E is for Everyone? Best Practices for the Socially Inclusive Design of Avatar Creation Interfaces

ABSTRACT

Avatar customization is a feature common to many games, yet a number of character creation interfaces are highly problematic in how they mediate and constrain self-representation. In order to investigate this issue, we present a new analytic framework for the systematic analysis of character creation interfaces in games. To model this framework, we present an analysis of the character creation interfaces of four games in order to illustrate the different, and often problematic ways gender and ethnicity are presented to players. From this analysis, we present a list of best practices to help game designers create socially inclusive games.

References

1. Adams, E., Fundamentals of game design, 3rd ed. New Riders, 2013.
2. Bruckman, A. S., Gender swapping on the Internet, in High noon on the electronic frontier: Conceptual issues in cyberspace, (P. Ludlow, Ed.). MIT Press, 1996.
3. Butler, J., Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge, 1990.
4. Consalvo, M., Hot dates and fairy-tale romances: Studying sexuality in video games, in The Video Game Theory Reader, (M. J. P. Wolf and B. Perron, Eds.). Routledge, 2003, 171--194.
5. Consalvo, M., It's a queer world after all: Studying The Sims and sexuality, Glaad, 2003.
6. Consalvo, M. and Dutton, N., Game analysis: Developing a methodological toolkit for the qualitative study of games, Game Studies: International Journal of Computer Games Research, 6, 2006.
7. Crawford, C., Chris Crawford on game design. New Riders, 2003.
8. Dixon, T. and Linz, D., Overrepresentation and underrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos as lawbreakers on television news, Journal of Communication, 50, 2006, 131--154.
9. Ducheneaut, N., Wen, M.-H., Yee, N., and Wadley, G., Body and mind: a study of avatar personalization in three virtual worlds, in Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI '09). Boston, Mass.: ACM, 2009, 1151--1160.
10. Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Ford Mori, J., and Pearce, C., The hegemony of play, in DiGRA 2007, 2007.
11. Fullerton, T., Game design workshop: A playcentric approach to creating innovative games. CRC Press, 2008.
12. Gero, J. S., Design prototypes: A knowledge representation schema for design, in AI Magazine, vol. 11, 1990, 26--36.
13. Gero, J. S., Categorising technological knowledge From a design methodological perspective, in Technological Knowledge: Philosophical Reflections. Boxmeer, The Netherlands, 2002.
14. Gero, J. S. and Kannengiesser, U., The situated function-behaviour structure framework, Design Studies, 25, 2004, 373--391.
15. Haig, D., The inexorable rise of gender and the decline of sex: Social change in academic titles, 1945-2001, Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 33, 2004, 87--96.
16. Higgin, T., Blackless fantasy: The disappearance of race in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, Games and Culture, 4, 2009, 3--26.
17. IGDA, Game developer demographic: An exploration of workforce diversity, in Special report commissioned by the International Game Developers Association, 2005.
18. Kafai, Y. B., Fields, D. A., and Cook, M. S., 'Blacks deserve bodies too!': Design and discussion about diversity and race in a tween virtual world, Games and Culture, 5, 2010, 43--63.
19. Kafai, Y. B., Fields, D. A., and Cook, M. S., Your second selves: Player-designed avatars, Games and Culture, 5, 2010, 23--42.
20. Kannengiesser, U. and Gero, J. S., A process framework of affordances in design, Design Issues, 28, 2012, 50--62.
21. Leonard, D. J., Not a hater, just keepin' It real: The importance of race- and gender-based game studies, Games and Culture, 1, 2006, 83--88.
22. McArthur, V., Me, Myself, and I(nterface): The Avatar Affordances Framework, in Canadian Game Studies Association, 2013.
23. McArthur, V., The Affordances of Gender in the Character Creation Interfaces of Digital Games, in CONSOLE-ING PASSIONS, International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media and Feminism, 2014.
24. McArthur, V. and Jenson, J., Plans and co-situated factions: An evaluation of avatar affordances in Rift's character creation interface, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, in press.
25. Nakamura, L., Cybertypes: race, ethnicity, and identity on the Internet. Routledge, 2002.
26. Neustaedter, C. and Fedorovskaya, E., Establishing and maintaining relationships in a social virtual world, 2008.
27. Pace, T., Can an orc catch a cab in stormwind?: cybertype preference in the world of warcraft character creation interface, in CHI EA '08 CHI '08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems: ACM, 2008, 2493--2502
28. Pace, T., Houssian, A., and McArthur, V., Are socially exclusive values embedded in avatar creation interfaces of MMORPGs?, Journal of Information, Communication, and Ethics in Society, 7, 2009, 192--210.
29. Quillian, L. and Pager, D., Black neighbors, higher crime? The role of racial stereotypes in evaluations of neighborhood crime, American Journal of Sociology, 107, 2001, 717--767.
30. Reid, E. M., Text-based virtual realities: Identity and the cyborg body, in High noon on the electronic frontier: conceptual issues in cyberspace, (P. Ludlow, Ed.). MIT Press, 1996.
31. Rogers, S., Level up! The guide to great video game design, 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
32. Rosenman, M. A. and Gero, J. S., Purpose and function in design: From the socio-cultural to the techno-physical, Design Studies, 19, 1998, 161--186.
33. Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E., Rules of play: Game design fundamentals. MIT Press, 2004.
34. Schell, J., The art of game design: A book of lenses. CRC Press, 2008.
35. Walker, S., Spohn, C., and DeLone, M., The color of justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America. Cengage Learning, 2011.
36. Welch, K., Payne, A. A., Chiricos, T., and Gertz, M., The typification of Hispanics as criminals and support for punitive crime control policies, Social Science Research, 40, 2011, 822--840.
37. Winner, L., Do artifacts have politics?, in The whale and the reactor: a search for limits in an age of high technology). University of Chicago Press, 1986, 19--39.
38. Yee, N., Ducheneaut, N., Yao, M., and Nelson, L., Do men heal more when in drag? Conflicting identity cues between user and avatar, in the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI '11). Vancouver, BC: ACM, 2011, 773--776.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Computers in other domains

    • Personal computers and PC applications

      • Computer games

• Information systems

  • Information systems applications

    • Multimedia information systems

      • Massively multiplayer online games

• Software and its engineering

  • Software organization and properties

    • Contextual software domains

      • Virtual worlds software

        • Interactive games