Virtual World Community Research Articles

ANALISIS FENOMENA FLEXING PADA VIDEO SULTAN MEDAN BELI MOBIL LISTRIK TESLA JAM 3 PAGI!! #MURAHBANGET DI KANAL YOUTUBE INDRA KENZ

We live in a world where status is determined by wearing a logo, driving a sports car, and/or listening on AirPods. This is closely related to the role of social media and conspicuous consumption. This consumption model is called flexing by today's virtual world community. In this study, the authors analyzed the phenomenon of flexing (show-off culture) and packaged it in a journal entitled Flexing pada Video Sultan Medan Beli Mobil Listrik Tesla Jam 3 Pagi!! #MurahBanget di Kanal YouTube Indra Kenz. The writer tries to examine flexing symbols using Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotics. This study applies qualitative methods by sorting and selecting qualified data and then analyzing it. The conclusion is that the representation of conspicuous consumption contained in the video "Sultan Medan Buys Tesla Electric Car at 3 AM #MurahBanget" is shown clearly through the signs and meanings in it, so we can see the purpose of this video being published, namely showing social status, creating an impression on other people, and showing ability.

The Griefer and the Stalker: Disruptive Actors in a Second Life Educational Community

Linden Lab’s Second Life (SL) is well-known for its hands-off approach to user conflict-resolution. Although users are given tools to mute and block individual accounts as well as ban undesirable avatars from user-owned land, that does not prevent determined, malicious users from disrupting communities and harassing individuals. This case study focuses on two such malicious users exemplary of two specific types of malevolent virtual world actors: in-world griefers and online stalkers. As part of a decade-long ethnographic research project within the Cypris Chat English language learning community in SL, this paper utilizes data gleaned from notes on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and first-hand encounters. It categorizes the disparate strategies these individuals have used over the years in their attempts to disrupt group cohesion, sow distrust between students and teachers, humiliate individuals, and foment an atmosphere of fear and anxiety. It then reviews the methods community members used to defend themselves from such attacks and analyzes the efficacy of these strategies. This study builds on our understanding of harassment in virtual worlds and acts as a cautionary tale for future virtual world educators and community leaders considering the development of their own online classes and groups.

Health literacy practices in social virtual worlds and the influence on health behaviour

This study explored how health information accessed via a 3D social virtual world and the representation of ‘self’ through the use of an avatar impact physical world health behaviour. In-depth interviews were conducted in a sample of 25 people, across 10 countries, who accessed health information in a virtual world (VW): 12 females and 13 males. Interviews were audio-recorded via private in-world voice chat or via private instant message. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The social skills and practices evidenced demonstrate how the collective knowledge and skills of communities in VWs can influence improvements in individual and community health literacy through a distributed model. The findings offer support for moving away from the idea of health literacy as a set of skills which reside within an individual to a sociocultural model of health literacy. Social VWs can offer a place where people can access health information in multiple formats through the use of an avatar, which can influence changes in behaviour in the physical world and the VW. This can lead to an improvement in social skills and health literacy practices and represents a social model of health literacy.

OpenSimulator based Multi-User Virtual World: A Framework for the Creation of Distant and Virtual Practical Activities

The exponential growth of technology has contributed to the positive revolution of distance learning. E-learning is becoming increasingly used in the transfer of knowledge where instructors can model and script their courses in several formats such as files, videos and quizzes. In order to complete their courses, practical activities are very important. Several instructors have joined Multi-User Virtual World (MUVW) communities such as SecondeLife, as they offer a degree of interrelated realism and interaction between users. The modeling and scenarization of practical activities in the MUVWs remains a very difficult task considering the technologies used by these MUVWs and the necessary prerequisites. In this paper, we propose a framework for the OpenSimulator MUVWs that can simplify the scenarization of practical activities using the OpenSpace3D software and without requiring designers to have expertise in programming or coding.

Ethnography on the Cyberian Frontier

Virtual worlds are persistent, multi-user, computer generated environments, established and maintained via internet technologies. Cyber-ethnography is the adaptation of the ethnographic method to the study of virtual worlds. The collective and interactive nature of life in contemporary digital space has incited the interest of a new generation ofethnographers and awakened the discipline of anthropology to the possibility of studying a form of sociality that exists beyond the confines of the physical realm. Virtual world communities are crafted through an amalgamation of technology and human sociality; by studying these emergent worlds, ethnographers are able to observe culture in the making.After twenty years of development, virtual worlds have emerged as distinct domains of human being worthy of study in their own right. However, as a discipline cyber-ethnography is still trying to establish itself and demonstrate the contributions it can make to both anthropology and the arts and social sciences in general. The developments within cyberethnography have mirrored advancements in computing technologies and reflect wider debates within the discipline of anthropology. The following review shows how online ethnography can help us understand our digital life-worlds. The article begins by defining virtual worlds, describing the virtual field site Entropia Universe and documenting the development of the discipline. It culminates with an exploration of being and place incyberspace, drawing on ethnographic data from the virtual world Entropia Universe.

Documenting virtual world cultures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how virtual world communities employ new media as a repository to record information about their past. Design/methodology/approach – Using the notions of documentary practice and memory-making as a framework, a case study of MMORPG City of Heroes’ (CoH) virtual community on Reddit discussion board “/r/cityofheroes” was conducted. The study consists of an interpretative analysis of posts, comments, images, and other materials submitted to /r/cityofheroes during a period of approximately seven months. Findings – The principal finding of the study is that the CoH community, with varying levels of intentionality, documented a range of pasts on /r/cityofheroes, relating to CoH as a game world, a site of personal experience, a product, a nexus of narratives, and a game. The analysis also lays bare the community’s memory-making processes, in which the documented conceptions of CoH’s past were put to work in the present, informing community action and viewpoints. Originality/value – Games and gaming practices are increasingly prevalent in leisure and professional settings. This trend, which makes virtual environments and online media proxies for or augmentations of “real life”, makes it necessary for information scholars to understand how the full range of human information behaviours, including documenting, and memory-making, emerge or are replicated online. Additionally, few studies have examined the interplay between new media affordances, documentary practices, and memory-making in the context of virtual world communities.

Virtual Voices: Exploring Creative Practices to Support Life Skills Development among Young People Working in a Virtual World Community

AbstractThe dialectical relationship between social justice, active participation and the development of aesthetic sensibilities is re‐emerging as a theme among art and design educators as concerns mount for the future of art and design education in the curriculum – particularly in the UK, but also internationally. This article explores the potential of virtual worlds to support the development of young people's voices using creative practices – photography, film‐making and fashion – as the principal means of engaging young people in developing their understanding of active citizenship. The use of creative practices to support a range of wider educational aims in virtual worlds has not yet been investigated and, we contend, is an area of serious research endeavour. We report on the research of an EPSRC/ESRC‐funded project called ‘Inter‐Life’ which examined how virtual worlds could be used to support the development and acquisition of life skills to enhance the management of important life transitions. The project investigated the extent to which young people's engagement in creative practices within these environments assisted with these processes. Some implications for future research are outlined.

Community, Frame of Reference, and Boundary: Three Sociological Concepts and their Relevance for Virtual Worlds Research

Virtual-worlds research is a dynamic and growing interdisciplinary area in the social sciences and humanities. Sociological theory can play an important role in how virtual worlds are conceptualized and studied. Drawing on data from ethnographic projects on two distinct types of virtual worlds, an asynchronous text-based internet forum and a massively-multiplayer online game, I consider what social and cultural similarities these two types of virtual worlds have with one another, despite their radically different forms and functions. My comparative analysis is framed in terms of three questions. First, are virtual worlds temporary and/or intentional communities? Second, what are the frames of reference through which virtual-world communities are built? Third, how do boundaries function in virtual worlds? My discussion suggests some of the common social and cultural features of virtual worlds.

A Pedagogical Model for Virtual World Residents: A Case Study of the Virtual Ability Second Life Island

Many benefits are available to people with disabilities who wish to participate in a virtual world. These include self-efficacy and the ability to share in virtual world community support. Further, many disabled residents of virtual worlds can vicariously experience physical activities through their avatar such as dancing, walking, and running – actions sometimes not possible in real life. However, learning the technology in a virtual world can be daunting for many new residents. Virtual Ability Island in Second Life® offers a platform for adults with disabilities to learn the functionality necessary to enter a virtual world. This article lays out a learning model based on the andragogy theory of Malcolm Knowles, often called the father of adult learning, and complemented by other recent research on e-empowerment and virtual designs for those with disabilities. A composite construct is then created as a framework to study the development of Virtual Ability Island as a destination where new residents to Second Life® with disabilities can learn basic functionality and enjoy social and physical e-empowerment.

Property rights, legal issues, and business models in virtual world communities

This paper uses a business model framework to help identify the issues that developers of virtual worlds have to address as their enterprises mature. While most virtual worlds have adopted subscription models there is an increasing trend toward selling digital items directly to users. This arises from the emergent markets linking real world currency to items existing on company servers. This practice has resulted in controversial and unresolved legal issues. Communities that arise from virtual worlds can be classified according to level and type of control. Lack of control can lead to a Hobbesian world of predation and vigilantism. Strong developer control can be exerted to protect users but communities adopting shared governance with users are likely to become more common.

Virtual World and Real World Permeability: Transference of Positive Benefits for Marginalized Gay and Lesbian Populations

This study looks at how marginalized gay and lesbian people experience social pressures to conform to hetero-normative culture, how those pressures may lead to negative states, and how positive experiences in online virtual worlds would provide benefits over time and, presumably, become transferable into real life. I will show that engagement with Second Life can be a positive experience and that this positive experience can extend beyond the virtual world to provide lasting benefits in real life. The implications for educators are impressive. In creating virtual world communities, educators, psychologists, and other researchers can provide a safe harbor in which marginalized people can more fully explore their identities and develop the positive coping skills needed to deal with real world stigmatizing influences, which originate within the social environment. For scientists and technology innovators, the creation of virtual world communities and gaming/training programs would be an exciting path to explore, especially for those interested in social justice concerns.