What have you got to say?

For the primary use of research for a thesis. Im conducting mass surveys, questionaires and interviews with people who are involved in virtual worlds.
I use virtual worlds (now and then) and have to remain objective and therefore cannot commit myself fully to anyone one virtual world.

What I really want to know is:

Have you got a business, creative, educational attachment to virtual worlds like Second Life or WoW?
What is your opinion on the media coverage that these worlds have recieved? Is it too much hype? Are users stereotyped as 'geek's or people with no real lives?
Whats your opinion on cyber sex (using avatars)?
Whats positive or negative criticism's do you have?
Whats the future or virtual worlds? Will they be deepy immersed into our lives within the next three to four years? Will the hype run out?

If ANYONE has anything to say, please reply or send me an email.
Thanks and good luck

Tags: buisness, coverage, cyber-sex, future, hype, life, media, negative, positive, second

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alex Fedotov on December 4, 2007 at 8:55am: I could not agree more with your point about 'acceptable behavior' and ethics, Rod.
That's something that should be investigated much more than we see it right now. I think that the only real way to research it is - just TRY. In a most simple way. Build your own community with a different set of rules (probably established and amended by participants themselves through an appropriate procedure) and let it grow. What present VW and MMO are lacking is just that - real FEEDBACK from users that would change the rules and stir them in a direction desirable for FUTURE users. In a sense it means that they are not learning... or, better to say, ... they miss a tremendous opportunity to learn from their users. This just means that other people (without this 'God' attitude) will come and start doing that.

P.S. Interesting web-sites. Shall talk to you some day.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken Walters on December 4, 2007 at 10:00am: Interesting websites Rod, couldn't look at Peaches though-some kind of error on the page.
I think virtual reality and behaviour is a double edged sword, some people think they can hide behind their avatar, do what they like-however ant social-and not get caught. On the other hand you have people who are socially withdrawn and introverted, or have some form of disability, who come out of their shell and interact knowing they're behind a mask and can't be seen, which gives them the courage to be more open and hopefully it could go with them in there real lives.
Having said that, I find most people in SL to be decently behaved, friendly and helpful and I hope it stays that way.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rod McCall on December 4, 2007 at 10:06am: If you let me know what problem you are having then perhaps I can perhaps
get someone to look into it.

Yes, there are a lot of benefits to VR, in particular helping people overcome introversion - although I do not know if it really helps them overcome it in reality. Also VR has been used successfully (I gather) for the treatment of phobias. S; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken Walters on December 4, 2007 at 10:37am: Rod
Just looked at peach.org and it apologises and says there's a technical error, it has a road works type sign on it.
I know from my experience of working with some charities in SL that a lot of people are helped at the health island over a wide range of health or personal issues. One I'm involved with helps stroke victims with therapy advice and someone to talk over problems with etc.
If you do a search for health problems or disability groups it's surprising what crops up.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Rod McCall on December 5, 2007 at 4:36am: Ok, please use peachbit.org not peach.org, also the site is best viewed with Firefox. Both of these points should solve the issue and the site seems to be working ok when I test it from my work. If you still get problems let me know again and I will contact the people who run it.

That`s interesting I will perhaps pay a visit to health island at some point to see what is going on.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken Walters on December 5, 2007 at 6:06am: Rod
The different url worked fine. Interesting concept on that site, I'll be taking a proper look through everything this weekend.
If you do a search for a health problem or disability you'll find health island, I think it's advertised as such on the newbie island. Some of the health related work going on in SL is interesting, some are obviously charities linked to the real world but many are people with that disability or issue talking to others and helping them through. I'm pretty sure that some are professionals in their medical fields helping out or overseeing things.
They do a good job, and as a disabled person I'm happy to help them out how and when I can.

Permalink Reply by Rod McCall on December 5, 2007 at 6:14am: Well I hope you find it useful, the site is quite new. If you have any questions on sense of place or presence in virtual or mixed realities feel free to ask. As you may find out some of the research dates back to the late eighties and early nineties, which just goes to show how long VR has been around for. The only main difference now is that it has become mass market and businesses have started moving into places like SL. So it will be interesting to see how the research from the last 20 years translates into the reality of the virtual world, rather than the lab where it previously existed.

If you want a starting point on the subject of presence, one way to view it is existing in the two/three dimensions below (Isseljsteijn et al):

Physical: "I feel like I am in a physical space"
Social: "I feel like I am with others"
Co-presence (a part of social presence): "I feel like I am co-located with others in another place".

There are quite a few other definitions but I usually find that one a good place to start. Also much of the research so far has explored for example how to create a sense of physical presence, or how avatar behavior can influence social presence.

Permalink Reply by Steven on December 5, 2007 at 3:22pm: thanks for everyones input and replies. keep em coming. any debate that is raised will be surely assessed in my study.

For another thing to consider, why or what is it that turns people off Second Life? (after they've joined) and what is it that turns them off the idea of joining in the first place?
Why would they have a lack of interest? Time constraints, knowledge of VW's in general, stereotypes, or is it that they feel they have nothing to gain from using them....?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex Fedotov on December 5, 2007 at 3:30pm: Here's why:
1. People are turned off, because 'it's not serious'/'it is childish'/'it's a GAME'
1.' ... 'it's for 'GEEKS''='not for grown up people having life'
2. People don't join because 'it's a GAME'

In so many words - it's not respectable enough for a 'grown up' person to 'play games', also, 'game' is a 'loss of time'. Other reasons are less important.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ken Walters on December 6, 2007 at 4:58am: People quickly realise that LL don't take their needs seriously. Too many small scams not dealt with, especially those set up like businesses. Serious crime isn't dealt with quickly enough, the recent paedophile problems is a case in point.
You get computer savvy artists and script writers who seem to make up the bulk of those I see in-life, the economy hasn't picked up since March this year, more and more new free accounts, people spending less now those who have been in SL for some time have what they want, too much interference in a supposedly free world-gambling-taxes etc etc

One major reason is it doesn't live up to the hype, too slow and buggy.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex Fedotov on December 6, 2007 at 11:44am: I agree with your points, Ken

However...
... nobody holds entrepreneurs from coming into SL or Entropia or There and making a more or less closed sub-environments where, as you said, crimes will be dealt with, SOME (moslty behavioral) 'problems' and 'issues' will be solved etc. etc. For now SL is a platform rich enough with certain necessary capabilites, it's just a matter of a 'spirit of entrepreneurship'. Also, entrepreneurs in VW haven't found a way to cooperate properly as of yet (IMHO). That's what I personally view as a problem requiring a solution and we are developing services for this, hopefully they will be in demand.

As to 'economy' - there's no real ecomony there for many reasons. The main and major reason is - unclear status of property. As we can see - things are changing in this domain too (see the last court ruling). As soon as property rights will be defined in a real way - there will be a reason to invest because there will be a value to assets (IMHO).; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bruce Lehmann on February 25, 2008 at 7:03pm: A number of things come to mind with that question. As a veteran of SL, Kaneva and the like, and a builder in VRML, it seems that all these types of communities experience a surge of membership and then a drop-off as people find that it doesn't satisfy their individual needs. Having been involved in both 3D communities and also on the developer end, I find it tedious when I go to one of these places and discover that the most popular activities are merely extensions of real life activities. Mostly dancing chatting, etc. I mean, virtual Bingo??? Doing the same things that can be done in real life, while interesting at the start, becomess a waste of time for alot of people I have talked to, and ends up being supported by a core group of people that like it. It then begins to take on an "exclusive atmosphere" and ends up putting off new people that join. At that point it isn't even a game anymore, just another extended social tool. At that point people start looking elseware to spend their time and money..
Also, I feel that some of the biggest killers of participation to these worlds is quality of service. Laggy experiences, server downtimes, glitches all tend to put people off. Some of the technologies need to wait for the user-level computers to come up to speed with their requirements, or, make the online experience worth upgrading your equipment for. Places like Entropia require "Gamer level" equipment to even minimally enjoy. SL is laggy on P4 or AMD Athlon 3XXX level processors. And most are not good enough without a real video card. I realize these technologies are building for the future, but they will have to wait for the user community to catch up.
Just my two cents; ▶ Reply to This