I'm Glad You Are on My Side

Exploring Emotional Attachment to Game Characters

“…More recently, Bonsignore et al [4] explored Isbister's ally and mentor characters in the context of alternate reality games, and found that players enjoyed helping out allies, and appreciated the guidance of mentors. In another study, Emmerich et al [15] found that players evaluated companion characters more positively when they were perceived as offering a 'meaningful emotional relationship' (p. 149). Concurrently, NPCs were rated less favorably if players felt this emotional level was lacking [15].…”

“…In another study, Emmerich et al [15] found that players evaluated companion characters more positively when they were perceived as offering a 'meaningful emotional relationship' (p. 149). Concurrently, NPCs were rated less favorably if players felt this emotional level was lacking [15]. However, the study does not elaborate what constitutes a 'meaningful emotional' relationship or what emotions players might have experienced.…”

“…Believable game characters have been argued to foster emotional bonds with the player [23,43]. Consequently, a growing body of work has outlined design principles for creating more believable NPCs [15,23,28,30]. One such key design principle is that characters' emotional expressions should match the context of the events depicted in the game [15,28,30,43].…”

“…Consequently, a growing body of work has outlined design principles for creating more believable NPCs [15,23,28,30]. One such key design principle is that characters' emotional expressions should match the context of the events depicted in the game [15,28,30,43]. Ip [22], for instance, found that many characters in modern games express a range of unique and complex emotions.…”

“…Coulson et al [11], for instance, found that players of Dragon Age preferred useful characters over physically attractive or friendly characters. Livingston et al found that players often value the utility of their World of Warcraft avatar [33], and in the study of Emmerich et al, players liked a companion character least that was considered least functional [15]. Other studies found that players often perceive characters as mere objects rather than social agents [2,18], waiting for them to be collected [48].…”