How can avatar’s item customizability impact gamer loyalty?

Abstract

Online games enable gamers to customize their avatars (e.g., gender and skin color) and experience flow (total concentration with intrinsic enjoyment), but there is insufficient research on how games enable gamers to customize their avatars’ items (e.g., shirt, shoes, equipment, and accessories), i.e., avatar’s item customizability, and its impact on avatar identification, and subsequently online gamer loyalty. This study contextualized the agency model of customization, collected 751 online gamers’ responses, and used structural equation modeling for analyses. Avatar’s item customizability is positively related to appearance similarity (physical similarity between the avatar and the gamer) and homophily (psychological similarity between the avatar and the gamer), which are positively related to avatar identification, and further positively related to online gamer loyalty. Moreover, flow weakens the links from appearance similarity to homophily. The findings of this study suggest game providers could enable gamers to customize their avatars’ items, thus enhancing their identification with their avatars and subsequently their loyalty to the games.