Abstract

Virtual communities that allow many users to interact in a virtual world, often called multi-user virtual worlds (MUVWs), allow users to explore and navigate the virtual world as well as interact with other users. The communicative interaction within these virtual worlds is often text-based using Internet relay chat (IRC) and related systems. IRC has posed a difficulty for researchers looking to evaluate the interaction by analyzing and interpreting the communication since data is stored in the form of chatlogs. The current chapter explicates methodological procedures for the measurement and visualization of chat-based communicative interaction in MUVWs as social networks. A case study on an educational MUVW, the SciCentr programs sponsored by Cornell University, is used to elaborate methods and related findings.

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