A Study on the Use of Adaptive Avatars for Player Lists in Games for Children

Abstract

Avatars are frequently used in video games as graphical representation of the player within the virtual environment. In many of these games the look and abilities of the avatar evolve over time and reflect the player's choices within the game. This appearance is essential in how the avatar is perceived by other players. On the other hand, finding appropriate people to play with is an important issue in multiplayer games. Usually, such games have certain features to ease this process, like providing a list of possible opponents from which to choose from. Especially, for games for children, adaptive avatars -reflecting the player's performance -could be a suitable alternative to the commonly used tabular representations for player lists. In an experiment with an educational game and with 59 children between 9 and 12 years, we investigate if adaptive avatars are preferred over tabular representations and if children can interpret their meaning correctly. While no preference toward either representation could be observed, results indicate that children were able to interpret the avatars properly.