Zachary Hills

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Graham, Steven

Keywords

Computer Games, Immersion, Video Games

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Video games are increasingly an important part in today's culture which influences social and individual behavior. Today's modern video games are incredibly realistic, which can cause their players to feel immersed in the world of the game and become attached to in-game avatars. In this study, undergraduate college students were recruited and they played The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, an adventure game. Two conditions were used; the first was that the subjects were unable to customize what their in-game avatar looked like and the second was that they were able to customize their avatars. The study hypothesized that the participants who customized their avatars would report higher levels of immersion than the participants in the other condition. Based on the results of the Jennett survey, there was no significant difference between the two groups. The study suggests that this result is due to customization of an avatar in video games not being a factor in how much a player is immersed in the game.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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