Virtual World Content Research Articles

Hedonism and Opinion Leadership Influence on Consumer Behavior in the Context of First-Class Flights from Short Videos on Social Media

ABSTRACT Short videos have become an important driving force of social media. This study aims to understand how the perception of luxury goods, their associated brand experience and purchase intentions are affected by hedonism and social media influencers via social media videos. This research collects 383 samples from Mainland China using an online survey. The data are analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicate hedonism and influencer leadership directly and indirectly influence purchase intentions. The results show that more hedonic consumers or consumers who believe in influencers are more likely to have a positive first-class flight experience. This study also confirmed that brand experience and perceived luxury provide a mediating role on virtual world content. The findings offer new knowledge to researchers and industry in the luxury tourism context. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications are provided.

An equity-based incentive mechanism for persistent virtual world content service

Virtual world has the potential to become a future global electronic marketplace, integrating many isolated markets in many areas. To achieve this goal, future virtual world is required to be persistent, implying that a virtual world together with its accumulated content shall exist forever regardless of dynamic changes of its users and owners. Unfortunately, existing virtual worlds, owning by some entities, are not immune from death due to business entity failure. To provide a persistent virtual world, a decentralized architecture is explored, which is constructed on user contributed devices. However, there are many challenges to realize a decentralized virtual world. One important issue is user cooperation in reliable content storage. The devices contributed by users may not be reliable for maintaining all user contents, but users do not have the incentive to provide reliable devices for others. This paper addresses the issue by two steps. First, an indicator, called replica group reliability, is provided to users, which is based on the proposed replicability index. Based on the indicator, users can learn the reliability of their content storage. Then, a new user incentive mechanism, called equity-based node allocation strategy, is proposed to promote user cooperation to collectively maintain reliable content storage. A decentralized algorithm implementing the strategy is designed and the evaluation results show its effectiveness and efficiency.

Efficient Peer-to-Peer Content Sharing for Learning in Virtual Worlds

Virtual world technologies provide new and immersive space for learning, training, and education. They are enabled by the content creation and content sharing function for allowing users to create and interoperate various learning objects. Unfortunately, virtual world content sharing based on persistent virtual world content storage, to the best of our knowledge, does not exist. In this paper, we address this problem by proposing a content sharing scheme based on Virtual Net, a virtual world persistency framework. For efficient content retrieval, three strategies have been proposed to reduce communication overhead and content load this http URL integrating these strategies, a virtual world content search and retrieval algorithm has been devised. The experiment results verify the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Scaling Technoliberalism for Massively Multiplayer Online Games

The sandbox genre of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) addresses players as subjects with agency to shape worlds, impact populations, and make history through their actions within virtual environments. Designed features afford feelings of empowerment and solidarity that undergird technoliberal forms of subjectivity, which uphold technological structures as legitimate means to emergent effects in virtual worlds. This article uses ethnographic fieldwork and player interviews at EVE Online fan conventions to examine how the ideas and affects of technoliberalism are afforded through procedurally-encoded game processes, yet are aestheticized through branding onto player communities and their platforms. This smooths over the contradiction at the heart of technoliberalism that players’ agency to shape virtual world content is contingent on rules encoded into platforms whose development and adjustment are beyond their control. These contradictions are the key to understanding the pleasures of freedom and complexities of control in designed environments beyond gaming.

Design Elements and Feasibility of an Organized Multiplayer Mobile Active Videogame for Primary School-Aged Children.

This article describes the design, development, and implementation feasibility of a purpose-built mobile active videogame (M-AVG) named "Pirate Adventure," which was designed for primary school-aged children to engage in physical activity (PA) and fundamental movement skills (FMS), such as hopping, sidestepping, jumping, or running, in an afterschool setting. The design of "Pirate Adventure" was the result of a collaboration between games designers and health researchers. "Pirate Adventure" was designed and developed using Android(®) (Google, Mountain View, CA) phone sensors to respond to player actions within a playground environment. Using an interactive game framework, players solve clues and complete PA and FMS challenges via sensing the physical world through marked-out key game locations. Fourteen primary school-aged children participated in the feasibility evaluation, which took place in four afternoon sessions. The game was evaluated using Android phone telemetry data and a post-gameplay survey for children on their opinions and enjoyment of the game. The "Pirate Adventure" game design facilitated an enjoyable treasure hunt game (average of 11 minutes of activity per game) with narrative elements supporting children's engagement with movement activities. The majority of children (n=9/13) reported that they would like to play the game again. Combining real world and virtual world content through "Pirate Adventure" was moderately successful, with multiple gameplay sessions occurring. Further implementation feasibility testing, under more controlled conditions, needs to be conducted to assert the benefits of using a M-AVG for children's PA and FMS.

Collaborative Work and Learning with Large Amount of Graphical Content in a 3D Virtual World Using Texture Generation Model Built on Stream Processors

In this paper, the authors address the challenges of applying three-dimensional virtual worlds for collaborative work and learning, such as steep learning curve and the demands for computational and network resources. We developed a texture generation model utilizing stream processors that allows displaying large amount of meaningful content in virtual worlds, reducing the technical requirements and allowing convenient tools that simplify the use of the technology, and therefore, improve the negative learning curve effect. The authors present original methods of generating images and several tools implemented in vAcademia virtual world. A tool called Sticky Notes is presented in detail as an example. In addition, the authors provide the evaluation of the suggested model and the first result of the user evaluation.

Neural network-based detection of virtual environment anomalies

The increasingly widespread use of large-scale 3D virtual environments has translated into an increasing effort required from designers, developers and testers. While considerable research has been conducted into assisting the design of virtual world content and mechanics, to date, only limited contributions have been made regarding the automatic testing of the underpinning graphics software and hardware. In the work presented in this paper, two novel neural network-based approaches are presented to predict the correct visualization of 3D content. Multilayer perceptrons and self-organizing maps are trained to learn the normal geometric and color appearance of objects from validated frames and then used to detect novel or anomalous renderings in new images. Our approach is general, for the appearance of the object is learned rather than explicitly represented. Experiments were conducted on a game engine to determine the applicability and effectiveness of our algorithms. The results show that the neural network technology can be effectively used to address the problem of automatic and reliable visual testing of 3D virtual environments.

Peer-to-Peer 3D Streaming

Virtual worlds have become very popular in recent years, with trends toward larger worlds and more user-generated content. The growth of 3D content in virtual worlds will make real-time content streaming (or 3D streaming) increasingly attractive for developers. To meet the demands of a large user base while lowering costs, peer-to-peer (P2P) content delivery holds the promise for a paradigm shift in how future virtual worlds will be deployed and used. The authors define both the problem and solution spaces for P2P 3D streaming - by outlining its requirements and challenges - and categorize existing proposals.

Compounding the Results: The Integration of Virtual Worlds with the Semantic Web

Over the past 20 years governmental use of web-base information and technologies has continually expanded taking advantage of the Web's vast, ever-expanding volumes of browser-accessible information. Now infuse two new technologies, the first of these espouses a world where semantic-powered applications become knowledgeable assistants for web users. The second new technology takes a perceivably flat two-dimensional approach to presenting current web-content and adds a third-dimensional perspective to the presentation. Welcome to the Semantic Web as seen through the eyes of a Virtual World participant, an environment where web users no longer are browsing for information that is largely static; where web users interacting through their proxies (avatars) query applications (web agents) soliciting them to collect, filter, verify, correlate, and present answers to their queries often in more visually palatable three-dimensional format.Following a brief overview of these two technologies, this article presents several of the key force drivers behind their evolution and the benefits gleaned from their collective use. Further discussion identifies new methods for visualizing semantic content in Virtual Worlds. Finally, as with any technological evolution, merging these two technologies brings on a whole new set of challenges from a web user’s perspective as well as perspectives from both technology developers in academia and government.

Virtually there, almost: educational and informational possibilities in virtual worlds

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to analyze the educational and more specifically, the library and information opportunities afforded through virtual worlds such as Second Life.Design/methodology/approachThe article provides an analysis of virtual world opportunities through a review of relevant literature as well as actual applications of virtual world platforms.FindingsVirtual worlds have the potential to provide a rich learning and information environment. Despite what many see as limitations, virtual worlds can enhance the learning experience if problematic issues are addressed and if expectations are realistic. For libraries, a unique set of limitations are identified.Research limitations/implicationsThe limited availability of library presences in virtual worlds prohibits a full scale analysis of the success or otherwise of such projects. Future analyses of virtual worlds, in particular Second Life, will be useful if their pervasiveness increases.Practical implicationsLibrary managers are alerted to issues and problems surrounding an investment in virtual worlds.Originality/valueThis paper will prove useful to educators and librarians considering investing time and other resources in developing content in virtual worlds.

Future Standards for Immersive VR: Report on the IEEE Virtual Reality 2007 Workshop

The future standards for immersive VR workshop at the IEEE Virtual Reality 2007 Conference aimed to foster an understanding between the VR and Web3D communities. Although the fields of VR and Web-based 3D graphics tend to view their technologies as different beasts, the technologies share many requirements regarding virtual world content: modeling, lighting, animation, interaction, and direct manipulation. This workshop focused on the common interests around the seamless access and delivery of interactive, network-based VR content and resources.