Understanding Children's Avatar Making in Social Online Games

TL;DR

This study investigates how children aged 8 to 13 create and customize avatars in social online games, revealing motivations, behaviors, and the influence of monetization on their identity exploration.

Contribution

It provides new insights into children's avatar-making motivations, behaviors, and the impact of monetization strategies on their identity development in social online games.

Findings

Children are motivated by self-representation and social needs.

The 'wardrobe effect' shows children create multiple avatars but prefer one.

Monetization influences avatar customization and identity exploration.

Abstract

Social online games like Minecraft and Roblox have become increasingly integral to children's daily lives. Our study explores how children aged 8 to 13 create and customize avatars in these virtual environments. Through semi-structured interviews and gameplay observations with 48 participants, we investigate the motivations behind children's avatar-making. Our findings show that children's avatar creation is motivated by self-representation, experimenting with alter ego identities, fulfilling social needs, and improving in-game performance. In addition, designed monetization strategies play a role in shaping children's avatars. We identify the ''wardrobe effect,'' where children create multiple avatars but typically use only one favorite consistently. We discuss the impact of cultural consumerism and how social games can support children's identity exploration while balancing self-expression and social conformity. This work contributes to understanding how avatar shapes children's identity growth in social online games.