The definition of what constitutes a virtual world is controversial among researchers, but the general consensus is that a virtual world environment is a digital environment that has a 3D graphical interface, supports massively multi-user remote interactivity, is persistent, is immersive, and emphasizes user-generated activities and goals (Book, 2004; Gilbert, 2011). The computer-generated display allows the user to have a sense of being immersed in an environment other than the one they are actually in and users can interact with that secondary environment (Schroeder, 1996). The three important features that create an immersive environment are the illusion of 3D space, avatars that serve as the visual representations of the user, and an interactive chat element for communication (Dickey, 2003). The virtual world combines aspects of previous technologies into one experience (Damer, 2008).
3D virtual worlds can be simply described as networked, desktop virtual reality (Dickey, 2003). Virtual worlds are part of a larger group of Internet-based applications, known as social media (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). This term applies Internet-based applications to help users share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). Social media forms include content communities, social networking sites, and collaborative projects (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). Social networking sites
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allow users to create a profile and connect with other users around the world. They are a virtual social community of members who communicate online around a common
interest. Social networking applications started in 1997 with SixDegrees.com (Messinger et al., 2009). SixDegrees.com was a social networking website that connected users based on the idea of six degrees of freedom. At the end of 2003, social networking websites like Friendster, MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn created a new awareness to social media. Social networking sites are different from other web applications because making and accumulating friendship connections is the sole focus of the activity (Beer, 2008). The social factor often explains the popularity of virtual worlds. Most of the activities offered in virtual worlds are already present in singular player games, but the collaborative nature and shared experience is what makes social virtual worlds different (Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, & Moore, 2006).
Game-oriented virtual worlds have a storyline behind the game play that guides the activities and goals of the users who interact in the virtual world (Franceschi, Lee, Zanakis, & Hinds, 2009). The game designers create the images, sounds, and activities of the virtual environment to support the story line and the theme (Franceschi et al., 2009). Users are provided choices while interacting in the game to have a unique experience, but the choices are limited because there already is an established story line (Franceschi et al., 2009). Game-oriented virtual worlds have a “closed-culture” because users are limited to the storyline that was created (Franceschi et al., 2009).
“Open-culture” virtual worlds are social virtual worlds where users are provided tools to create their own cultural artifacts in the virtual world. There is an emphasis on creativity and self-expression because users have few limitations with creating objects
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(Franceschi et al., 2009). These kinds of virtual worlds are common to educational pursuits and the open culture is created and maintained by the users (Franceschi et al., 2009).
Virtual worlds have three characteristics that separate them from other social media applications (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). First, virtual worlds allow users to interact with others in real time. Content on social media pages like Facebook and Wikipedia is usually posted and then consumed by others with a time delay, whereas virtual world conversations are identical to real time conversations. Second, virtual worlds allow their users to create fully customizable avatars (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). Avatar customization is far more flexible in a virtual world, as compared to an image posting on a Facebook or YouTube page (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009). Third, content communities like blogs and wikis are two-dimensional with a focus on content sharing, but virtual worlds have the possibility to explore environments in a 3D environment (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009).
History
Virtual worlds began in the 1970s as Multi-user dungeons (MUDs) (Damer, 2008). The first MUD was a text-based adventure game in a persistent world that allowed multiple users to log on at the same time. The communications and interaction in MUDs is synchronous, where people have to solve quests to gain experience points and increase their skill and level. As graphical and processing capabilities improved, it became popular in the 1990s for MUDs to have graphical front-ends (Yee, 2006a). The offspring in the 1980s and 1990s were virtual worlds of a variety of genres, such as first person shooter, fantasy role-playing, simulators, shared board games, and social virtual
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worlds (Damer, 2008). The game is typically text driven with players reading descriptors of rooms, objects, events, and characters in a virtual world (Chen & Park, 2005).
Participants in MUDs take part in role-playing, with aims of killing monsters and advancing the level of their character (Utz, 2000). About two-thirds of the MUDs in existence are specialized for playing a game like Dungeons and Dragons (Chen & Park, 2005). MUDs became third social places which draw people with common interests from all around the world (Soukup, 2006). Communication and interaction in MUDs is
synchronous. People are asked to solve quests to gain experience points and increase their skill and level.
Virtual worlds have limited visual and social cues, but the immersion of the text- based virtual environment was able to support virtual communities that had
characteristics of traditional communities (Dieterle & Clarke, 2007). MUD players report using more emoticons over time as they learn to accommodate the information in an environment where nonverbal cues are unavailable (Walther & D’Addario, 2001). The use of the emoticons was a significant predictor of relationship development in one study, which accounted for 14% of the variance in relationship building in MUDs (Walther & D’Addario, 2001).
As the computer capabilities advanced in power and network connectivity, MUDs resulted in multi object-oriented (MOOs), multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs), and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) (Dieterle & Clarke, 2007). Ultima Online launched in 1997 and is recognized to be the first MMORPG, a persistent, graphical, online environment that allowed thousands of users to be logged on at the same time (Yee, 2006a). Social interaction in an MUVE exists without the need
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for a specific goal or purpose. The social aspects of virtual worlds exist in an open-ended system which provides freedoms to the individual (Warburton, 2009).
Virtual worlds and the massively muli-player online games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft were a financial driver to develop 3D virtual worlds (Damer, 2008). MMORPGs have users striving to attain certain levels and travel through increasingly challenging tasks (Messinger et al., 2009). Millions of users spend an average of 22 hours per week interacting with each other in MMORPGs through the use of avatars (Yee, Bailenson, Urbanek, Chang, & Merget, 2007).
Social virtual worlds are the main area of focus for this research. The primary purpose of a social virtual world is to create virtual objects and communicate with others (Damer, 2008). In social virtual worlds, there are no rules, except the ones the users create being in world. Being “in world” is the sense of presence in a virtual world. Users will comment on being “in world” to reference they are online and their avatar is present in the virtual world. The term “avatar” was first used in the social virtual world, Habitat in 1980s to describe individual users (Damer, 2008). In Sanskrit, “avatara” means “incarnation” and this term was made popular by Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash (Messinger et al., 2009). The avatar is a graphical representation of the user in a virtual world. The companies and early adopters of social virtual worlds abandoned
development at the end of the 1990s before the “dotcom” crash of 2000 (Damer, 2008). The only original social virtual world, Alphaworld (now Activ Worlds), remained intact after 2000 (Damer, 2008).
Second Life and Alphaworld quickly developed into a large community of object makers, builders, and marketers (Damer, 2008). Several million people have used
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Second Life worldwide and typically 50,000 to 65,000 people are logged on at any time (Baker et al., 2009). Second Life is a place for social interaction and avatars travel to places in the virtual world, join social groups and events (Baker et al., 2009). The
continued drop in computer prices and the increase in capacity and broadband networking access have added to the virtual world increase in population (Messinger et al., 2009). Virtual worlds have evolved into sophisticated 3D interactive systems with social and economic interactions as the main drivers (Hendaoui, Limayem, & Thompson, 2008).