social presence will be positively related to identification with one's own avatar in narrative video games.

H2c: Physical presence will be positively related to identification with one's own avatar in narrative video games.

Method

Sample

After Institutional Review Board approval was granted, participants were recruited through posts on social media, video game forums, and video game blogs. Upon clicking the survey link, participants were directed to a digital consent form. After consenting, participants responded to questions about themselves and their game experiences. At the conclusion of the survey, participants were thanked and provided with a unique identification code that could be used to identify and withdraw a particular survey, should the participant wish to do so. No participant withdrew his or her data.

Participants with missing data were removed from the sample, resulting in 614 usable surveys. There was a markedly higher number of female participants (n = 463) than males (n = 151). Because sex often has an impact on experiences with video games,^42–46 the cell sizes were equalized, with 151 female participants randomly selected from the larger data set to form the final sample reported in this study (151 males, 151 females). All results of this study were first demonstrated in the larger sample, and the smaller sample was used to ensure that any effects found were not artifacts of unbalanced cell sizes (i.e., results were the same in both the large and balanced data set).

Participants' age in the final sample ranged from 18 to 46 years old (M = 25.27, SD = 6.10). Participants reported their race/ethnicity as 82.45 percent White/European/European American (n = 249), 1.9 percent Black/African/African American (n = 6), 2.65 percent Asian/Asian American (n = 8), 1.32 percent Latino/Latina/Hispanic (n = 4), and <1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native (n = 2). Also 10.93 percent of participants identified as either “Other” or multiracial (n = 33).

Participants were also asked to identify their favorite “video game with a story” and respond to measures keeping that game in mind. The five most commonly listed games accounted for 22.5 percent of all games listed. Those games are as follows: Mass Effect 1 (n = 16, ∼5.30 percent), Bioshock Infinite (n = 15, ∼4.97 percent), Dragon Age: Origins (n = 14, ∼4.64 percent), Skyrim (n = 12, ∼3.97 percent), and Dragon Age 2 (n = 11, ∼3.64 percent).

Measures

Video game play frequency

Because familiarity with video games can have an influence on peoples' experiences with games, we used game play frequency as a control variable. It was measured on a 5-point scale asking participants to report how frequently they played video games: less than once a month (1), one to two times a month (2), several times a month (3), several times a week (4), and every day (5) (M = 4.28, SD = 0.79). The majority of participants (n = 260, 86.1 percent) reported playing at least several times a week, with 10.9 percent (n = 33) playing only several times a month, 2.6 percent (n = 8) playing only once or twice a month, and only one participant reporting playing less than once per month.

Transportability

This scale measures the participant's tendency (in general) to become immersed in a narrative²⁷ and consists of 19 items measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree” (Cronbach's α = 0.82, M = 5.06, SD = 0.78). The scale was adapted by replacing “story” with “video game” in relevant items. Sample items include “I sometimes feel as if I am part of the video game” and “I find myself feeling what the characters may feel while playing a video game.”

Identification

This 18-item index measures the degree to which the participant identifies with the main character in a narrative⁴ and was used to measure identification with the player's avatar. All items were measured on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree” (Cronbach's α = 0.94. M = 3.67, SD = 1.33). Sample items include “I would like to be more like my character” and “My character is like me in many ways.” This scale was targeted toward the character in the participant's favorite “video game with a story.”

Presence

Presence was assessed using an index from Authors.⁴⁷ The 15-item scale covers the three types of presence: self-presence, social presence, and physical presence. Each scale consists of five items scored on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree” (Cronbach's α = 0.95, M = 3.93, SD = 1.46). Sample items include “I felt like I really visited the game world” and “My character was an extension of me.” The scale was targeted toward the participant's favorite “video game with a story.”

In addition to the listed measures, questions asking about participants' preferred game genres (e.g., RPG, Shooter, Action Adventure) and preferred gaming platforms (e.g., Console, PC, smartphone) were also asked. However, none of these variables had any significant impact on identification (all p > 0.05) and were thus removed from analysis.

Analysis

An ordinary least squares regression using identification as the dependent variable was run. All variables (transportability, self-presence, social presence, physical presence, sex, and game play frequency) were entered simultaneously. For interitem correlations, see Table 1. Tests of multicollinearity indicated only a very low degree of multicollinearity (all VIF < 5). The overall model was significant (F(6, 295), p < 0.0005), accounting for ∼69 percent of the variance in identification (R² = 0.690). Neither game play frequency nor sex contributed significantly (both p > 0.05). Transportability (b = 0.375, t(295) = 5.27, p < 0.0005) was significantly associated with identification with the player character, supporting hypothesis 1. Of the presence variables, only self-presence (b = 0.578, t(295) = 13.27, p < 0.0005) was significantly associated with identification (other ps > 0.05), supporting hypothesis 2a, but not 2b or 2c.

Table 1.

Bivariate Correlations for Independent and Dependent Variables

	Wishful identification	Self presence	Social presence	Physical presence	Sex
Wishful identification	—
Self presence	0.81^**	—
Social presence	0.65^**	0.76^**	—
Physical presence	0.61^**	0.73^**	0.81^**	—
Sex	−0.08	−0.12^*	−0.12^*	−0.11	—
Game play frequency	−0.10	−0.05	−0.10	−0.13^*	−0.15^*

p < 0.05.

p < 0.01.

Discussion

In this study, we demonstrated that experiences of transportability and presence are associated with identification with player characters in a narrative video game. By demonstrating that the relationship between transportability and identification persists in the context of video game narratives, this study suggests that at least some findings from research on traditional narratives can be applied to the less linear context of video game narratives. These results should be interpreted cautiously, however, as the study was exploratory in nature and did not account for variation in other features of interactivity across games (e.g., control schemes) or variation across game narratives. Further research will be needed to verify this study's findings.

We also found that presence is connected with experiences of identification within a narrative video game environment. However, only self-presence appeared to be linked with identification in this particular study; further research may wish to investigate whether this remains consistent across all contexts or may be an artifact of the methodology used here. These results confirm previous research and suggest that both transportability and self-presence may be important in theorizing about narrative video games. Going forward, researchers interested in video game narratives may wish to include these three factors in their models and study design.

This study also has some important implications for the use of narrative games as a persuasive medium (i.e., serious games). A great deal of research has demonstrated that narratives can be incredibly effective as persuasive devices.^20,24,27,48 The fact that constructs from narrative research appear to be a useful route of exploration for looking at the effects of narrative games may help serious game researchers better understand which elements of the game's narrative and world will impact the persuasive effect of the game.

This study has a number of limitations. First, this study relied upon a volunteer sample collected through online video game web sites and social media. The sample was skewed toward women, which may be an artifact of how the recruitment was circulated. Alternatively, female players may have a greater interest in narrative-based games than male players, and so were more likely to complete the survey. Alternatively, this sex imbalance may simply be the result of the fact that women are generally more likely to volunteer their time than men.⁴⁹

The sample also consisted of mostly heavy game players. Future research should test these relationships among casual gamers and nongamers as well. Finally, one of the weaknesses of this survey methodology is that it is limited in its ability to establish causality. The direction of the causal path between identification and presence is still open for debate, and will require experimental research to definitively determine which factor precedes the other. Indeed, it is entirely possible that the ordering of these constructs is context dependent. For example, a game like Bioshock presents the player with a vividly realized virtual world from the very beginning, but does not do much to reveal information about the main character until much later in the game. In this case, it is possible that the experience of presence precedes that of identification. Alternatively, games like Dragon Age: Inquisition have highly elaborate character customization sequences before the start of the game, meaning that the player has some investment in his or her avatar before he or she even enters the virtual world of the game. In this case, it is possible that the experience of identification precedes that of presence. Further research is required to determine the exact nature of the relationship between these two variables.

Finally, this study does not account for variation in game mechanics across games, as this was an exploratory study. Future research should investigate how given mechanics (e.g., avatar customization) interact with the game narrative to increase identification.

Although some scholars argue that research on traditional narratives cannot be used in exploring and understanding video game narratives, this study has demonstrated that several important constructs developed within traditional narrative research can also be applied to video game narratives. In addition, the relationships among these constructs mirror those found in more traditional narrative contexts, suggesting that using traditional narrative research as a jumping off point for research on video game narratives may be a fruitful avenue of inquiry.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all those who posted and reposted the study survey on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook. Special thanks go to the editors of The Mary Sue, who posted the survey link on their Tumblr feed.

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

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