Appearance of Players’ Avatars and its Influence on Social Interaction in Metaverse Gaming

Avatars are the virtual identities of humans in virtual environments, and the metaverse makes them more advanced as they can move, dress, and talk like humans. As in real life, humans’ nature is social and every aspect of life is related to social interaction, same as the metaverse is designed to be the place of virtual social interaction of avatars, where humans can interact with others via controlling their avatars. Metaverse gaming provides such platforms where users can audibly talk with each other, and this research investigated the appearance of avatars as a richness of communication tool, social actors (avatars), and their influence on social interaction in virtual environments. After spending 100 hours in metaverse gaming environments as an immersive ethnography, this research explored the different visual and customizable aspects of avatar appearance that influence the quality and depth of social interactions and investigated how avatar appearance enhances players' embodied presence, immersion, and recognition of self and others in metaverse gaming. The findings revealed that Avatar customization helps players display their personalities, values, and feelings in a way that makes avatars relatable in contexts of social interaction. Moreover, when players' avatars match their physical or aspirational self-images, they experience a better sense of embodiment.