Communications of the ACM
Virtual worlds: multi-disciplinary research opportunities
ACM SIGMIS Database
User acceptance of virtual worlds: the Hedonic framework
ACM SIGMIS Database
Motivations in personalisation behaviour
Interacting with Computers
Looking at, looking up or keeping up with people?: motives and use of facebook
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Avatars in social media: Balancing accuracy, playfulness and embodied messages
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
How online communities support human values
Proceedings of the 5th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: building bridges
User experience (UX): towards an experiential perspective on product quality
Proceedings of the 20th International Conference of the Association Francophone d'Interaction Homme-Machine
Needs, affect, and interactive products - Facets of user experience
Interacting with Computers
Experience Design: Technology for All the Right Reasons
Experience Design: Technology for All the Right Reasons
Computers in Human Behavior
Control your game-self: effects of controller type on enjoyment, motivation, and personality in game
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
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The most advanced contemporary virtual worlds provide their users with a possibility for living versatile virtual lives together with other users. A growing number of users worldwide are utilizing this possibility. The aim of this research was to study active virtual world users' satisfaction of psychological needs both inworld and outworld. A global online survey for the users of Second Life was constructed based on a model of ten psychological needs. The results based on 258 responses indicated that self-esteem, autonomy and physical thriving were the most highly satisfied needs inworld. Furthermore, the results indicated that autonomy, physical thriving, and money-luxury were needs, which were satisfied to a significantly larger extent in the virtual world than in the users' real lives (when not using a computer). On the other hand, the needs for competence, relatedness, security, and popularity-influence were more extensively satisfied in the users' daily lives than when in Second Life. The qualitative findings highlighted relatedness needs as motivations for Second Life usage and revealed five central themes in the motivations for Second Life usage: Second Life as self-therapy, as a source of instant pleasures, as liberation from social norms, as a tool for self-expression, and as exploration and novelty. In all, the findings suggest that the use of advanced virtual worlds is driven by a variety of different psychological needs. Virtual world usage is also related to need satisfaction in the users' lives outside the virtual world.