Your Own Worst Enemy: Implications of the Customization, and Destruction, of Non-Player Characters

Customization interfaces allow players to tailor character appearance to represent desired self-concepts, increasing character identification and contributing towards enjoyment. Yet, despite their ubiquity, such interfaces seldom allow modification of non-player characters (e.g., in-game enemies). A between-subjects experiment (N=34) examined affective/cognitive responses to customizing and destroying enemies in a custom-built game. Participants created characters representing either a positive (confidence) or negative (anxiety) self-concept, and subsequently destroyed it during gameplay. Players reported greater identification, attitudes, enjoyment, and reduction in negative affect (anxiety) when customizing characters representing confidence, whereas anxiety characters increased negative affect. Affective responses to destruction varied based on self-concept. Destroying confidence characters increased negative affect, whereas negative affect was slightly reduced after destroying anxiety characters. Both groups evaluated the game favorably and exhibited similar purchase intentions. Results suggest that players prefer creating enemies in their (ideal) image like they do their own avatars. Avenues for future research are discussed.