1,732,861 research outputs found
Authorship in Virtual Worlds: Authors Death to Rights Revival?
Full text linkIn Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) and virtual worlds, the idea of authors seems to have ‘died’ or been ‘wiped out,’ at least from the perspective of users. The concept of authorship does not receive adequate attention or recognition in MMOs and online games in particular appear to deprive authors of their rights, both legally and morally. Users of MMOs are required to consent to the deprivation of rights in both authorship and intellectual property before they can access multi-user environments. This deprives users of their rights as authors. This paper will show that currently acceptable practice is problematic and leads to a decrease of innovation. Furthermore, it will consider a fresh approach to such issues, in light of the idea of authors as producers and as a vivid force for innovation. In addition to this, consideration will be given to the idea of collective authorship. Rather than a strictly legal analysis, this paper will explore a legal and media approach to authorship in MMOs. The concept of authorship will be considered initially from three vantage points: Barthes’ death of the author, Foucault’s author as a function, and von Hippel’s concept of democratic innovation. These considerations will be developed to present our perspective that the author goes beyond the producing subject to become a function of a process of collective construction. The function of the author within an MMO follows the process the author assumes in this virtual world. Hence, the moral rights upon the creative production remain with every author, whereas the collective compilation becomes an untraceable product, which dissolves within the collective process of production itself. As such, authorship, once collective, cannot be disentangled into specific parts of the whole. Copyright and moral rights in virtual worlds and MMOs must reflect this - otherwise what is the underlying purpose of copyright? At the very least, the notion of authorship ought to be acknowledged and rights attributed to those who are responsible for the creativity. Furthermore acknowledgement of the author is necessary to signal to other potential authors to distribute their ideas to these virtual worlds and thereby share innovative ideas within the virtual worlds. The motivation to contribute ideas is linked with any form of recognition for the work. After all, these online spaces are persistent and ever developing, and this cannot happen without the user base, or as we argue, the authors
Virtual worlds enabling distributed collaboration
No full textDespite the growing prevalence of distributed work as an organizational form, the virtual world literature has largely neglected to consider the potentials of this new media in distributed collaboration. In the present study, we studied how virtual worlds (VWs) are used in professional distributed work and how they influence new forms of collaboration in distributed work settings. The study is based on a partially grounded theory analysis method of 47 semi-structured interviews. The interviews revealed several new collaboration potentials of virtual worlds in distributed work, like new forms of training and learning, as well as enabling small group meetings and large events. Based on the interview findings we developed a conceptual model in which psychological processes supported by the VW enable distributed collaboration in terms of immersion, engagement, social presence, and trust. Furthermore, technological features of the VW, like the use of avatars, import of 3D objects, and use of physical clues, enable distributed collaboration. The psychological processes and technological features’ new forms of collaboration are largely interdependent. In sum, our results indicate that virtual worlds provide many opportunities for innovative collaboration in distributed work
Standards in Virtual Worlds Virtual Travel Use Case Metaverse1 Project
Full text linkNowadays, tourism has become a very important industry in the international economy. Information and communication technologies are in constant development; they progress worldwide and across sectors. Their applications in tourism and tourist resources is rapidly increasing, reaching new, innovative and sometimes amazing results in terms of effectiveness, productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction. Exploring the interaction between technologies and tourism is difficult and challenging. Specifically, using virtual world technologies as a new means of information for potential tourists is a big challenge where the actual methods, goals and needs still need to be exactly identified. This paper aims at analyzing why and how virtual worlds can become an important platform for tourism-oriented areas to promote a destination in general, and their local heritage and tourist added-value services in particular. The document will also introduce the design of the first prototypes and the validation results of the four specific technologies tested at the Virtual Travel Use Case (Soundscape generation, Multilinguality, Video streaming and Path and Camera Planning). Finally, the contribution to the MPEG-V standard will also be detailed in the paper
Demographics of Virtual Worlds
No full textVirtual worlds, as both a concept and an industry, has changed radically over the past 10 years, from a toy for the technological elite, to an over-hyped marketing phenomenon, to a needed reexamination of the uses and utility of virtual world technologies and experiences, as provided in this paper. Within academia there are a number of issues that require further examination. The academic community appears to be divided into four camps: 1. those who embrace virtual worlds; 2. those who ignore the shifting use of technology; 3. those who are aware but have not yet explored the technology; and 4. those who are entirely unaware that virtual worlds exist. There is an overwhelming focus of research, publications and funding on a single virtual world: Second Life, which does not serve more than a fraction of the entire population utilizing virtual worlds or similar technologies. An overview of the size, shape and forms of virtual worlds may have a positive impact on both of these issues. This paper presents an in-depth survey and analysis of virtual worlds and related technologies
Three Real Futures for Virtual Worlds
No full textWe are at a critical moment in the study of virtual worlds, where there is great need for theoretical work to clarify what research on virtual worlds can offer. In this article I seek to help set our theoretical affairs in order, with regard to the future of virtual worlds (and thus our research on virtual worlds). First, the false opposition betwee
Motion Planning for Human Crowds: from Individuals to Groups of Virtual Characters
No full textVirtual worlds, to become more lively and appealing, are typically populated by large crowds of virtual characters. One of the fundamental tasks that these characters have to perform is, on one hand, to plan their paths between different locations in the world and, on the other hand, to move toward their desired locations in a human-like manner avoiding collisions with each other and with the environment. This is the main topic of this thesis. Although the path planning problem has received considerable attention over the past thirty years, most path planning algorithms originate from robotics aiming at creating short and collision-free paths for one or a few robots having many degrees of freedom. In interactive virtual worlds, though, the requirements are different. Paths for hundreds of characters through complex environments should be planned simultaneously and in real-time using only a small percentage of the CPU time. In addition to being collision-free, the paths followed by the characters must also look plausible in order to retain the suspension of disbelief of the viewer. Such paths typically follow smooth curves, are short and keep a certain amount of clearance to obstacles. To address the aforementioned issues, in the first part of the thesis, we introduce the Indicative Route Method as a new path planning approach in interactive virtual worlds and games. We further combine the Indicative Route Method with techniques from Linear Programming to efficiently choreograph through space-time the motions of large heterogeneous groups of virtual characters. We also present simple techniques for creating variants of homotopic paths that virtual characters can follow given a path planning query. Such variation not only provides a more challenging and less predictable opponent for the user in a (serious) game, but also enhances the realism of a simulation allowing the characters to spread over the environment and take alternative routes. Besides demonstrating believable path planning behavior, the virtual characters should also be able to adapt their motions resolving a bewildering amount of local interactions and avoiding collisions with each other. This problem is very challenging, since real humans exhibit behaviors of enormous complexity and subtlety making their simulation a rather difficult task. In the second part of the thesis, we try to address some of these challenges. We first propose a physically-based model for solving interactions between virtual pedestrians that have converging trajectories. The proposed method is extremely fast, simple to implement and captures the emergence of self-organization phenomena allowing interactions to be solved more efficiently at a global scale. We also address the issue of realistic collision avoidance among virtual humans by exploiting experimental interactions data between real pedestrians. In the derived model, virtual characters take early and effort-efficient actions to avoid collisions by slightly adapting their directions and speeds. We further extend this technique to simulate the walking behavior of small groups of virtual pedestrians. Here, a novel algorithm is introduced ensuring that the group members will safely navigate toward their goals, while forming walking patterns similar to the ones observed in real-life
Staging the New Retail Drama: At a Metaverse Near You!
Full text linkConsumers have traditionally looked for products that could fulfill their needs
and retailers responded to demand by initially adopting product-oriented, and then
more recently, customer-oriented strategies. This shift was heavily underpinned by
technology, which enabled retailers to implement more intelligent approaches that
evolved around consumers based on their profiles. The next step in this
transformation is now towards a “unique” experience creation, with retailers
providing a retail theater experience that is different and special and consumers
enjoying an increased opportunity to interact and participate in the overall
experience. In this paper, we examine how metaverses, i.e. Internet-based virtual
worlds, and more specifically Second Life, can potentially provide the stage for this
retail theater experience. Our discussion takes place in the context of two cases that
are used to highlight the implications of retail theater for both consumers and
retailers and illustrate the opportunities and challenges they face
Fostering Team Creativity in Virtual Worlds
No full textThis article addresses the potential of virtual worlds as a platform for creative team collaboration. The proliferation of geographically distributed teams, striving towards innovative results, calls for ICT that support team creativity. Three-dimensional virtual worlds represent such an emergent and rapidly developing collaboration tool. A systematic literature review was conducted to reveal the affordances of virtual worlds contributing towards team creativity.The results of the literature review reveal eight proposed affordances relevant for virtual worlds to foster team level creativity. Avatars (1) allow the team members to express themselves and their insights and point out information to others. Changing the user
Another Time, Another Space: Virtual Worlds, Myths and Imagination.
No full textIn her article “Another Time, Another Space: Virtual Worlds, Myths and Imagination” Beatrice Bittarello performs a reappraisal of the issue of Virtual Worlds using an interdisciplinary approach. She argues that Virtual Worlds existed before the introduction of the Internet. To back up her argument she outlines a history of literary and visual pre-Internet Virtual Worlds, all of which represent an alternative, mythical, and (often) religious space. She goes on to argue that finding a way of “reaching” Virtual Worlds is the key to the re-conception of (online) Virtual Worlds today. Many elements of literary Virtual Worlds can thus also be linked to contemporary examples of Virtual Worlds on the Internet. She stresses the importance of visual aspects, even though the imagination and the mythopoeic activity of the players play a key (and integral) role in Virtual Worlds on the Internet
A taxonomy of virtual worlds usage in education
Full text linkVirtual worlds are an important tool in modern education practices as well as providing socialisation, entertainment and a laboratory for collaborative work. This paper focuses on the uses of virtual worlds for education and synthesises over 100 published academic papers, reports and educational websites from around the world. A taxonomy is then derived from these papers, delineating current theoretical and practical work on virtual world usage, specifically in the field of education. The taxonomy identifies rich veins of current research and practice in associated educational theory and in simulated worlds or environments, yet it also demonstrates the paucity of work in important areas such as evaluation, grading and accessibility.Peer reviewe
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