Visit a virtual world (VW) or massively multiplayer online role playing game e.g
ID: 3728325 • Letter: V
Question
Visit a virtual world (VW) or massively multiplayer online role playing game e.g World of Warcraft and answer the following:
+ General social issues
- What kind of social protocol and convention are used?
- Does the mode of communication and interaction seen natural or awkward?
+ Specific interaction design issues
- What form of interaction & communication is supported e.g. text/audio/video
- How do users switch between different modes of interaction e.g. exploring and chatting
+ Design issues
- What other features might you include in the virtual world to improve communication & collaboration.
Explanation / Answer
This Answer is with respect to Second Life - A Virtual world where a person can literally create and live a second life. Hereon we refer to Virtual World and Second Life as VW
a) What Kind of social protocol and convention is used?
This depends on the section of the VW you are in, but there are many, varied, and complex section in the VW. The inhabitants have developed and matured, bringing either extensions of their offline personalities in, or developing wholly new characters, communities and relevant geographies within the VW.
It completely depends on the life we are living. There may be democracy, dictatorship, King's rule or any kind of protocol which people may seem best for the paritcula section. Many a times personalities of a person or owner of a section determine it.
b) Does the mode of communication and interaction seen natural or awkward?
Seems fairly natural, once you get used to it, but obviously you need to get used to it! If you're socially awkward in the real world, this can be a way to overcome that!
For someone who is good at communication, it can seem awkward.
c) What form of interaction & communication is supported e.g. text/audio/video
Texting, Speaking(Audio), IM(Instant Messenger), also the VW enables creation of art installations, customised venues for socialising among specific interest groups. The users obviously have the option of continuing their interactions outside the VW(but not recommended) if they wish, many have done so by creating additional web-based sites, posting to relevant blog communities, publishing art, music and literature on specialist websites.
d) How do users switch between different modes of interaction e.g. exploring and chatting
Dialog boxes open, can be minimised, and closed, but always available around the edges of the proprietary viewer application. The interface is keyboard and mouse, which does have limitations, and makes me think of First Person Shooter PC games, possibly not the connection that the VW's designers were "aiming" for!
e) What other features might you include in the virtual world to improve communication & collaboration.
The Viewer requires a certain level of performance specification from users' pcs, which can cause problems, and I found the control system for moving my avatar quite slow to respond, although that might simply be because I have not had time to get used to the system.
I found myself wondering whether or not avatars I encountered might be greeting me and I was simply missing this social contact through not understanding the Viewer context better. This might be overcome by a proximity chat prompt.
The biggest glaring omission that I could find was a lack of a video interface, a la Skype. If a user can initiate a chat/IM session then the primary barriers to video that I can conceive of would be bandwidth and security concerns. Aesthetic considerations would be a design requirement with user feedback, and beyond that I would imagine there are some behaviour management concerns, but if users are conducting themselves in line with VW conventions then these would be a minor administrative blip around first introduction, and maybe have some overhead in ongoing management.
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