Game Characters and Attachment : To what extent do interactions facilitate or promote the player’s attachment to a non-player character in a pet simulator game?

Abstract: In this study, we attempt to test whether more mechanics cause players to become more attached to a simulated pet over time. In order to find this out, we created a pet simulator game, split it into four versions with different levels of interaction for the player, going from no interaction to three discrete interactions. We had four groups of participants play the game for five consecutive days. In concert with this, the participants answered several surveys. The first was to establish their baseline attachment to the simulated pet and was delivered at the start of the study. The second and third were delivered at the end of the study, the second survey to characterise their attachment style and the third was a repeat of the first survey, allowing us to see what, if anything, had changed in their relationship to the simulated pet. Finally, we conducted semi-structured interviews with some participants whose responses were outlier or otherwise interesting. Our findings suggested loosely that the more interactions, the more likely a player forms an attachment but also that no interactions causes attachment to degrade over time.