Journal For Virtual Worlds Research (Texas Digital Library - TDL E-Journals)
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Using Second Life to Teach Operations Management
No full textThis paper describes the use of Second Life to enhance the autho
Artistic Expression in Second Life: What can we learn from creative pioneers of new mediums?
No full textSecond Life is a virtual world that allows its Residents to create completely original content using atomistic building tools in a shared and globally accessible space. In this respect it is a very unique new medium for artistic expression, as it give artists not only a new collection of creative tools but also the ability to create an environment where individuals can experience this art as a group while engaging with each other. How are artists exploring this new medium of virtual worlds, and what can we all learn from them? In some ways, they are leveraging very ancient human desires for shared experiences around classic creative work such as music and visual art. In other ways, they may be creating completely new models of artistic expression, such as dynamic art that changes based on the interactions of both live performing artists and patrons in a global setting that sometimes blurs the boundaries between the virtual world and the physical world. Studying these new artistic explorations may yield insights into yet unforeseen best practices for engaging human beings around creative content and collaborative expression in virtual worlds
Does this Avatar Make Me Look Fat? Obesity and Interviewing in Second Life
No full textThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has observed consistently increasing obesity trends over the past 25 years. Recent research suggests that avatar behavior and appearance may result in positive changes to real life individual behavior. Specifically, users may adjust their identity to match that of their avatars.
Preliminary results of survey interviews in Second Life support our hypotheses that individuals whose avatars engaged in healthy behaviors were more likely to engage in physical activities in the real world than individuals with less physically active avatars. Furthermore, thinner-looking avatars were associated with lower BMI in real life.
One unique feature of interviewing with avatars in Second Life is that researchers have the ability to manipulate environmental factors and interviewer characteristics with a consistency that is absent in the real world. In our preliminary results, espondents were more likely to report higher BMI or weight to a heavier-looking avatar than to a thinner-looking avatar
Games, Learning, and 21st Century Survival Skills
No full textDigital games hold out great potential for human development. There is no reason to think about games simply a
Another Endless November: AOL, WoW, and the Corporatization of a Niche Market
No full textThe entrance of World of Warcraft (WoW) into the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO) market has drastically altered conceptions of how popular a virtual world could be. Currently servicing over 12 million monthly subscribers (Woodcock, 2008), it has vastly exceeded expectations, and has brought with it more new users to persistent virtual worlds than any other product before it. However, while there has been much academic work exploring developments within the game itself (Bainbridge, 2007; Duchenault, et al., 2006; Castronova, 2007), the processes by which this explosive growth has occurred have been under-explored. The growth of World of Warcraft relative to the MMO market can only be explained via its extrinsic characteristics of the game and how these characteristics interact with processes of standardization and diversification with relative to the market as a whole. In this paper, I propose that the process that enabled WoW to rise to its current position as market leader amongst MMOs is remarkably similar to that employed by America Online (AOL) in the early 199
Synthetic Excellence: Standards, Play, and Unintended Outcomes
No full textToday, more and more efforts are devoted to promoting an open network environment (Libicki 2000). This growing enthusiasm for interoperability is understandable, given the economics of networks. (Shapiro and Varian, 1998; Varian, Shapiro, and Farrell, 2005). To make the most of interconnection today, businesses must enhance their services by adding a variety of functions (Blumenthal and Clark 2000). For these purposes, they are seeking higher-level standards in support of middleware and software applications.
While supporting the overall goal of interoperability, this paper sounds a cautionary note. It argues that the value of standards is contextual. Thus, while interoperability may be highly beneficial in a purely economic context, and with respect to the lower levels of the network, it might engender unintended consequences at higher levels where the network is intertwined with political and cultural realms. This paper contends that, as standards efforts become increasingly focused on the upper layers of the Internet, a broader set of evaluative criteria will be required to determine their true costs and benefits.
Employing an interdisciplinary approach, this paper takes a first step in exploring these issues. Focusing on the highes
The role of interoperability in virtual worlds, analysis of the specific cases of avatars
No full textthis version is the abstrac
Development and Evaluation of Health and Wellness Exhibits at the Jefferson Occupational Therapy Education Center in Second Life
No full textVirtual worlds such as Second Life are increasingly used for consumer health and higher education. The present paper will describe the development and evaluation of public exhibits on health and wellness at the Jefferson occupational therapy education center in Second Life
The Gorean Community in Second Life: Rules of Sexual Inspired Role-Play
No full textGor is one of the most successful role-play themes in the Virtual World of Second Life (SL). In this theme, player-characters act out a barbaric world of sexual slavery that is based on the novels of John Norman. Norma
Second Life and Classical Music Education: Developing Iconography That Encourages Human Interaction
No full textSince January 2007, Music Academy Online , a web-based business dedicated to generating interest in classical music, has been developing