Patent ID: 8047915

Claim:
A method for providing an avatar for a user for game play, comprising the steps of: providing questions to the user, said questions including questions about the user's current physical appearance and questions to elicit the user's unconscious desires of physical self, said questions being provided to the user prior to game play; receiving personal information from the user prior to game play, the personal information including the user's answers to the questions; deriving psychological information relating to the user's perception of appearance from the answers, said psychological information including information of the user's unconscious desires of physical self; generating an initial avatar from the personal information prior to game play, said avatar having a physical appearance that is recognizable as the user; generating a further avatar by applying the personal information of the user to the initial avatar so as to modify the appearance of the initial avatar in accordance with the user's perception of appearance, said further avatar being generated by modifications based on the psychological information including based on the user's unconscious desires of physical self, said further avatar having a physical appearance that is recognizable as the user, the modifications being independent of direct user input so that the user is unable to predict the physical appearance of the further avatar, said further avatar being generated prior to game play; and providing said avatar to the user for use during game play in a displayed image, said displayed avatar being changed from said initial avatar to said further avatar as a result of user input during game play.