Avatars In Virtual Worlds Research Articles

Enhancing distance learning with virtual reality: investigating learners’ engagement and outcomes

With the increasing use of virtual reality (VR) technology in education, it is crucial to understand the factors that affect its effectiveness. One area where VR has been utilized is in online orientation, which can be especially beneficial for distant students to start their university programs. This study examines the impact of the learner attribute, behavioral engagement, on learning outcomes in a 3D desktop VR new student online orientation. Over 100 graduate and undergraduate students participated in the study and the results from regression analyses (n = 115) indicate a very weak positive relationship between engagement and learning outcomes (R = 0.0014, p = 0.98), with a negligible proportion of variance explained by engagement. The coefficient of engagement (−0.0066) suggests a negligible and non-significant effect on the dependent variable, indicating limited predictive power. While participants report high levels of perceived engagement, concentration, control, and skilfulness during the activity, they express difficulty viewing avatars in virtual world as real people. These findings have important implications for the development and implementation of VR-based educational interventions, highlighting the need to consider learners’ engagement.

Fiction meets fact: exploring human-machine convergence in today’s cinematographic culture

Abstract This article explores the theme of human-machine convergence as portrayed in modern science fiction movies and TV/streaming series and compares them to real-world advancements in robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality (VR). It examines how science fiction often depicts humanoid robots and AI with human-like emotions and intentions, contrasting with the actual technological challenges and ethical considerations in developing intelligent machines. The text discusses the evolution of humanoid robots from fictional portrayals to real-life examples like Boston Dynamics’ Atlas and Tesla’s Optimus. The paper also explores the reverse interaction, where humans become avatars in virtual worlds, and briefly discusses the ethical implications of simulating deceased individuals in digital form. Through this examination, the paper emphasizes the complexity of human-machine convergence and the importance of considering social, ethical, and emotional aspects in technological progress. It concludes by suggesting that while science fiction provides insights into societal fears and hopes regarding technology and thus into ethical and regulative necessities, the real trajectory of human-machine convergence cannot be predicted through film but will be determined by ongoing and after all incidental developments in the real world.

Retailing in the metaverse: A framework of managerial considerations for success

Despite substantial buzz about the Metaverse—a computer-mediated environment in which people act in real-time as avatars in virtual worlds—retailers remain unclear about whether and how they should integrate the Metaverse into their business. Nor has academic research offered clear answers. The current research therefore explores the phenomenon of Metaverse retailing from a managerial perspective, using three qualitative studies involving top- and mid-level managers to understand key managerial considerations for entering the Metaverse in the short- and long-term, as well as one survey of Metaverse users to understand important design factors for the customer experience. A proposed research agenda also offers guidance for generating further insights into areas of strategic importance for managers.

Gaming Disorder: A systematic review exploring the user-avatar relationship in videogames

Videogames can often be a source of pleasure and relaxation for many individuals, but they can also lead to disordered and potentially addictive behaviour, which is referred to as Gaming Disorder (GD). The purpose of the present systematic literature review was to explore virtual world avatars and the dynamics of the user-avatar relationship in the context of GD utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. A total of 15 peer-reviewed studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria. The results showed a consistent positive association between avatar identification and GD across many of the studies. Gamers with GD often design an avatar to resemble their vision of their ideal self, and the avatar can be used as a means to reduce self-discrepancy between the actual and ideal self as well as compensate for perceived physical-world inadequacies. Moreover, the present review highlights how an individual's view of their ideal self in the context of the user-avatar relationship may extend beyond the limitations of what may be achievable in the physical world and include elements of fantasy derived from a game world.

The ‘desk-chair countryside’: Affect, authenticity and the rural idyll in a farming computer game

Abstract Agricultural computer games engage millions of players world-wide in farming practices. This paper investigates how farm-based computer and video games act as sites of cultural production. I utilise a case study of Stardew Valley to assess how notions of idyllic rurality are staged, encountered and reworked both by and for the ‘desk-chair countryside’: people who engage in rural activities on their computers. Computer gameplay is a distinctive form of rural engagement, requiring active decision-making and performance of farming activities, immersing players in novel rural worlds through complex configurations of computer equipment and virtual world avatars. Drawing on non-representational thinking, and concepts from the ‘experience economy’, the paper focuses on how tropes of idyllic rurality are mobilised and challenged through the affective responses elicited in gameplay. I argue that imaginaries of peaceful farm life and happy (pet) livestock are reinforced through affective encounters that appeal to ‘referential authenticity’ (nostalgia) and ‘influential authenticity’ (the higher calling of caring for animals). In contrast, community interactions appeal to ‘natural authenticity’, progressively revealing human in-game characters as they ‘really are’ (flawed individuals dealing with life issues ranging from paternity to post-traumatic stress), utilising ‘influential authenticity’ to call players to support their neighbours. This integration of affective encounter with natural and influential authenticity enables the critical reworking of rural imaginaries to form what I term ‘authentic idylls’. I conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and methodological opportunities of computer-mediated virtual ruralities in rural studies research.

Virtual Avatars: Trans Experiences of Ideal Selves Through Gaming

This article aims to explore the experiences transgender gamers have with avatars. Building on a foundation of identity construction theories from both media studies and queer studies, this study theorizes that these gamers will use their virtual world avatars to experiment with gender performance and ideal selves. These theories of identity construction are explored and examined through digital ethnography, by using the participant observation method, in which trans gamers are interviewed about their experiences with avatar creation and use. Based on the evidence gathered from those interviews, this study concludes that trans gamers in general tend to create avatars who reflect their ideal selves, especially early in their transitions. Thus, the game worlds function as contested spaces where gamers experiment with the performance of alternative, fluid identities. Those identities can then cross the border from virtual to physical, affecting people's lives and corporeal bodies.

Building a (virtual) Aleph: The visual transformation of a tiny cosmogony

Abstract This article discusses the transformation of a tiny three-dimensional artwork created in the metaverse that takes its inspiration from Jorge Luis Borges’s story of ‘the Aleph’ – a tale that revolves around a minute artefact that is ‘one of the points in space that contains all other points’. The visualization of a concept as complex as ‘the Aleph’ led the author of the project through a process that started from Cartesian precepts, from where it transformed itself into an investigation of ‘code’ as a basal, life-giving presence that is abstract, enigmatic and hermetic in its essence. This correlation between ‘code’ and the magical nature of ‘the Aleph’ has led to further considerations regarding the significance of such a marvellous object within virtual worlds. Accordingly, this text will conclude with the description of an intriguing, novel usage for ‘the Aleph’ that materializes as a time machine for virtual-world avatars.

Creating an avatar to become a "spect-actor" of one’s learning of English for specific purposes

In this article, we shall examine why the creation of avatars in virtual worlds facilitates the learning of business English. We are committed to determining the factors that enable students in a French business school to consolidate their skills in English (from linguistic, socio-linguistic and pragmatic standpoints) and to develop more general competences (such as self-confidence, the management of space and time, interpersonal relationships) through the creation and use of avatars. Our article aims at showing that these skills are then transferable to real communication situations. Our research comes within the scope of a “communic-actional” approach of English learning. It relies on the notions of “distanciation”, “fragmentation” and “spect-actor” of dramaturgs Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal, which give a scientific framework to our research.

Personality assessment using multiple online social networks

Personality plays an important role in various aspects of our daily life. It is being used in many application scenarios such as i) personalized marketing and advertisement of commercial products, ii) designing personalized ambient environments, iii) personalized avatars in virtual world, and iv) by psychologists to treat various mental and personality disorders. Traditional methods of personality assessment require a long questionnaire to be completed, which is time consuming. On the other hand, several works have been published that seek to acquire various personality traits by analyzing Internet usage statistics. Researchers have used Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and various other websites to collect usage statistics. However, we are still far from a successful outcome. This paper uses a range of divergent features of Facebook and LinkedIn social networks, both separately and collectively, in order to achieve better results. In this work, the big five personality trait model is used to analyze the five traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The experimental results show that the accuracy of personality detection improves with the use of complementary features of multiple social networks (Facebook and LinkedIn, in our case) for openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism. However, for extroversion we found that the use of only LinkedIn features provides better results than the use of only Facebook features or both Facebook and LinkedIn features.

What's in this issue?

What's in this issue?

Virtual research assistants: Replacing human interviewers by automated avatars in virtual worlds

We conducted an experiment to evaluate the use of embodied survey bots (i.e., software-controlled avatars) as a novel method for automated data collection in 3D virtual worlds. A bot and a human-controlled avatar carried out a survey interview within the virtual world, Second Life, asking participants about their religion. In addition to interviewer agency (bot vs. human), we tested participants’ virtual age, that is, the time passed since the person behind the avatar joined Second Life, as a predictor for response rate and quality. The human interviewer achieved a higher response rate than the bot. Participants with younger avatars were more willing to disclose information about their real life than those with older avatars. Surprisingly, the human interviewer received more negative responses than the bot. Affective reactions of older avatars were also more negative than those of younger avatars. The findings provide support for the utility of bots as virtual research assistants but raise ethical questions that need to be considered carefully.

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training in High School Using Avatars in Virtual Worlds: An International Feasibility Study

BackgroundApproximately 300,000 people suffer sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) annually in the United States. Less than 30% of out-of-hospital victims receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) despite the American Heart Association training over 12 million laypersons annually to conduct CPR. New engaging learning methods are needed for CPR education, especially in schools. Massively multiplayer virtual worlds (MMVW) offer platforms for serious games that are promising learning methods that take advantage of the computer capabilities of today’s youth (ie, the digital native generation).ObjectiveOur main aim was to assess the feasibility of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in high school students by using avatars in MMVM. We also analyzed experiences, self-efficacy, and concentration in response to training.MethodsIn this prospective international collaborative study, an e-learning method was used with high school students in Sweden and the United States. A software game platform was modified for use as a serious game to train in emergency medical situations. Using MMVW technology, participants in teams of 3 were engaged in virtual-world scenarios to learn how to treat victims suffering cardiac arrest. Short debriefings were carried out after each scenario. A total of 36 high school students (Sweden, n=12; United States, n=24) participated. Their self-efficacy and concentration (task motivation) were assessed. An exit questionnaire was used to solicit experiences and attitudes toward this type of training. Among the Swedish students, a follow-up was carried out after 6 months. Depending on the distributions, t tests or Mann-Whitney tests were used. Correlation between variables was assessed by using Spearman rank correlation. Regression analyses were used for time-dependent variables.ResultsThe participants enjoyed the training and reported a self-perceived benefit as a consequence of training. The mean rating for self-efficacy increased from 5.8/7 (SD 0.72) to 6.5/7 (SD 0.57, P<.001). In the Swedish follow-up, it subsequently increased from 5.7/7 (SD 0.56) to 6.3/7 (SD 0.38, P=.006). In the Swedish group, the mean concentration value increased from 52.4/100 (SD 9.8) to 62.7/100 (SD 8.9, P=.05); in the US group, the concentration value increased from 70.8/100 (SD 7.9) to 82.5/100 (SD 4.7, P<.001). We found a significant positive correlation (P<.001) between self-efficacy and concentration scores. Overall, the participants were moderately or highly immersed and the software was easy to use.ConclusionsBy using online MMVWs, team training in CPR is feasible and reliable for this international group of high school students (Sweden and United States). A high level of appreciation was reported among these adolescents and their self-efficacy increased significantly. The described training is a novel and interesting way to learn CPR teamwork, and in the future could be combined with psychomotor skills training.

Artimetrics: Biometrics for Artificial Entities

Domestic and industrial robots, intelligent software agents, virtual-world avatars, and other artificial entities are being created and deployed in our society for various routine and hazardous tasks, as well as for entertainment and companionship. Over the past ten years or so, primarily in response to the growing security threats and financial fraud, it has become necessary to accurately authenticate the identities of human beings using biometrics. For similar reasons, it may become essential to determine the identities of nonbiological entities. Trust and security issues associated with the large-scale deployment of military soldier-robots [55], robot museum guides [22], software office assistants [24], human like biped robots [67], office robots [5], domestic and industrial androids [93], [76], bots [85], robots with humanlike faces [60], virtual-world avatars [109], and thousands of other man-made entities require the development of methods for a decentralized, affordable, automatic, fast, secure, reliable, and accurate means of authenticating these artificial agents. The approach has to be decentralized to allow authority-free authentication important for open-source and collaborative societies. To address these concerns, we proposed [117], [120], [119], [38] the concept of artimetricsa field of study that identifies, classifies, and authenticates robots, software, and virtual reality agents. In this article, unless otherwise qualified, the term robot refers to both embodied robots (industrial, mobile, tele, personal, military, and service) and virtual robots or avatars, focusing specifically on those that have a human morphology.

Wavelet-Based Multiscale Adaptive LBP with Directional Statistical Features for Recognizing Artificial Faces

Recognizing avatar faces is a very important issue for the security of virtual worlds. In this paper, a novel face recognition technique based on the wavelet transform and the multiscale representation of the adaptive local binary pattern (ALBP) with directional statistical features is proposed to increase the accuracy rate of recognizing avatars in different virtual worlds. The proposed technique consists of three stages: preprocessing, feature extraction, and recognition. In the preprocessing and feature extraction stages, wavelet decomposition is used to enhance the common features of the same subject of images and the multiscale ALBP (MALBP) is used to extract representative features from each facial image. Then, in the recognition stage the wavelet MALBP (WMALBP) histogram dissimilarity with statistical features of each test image and each class model is used within the nearest neighbor classifier to improve the classification accuracy of the WMALBP. Experiments conducted on two virtual world avatar face image datasets show that our technique performs better than LBP, PCA, multiscale local binary pattern, ALBP, and ALBP with directional statistical features (ALBPF) in terms of the accuracy and the time required to classify each facial image to its subject.

Imagination, Computation, and Self-Expression: Situated Character and Avatar Mediated Identity

The ability to construct imaginative, computational self-representations such as characters in games and avatars in virtual worlds and social media can impact people’s self-perception in the real world and provide proxies for people to engage in communities as players, learners, and doers. It is clear, however, that some users view characters and avatars instrumentally to accomplish virtual tasks, whereas others see them as virtual selves for playful identity construction and performance. Open questions about design of character/avatar construction tools include better understanding the trade-offs between accommodating representation of aspects of users real selves vs. enabling extraordinary fantastic characters – and how enabling either plays a role in the users’ situated contexts, including the creation of coherent life stories, narratives of personal experience, and narratives of personal identity. This paper provides theory and pilot evidence as steps toward answering these questions. Our evidence was elicited using grounded theory techniques on data collected in a three-year design-based research study into fostering at-risk students’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning using virtual world technologies. 1 We propose a three-axis model of user stances in relationship to their avatars. Using insights from the cognitive science theory of conceptual blending in order to characterize users’ perspectives of their avatars as imaginative integrations of their real and virtual selves, we present a set of case studies illustrating users’ stances in terms of our three axes. The upshot is that students in the study tended to fall into one of three categories: (1) viewing their avatars as necessarily reflections of their real world identities, (2) viewing their avatars as mere proxies for building artifacts in the world, and (3) viewing avatars as characters external to themselves for engaging in a play of identity performance and presentation. Group (1) found the affordances of the virtual world tools they used to be inadequate, hence serving the needs of this group may require alternative design solutions in light of real world values, activities, and behaviors.

Avatars as information: Perception of consumers based on their avatars in virtual worlds

AbstractThe presence of consumers and companies in the virtual worlds has increased in recent years. It is predicted that 80% of active Internet consumers and Fortune 500 companies will have an avatar or presence in a virtual community, including social networks, by the end of 2011 (eMarketer,2007). The increase in the number of consumers with avatars emphasizes the need for a better understanding of who these consumers behind the avatars really are in order to convert these individuals to online and real‐world customers. The objective of this paper is to investigate how avatars reflect the personality of their creators (targets) in virtual worlds. Using the Brunswik Lens Model as the theoretical framework, an investigation of real consumers in the virtual worldSecond Lifereveals that perceivers who view targets' avatar use particular thin‐slices of observations such as avatar cues (e.g., attractiveness, gender, hairstyle) to form accurate personality impressions about targets. The findings support the premise that real‐life companies that intend to expand to virtual worlds can use member avatars as a proxy for member personality and lifestyles. As a future research direction, avatars and other consumer‐generated media could be used as the basis for targeting and segmentation of online consumers. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Conversational agents in virtual worlds: Bridging disciplines

AbstractThis paper examines the effective deployment of conversational agents in virtual worlds from the perspective of researchers/practitioners in cognitive psychology, computing science, learning technologies and engineering. From a cognitive perspective, the major challenge lies in the coordination and management of the various channels of information associated with conversation/communication and integrating this information with the virtual space of the environment and the belief space of the user. From computing science, the requirements include conversational competency, use of nonverbal cues, animation consistent with affective states, believability, domain competency and user adaptability. From a learning technologies perspective, the challenge is to maximise the considerable affordances provided by conversational avatars in virtual worlds balanced against ecologically valid investigations regarding utility. Finally, the engineering perspective focuses on the technical competency required to implement effective and functional agents, and the associated costs to enable student access. Taken together, the four perspectives draw attention to the quality of the agent–user interaction, how theory, practice and research are closely intertwined, and the multidisciplinary nature of this area with opportunities for cross fertilisation and collaboration.

Consumers in Virtual Worlds: Identity Building and Consuming Experience in Second Life

This paper examines the link that exists between individuals and their avatars in virtual worlds, in terms of identity. The outcomes of the study suggest that virtual worlds and the social and business interactions they offer are tools to build consumer identity. This exploratory research is based on a qualitative study using the chat mode to conduct 34 interviews in the Second Life virtual world. In the transition from the real to the virtual world, the individual must build another identity and operate a transfer, partial or total, from his real identity to the virtual one. The aim of the study is to offer an initial framework in order to understand this transition and its result in terms of identity positioning. Four types of identity positioning are identified: duplication, improvement, transformation and metamorphosis.

A Socially-Just Internet: The Digital Divide, Cybercultural Agency, and Human Capabilities

This article argues that while modes of scholarship stressing structural insights into the digital divide and ethnographic insights into online communities each give us important information about current uses of the internet, for the sake of a unified social justice principle it is necessary to interpret these forms of knowledge in terms of what could be. Marx’s formula ‘the development of each as a condition for the development of all’ is put forward as the principle of a socially-just internet actualized from the ground up. It is argued that the most rapidly emerging and important form of constraint upon ‘the development of each’ is the for profit online social media industry in which moments of human communicative creativity become packaged as commodities for commercial purposes. Creative, cultural agency becomes an imposition rather than a liberation as represented in the industry ideology. It is argued therefore that groups that use the internet for serious play – the use of avatars in virtual worlds is discussed as an example – present us with a form of online subjectivity that is rising in importance as a form of cultural agency inasmuch as the play component is premised upon the rejection of pre-packaged forms of agency. Support for a socially-just internet would thus mean supporting the online communities formed in this process. Thus the argument is put forward that the importance of serious online play groups is not due to their potential for forming communities per se but is rather due to their potential for resisting the imposition of agency. Inasmuch as online communities in the midst of such groups can bolster that goal, they can represent the development of human capabilities in a way that expands the theme of social justice.

Machinima interventions: innovative approaches to immersive virtual world curriculum integration

The educational value of Immersive Virtual Worlds (IVWs) seems to be in their social immersive qualities and as an accessible simulation technology. In contrast to these synchronous applications this paper discusses the use of educational machinima developed in IVW virtual film sets. It also introduces the concept of media intervention, proposing that digital media works best when simply developed for deployment within a blended curriculum to inform learning activity, and where the media are specifically designed to set challenges, seed ideas, or illustrate problems. Machinima, digital films created in IVWs, or digital games offer a rich mechanism for delivering such interventions. Scenes are storyboarded, constructed, shot and edited using techniques similar to professional film production, drawing upon a cast of virtual world avatars controlled through a human–computer interface, rather than showing real-life actors. The approach enables academics or students to make films using screen capture software and desktop editing tools. In student-generated production models the learning value may be found in the production process itself. This paper discusses six case studies and several themes from research on ideas for educational machinima including: access to production; creativity in teaching and learning; media intervention methodology; production models; reusability; visualisation and simulation.Keywords: digital media; immersive virtual worlds; machinima; simulation; media interventionsDOI: 10.1080/09687760802526723