Avatar customization is an understudied factor when it comes to identification. It allows making each character different in MMOs by providing different combinations of attributes, adornments/physical properties, skills, and traits (Dickey, 2007). This experience may help the player identify with the character, increasing the likelihood of affecting his/her self-identity. Avatars and characters mean different: Avatars are the embodiment of the user in virtual environments whereas characters are fictional identities within the narrative setting of a game. In this paper, “avatar” and “character” will be used interchangeably because this research study was not set up to differentiate avatar customization from character customization. This paper expands the literature on digital identities constructed within virtual worlds, specifically MMOs, by examining novice players’ identification with their characters over multiple gameplay sessions varying avatar-based customization. Therefore, the following research question is asked: How does avatar-based customization interact with the number of gameplay sessions to predict players’ identification with their avatars?
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