The era of metaverse is coming to us, and the future will bring a full range of impacts to people's lives. Digital avatars are one of the most critical elements in the metaverse world. Analyzing digital virtual characters has become a meaningful way to study the metaverse world. This paper traces the origin of digital virtual characters. It clarifies that the development of avatars is due to the explosion of digital productivity, cultural migration and participant identity. Thus, the characteristics of digital virtual characters are manifested in five aspects: group difference, expansion and plasticity, body extension, decentralization, and individual pluralistic development. Finally, the article concludes that digital virtual characters in the context of metaverse will develop towards a trend of more intelligence, more immersive and lower threshold.