How Avatar Customizability Affects Children's Arousal and Subjective Presence During Junk Food–Sponsored Online Video Games
- 1 June 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Mary Ann Liebert Inc in CyberPsychology & Behavior
- Vol. 12 (3), 277-283
- https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0292
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine how children cognitively and emotionally process interactive marketing of snack food products in advergames. Children (N = 30) aged 10 to 12 were asked to play advergames with (a) avatars that were assigned to them, (b) avatars chosen from a pool, and (c) self-designed avatars. The children's skin conductance levels were collected during play. After gameplay, at each customization level, self-reported presence was collected. The results of this study indicate that customization of game avatars can affect both subjective feelings of presence and psychophysiological indicators of emotion during gameplay, which may make the gameplay experience more enjoyable. This may have implications for game sponsors and producers. Self-reported presence had no effect on psychophysiological indicators of emotion during gameplay. Implications of this finding and limitations of this study are discussed.Keywords
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