For me.. kind of, yeah. I play/try to make decks that work with Victoria because I like the badass lady vibe her art gives off, and come on.. if I could, I'd totally be an arms warrior for a living.
But, I think you may be asking more about avatars in general than a relation to the card game characters, so I'm not sure how much my input will help.
(Perhaps people want people who can't see them to understand who they are on some deep level, and the easiest way to do that is through visual representation. But it varies from one inidivual to the next, I'm sure, as some are apathetic about their avatars while others probably put a lot of thought into it.)
Pronunciation Key: om-knee-zee
Ladies' Championship 2007 (San Diego) - Top 8