Living digital: embodient in virtual worlds
The social life of avatars
Internet Communication and Qualitative Research
Internet Communication and Qualitative Research
"Alone together?": exploring the social dynamics of massively multiplayer online games
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Designing Virtual Worlds
Beauty or realism: The dimensions of skin from cognitive sciences to computer graphics
Computers in Human Behavior
Cross-modal compensation between name and visual aspect in socially active avatars
Computers in Human Behavior
Social organization in virtual settings depends on proximity to human visual aspect
Computers in Human Behavior
Living in the Hutt Space: Immersive process in the Star Wars Role-Play community of Second Life
Computers in Human Behavior
Emotion understanding and performance during computer-supported collaboration
Computers in Human Behavior
My avatar is pregnant! Representation of pregnancy, birth, and maternity in a virtual world
Computers in Human Behavior
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With the increasing importance of virtual settings, we observe a complexification of the media used by members of the virtual communities. Using as the model the Star Wars Role-Play community of the virtual environment of Second Life, and a related news-styled blog, the ''Galactic News Network'', we analysed here the impact of this media complexification on immersion process. Specifically, we analysed how meta-media can act on virtual community behavior, and on the immersive potential of the virtual world. We combined ''out-of-world'' analysis of the blog, and ''in-world'' qualitative and quantitative evaluation of meta-media-related social activities. Our results demonstrate that meta-media strongly contribute to reinforce the immersive potential of the virtual setting via several mechanisms: by increasing three parameters of the virtual world (cohesion, coherence, and commitment), by increasing the social density of the virtual community, and by acting on the perceived time factor. The combined ''in-world'' and ''out-of-world'' action of the meta-media increases the possibilities of inter-individual connections. The combination of 2D asynchronous media and 3D instantaneous virtual settings in a homogeneous and coherent immersive environment reinforces the immersive potential of the virtual world. Thus, meta-media seem to be a factor of long-term stabilization of social structures in virtual environments.