Emotion, anthropomorphism, realism, control: Validation of a merged metric for player-avatar interaction (PAX)

This article proposes a validated 15-item scale that merges theoretically divergent perspectives on player-avatar relations in extant literature (parasociality as psychological merging and sociality as psychological divergence) to measure player-avatar interaction (PAX). PAX is defined as the perceived social and functional association between an MMO player and game avatar, inclusive of four factors: emotional investment, anthropomorphic autonomy, suspension of disbelief, and sense of player control. These four factors were stable across two large multi-game (N = 494) and game-specific player samples (N = 458), in both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Construct validity tests show scale dimensions have expected significant relationships with a sense of human-like relatedness and player-avatar relationship features, and predictive validity tests indicate theoretically likely and relevant factor associations with gameplay motivations and MMO genres.