Presentation Transcript

1. VIRTUAL WORLD

   AttashSawja HammadBawany HammadRizvi
2. A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of avatars visible to others.
3. Historical View The first virtual worlds presented on the Internet were communities and chat rooms, some of which evolved into MUDs and MUSHes. The first MUD, known as MUD1, was released in 1978. MUD refers to Multi-User Dungeon/Dimension /Domain. The early versions were text-based, offering only limited graphical representation and often using a Command Line Interface
4. MUSHes is Multi UserShared Hallucination, Multi-UserShared Hack, Habitat, and Holodeck. Text-based online social medium to which multiple users are connected at the same time. BIG BANG THEORY – ‘SHELDON GAMING’ EPISODE
5. Once again What is Virtual World? Virtual worlds, where thousands of people can interact simultaneously within the same simulated three-dimensional space Members of a virtual world (through their avatars) can engage in rich interactions with each other: they can Exchange messages, objects, and money; Communicate through voice over a headset and microphone; Build and own things Dress, change their avatars' shapes, play sports, drive vehicles dance and even hug other mates…
6. Advancement of today’s virtual worlds On-line gaming and social-networking have led to the advent of today's virtual worlds Online Gaming Progress in electronic games on next slide…
7. Progress in electronic games
8. Progress in Games Cont’d Games themselves also grew to include progressively Less structured environments Greater player freedom to pursue Self-defined objectives And the ability to create their own content. Early games such as Super Mario Brothers involve Players making choices or moving their avatars along preset paths to achieve predetermined objectives. Subsequent gaming developments allowed for more freedom, realism, and creativity. Grand Theft Auto series Offer realistic worlds that are large (although still geographically bounded), Easy to explore And traversable based on the player's own whims rather than a preset path Sims Claims that over 80% of the game’s content is made by user
9. Important Point “Not” to miss The development of the electronic gaming industry led to a progression of socio-technical innovations that set the stage for virtual worlds. These innovations include the development of User controlled avatars Multi-user interaction 3D animation And user-generated content
10. How Social Networking helped Amazing Fact: Internet was commercialized in 1995 First social networking application was started in 1997 SixDegrees.com Features of Social Networking websites: Add friends Tag photos Upload Videos…
11. Interesting Trends and events in the history of the social networking Some SN sites have been aimed at membership within a: Geographical location Cyworld was initially launched in South Korea in 1999 Specific demographic profile. There are many web sites for children, such as neopets.com. Facebook was initially conceived as a forum for Harvard students. Designed to support a particular activity or theme YouTube was designed for video sharing Muslimspace.com are faith-based
12. Important Point “Not” to miss Like gaming, the emergence of social networking introduced innovations and practices that have come to be adopted within virtual worlds. These innovations and social practices include easily created profiles textual and pictorial information Support for audio and video content A trusted circle of friends Capabilities for both public and private message dissemination Structure of various classes of social networks (geography-based, demographic-based, theme-based, etc.). Overall, the combined innovations in electronic gaming and social networking made virtual worlds possible.
13. Virtual worlds has progressed Participation in virtual worlds has progressed due to Improvements in virtual-reality technology (adapted from electronic gaming) Continued drops in PC prices, Increases in computing capacity And greater broadband network access
14. Techniques of Classification Five elements of the Taxonomy Purpose People can explore behaviors and activities untypical of their real self. Focus on education and training, offer virtual opportunities and social networks for people to augment their real-world activities and social networks. Place Whether members are geographically collocated or dispersed in reality Platform Whether the client is available on a browser or requires a special “download-and-install” process defines Population Size of the group and the types of social ties among the group members. Distinguishing characteristics of the target user market, in terms of its age, gender and geography demographics. Profit Model A single purchase price or registration fee Fee per use Subscription based Advertising-based Pay-as-you-go extras (virtual assets including clothing, land, and software)
15. Techniques of Classification Cont’d
16. Types of Virtual Worlds Education-focused virtual worlds provide training in such areas as architecture and design, procedural skill development, and language learning. Forterra virtual worlds are designed to support training-through-simulation for military, healthcare, and entertainment industries. Community specific virtual worlds target membership within a particular country or geographical region HiPiHi is an open world designed after Second Life, in Mandarin, targeting users from China. More significantly, Cyworld, which has features of both a social-networking site and a virtual world, targets South Korean users
17. Types of Virtual Worlds Cont’d Children’ focused virtual world Barbie games A distinct feature of children's virtual worlds is that most of them are visually simpler Self-determined (or open-objective) virtual worlds Kaneva (denotes creativity) Each registered member has an avatar, a profile and a home, which they can decorate by importing content they may have in other sites. Second Life, however, is the premier virtual world in this category, and perhaps the most important current virtual world.
18. Second Life (SL) Many “residents” are looking for an entertainment escape from their everyday real life; hence the name “Second Life.” Residents can: Trade objects and land for money Make or purchase their own clothes Participate in group activities, work, explore, play, and interact socially.
19. About the game The client is free to download and the only requirement for participants is a good computer graphics card and a broadband Internet connection. The SL economy is based on Linden Dollars “SL gained substantial media attention when a resident, Anshe Chung cashed out her Linden Dollar holdings in SL virtual shopping malls, store chains, other real estate, and virtual stock-market investments in SL businesses for more than one million U.S. dollars.” http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US#Make_Money
20. Cont’d A great variety of real-world organizations maintain a presence in SL Several governments have embassies in SL's diplomacy island (including Maldives, Sweden and Estonia). Many universities own space that they use for course delivery, among them University of Florida, Princeton, Vassar, the Open University (UK) There are also a substantial number of companies with a presence in SL, ranging from IT companies (IBM, Microsoft, SUN Microsystems), news services (Reuters), motor companies (Toyota, Honda, Nissan), and retailers (Sears). In December 2007, Islam Online, a popular, Egyptian owned Muslim web site, purchased land in SL to allow people to perform the ritual of Hajj.
21. Why participate in Second Life Reasons for participating include Exploring the environment Sharing experiences with others Meeting people and making friends Making things And engaging in commercial activities
22. Difference in SL and Other Virtual Worlds Thus, SL differs from other worlds that appeal to non-technically oriented people who wish to socialize in an already existing space Consumers must be “technology” forward in their orientation and knowledge SL also differs from World of Warcraft where participants have implied objectives, pre-assigned roles, and “evil monsters to shoot SL gives users the chance to be creative, providing tools and an environment where they can fulfill their own vision
23. Businesses setting up in SL Business applications utilize SL in multiple ways as a laboratory for market research a test market a large market for advertising a retailing center a way to generate traffic to eCommerce sites on the Internet SL acts as a test market, there are several dozen real products that have been introduced in SL as a way for residents to provide early feedback
24. Businesses setting up in SL Cont’d Traffic numbers (number of minutes spent per week at a brand's SL site) Examples of particularly innovative and popular brands include: Nissan, which sells different kinds of virtual cars, including cars that fly, from an 8-story vending machine; Toyota, which not only sells virtual cars but allows SL residents to customize them, even offering classes on how to do so
25. Challenges for businesses Challenges in making brands available in SL Must make stores and products relevant to the lives of people in-world. Must recognize the need to educate newbies. Must promote to residents in-world about new brands.
26. Video http://secondlife.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2yGqDecBzs
27. Applications
28. Social 3D-Gaming, interactions, sense of accomplishment. Systems that have been designed for a social application include: Active Worlds Twinity Kaneva, Smallworlds Onverse
29. SORORITY LIFE WEBSITE
30. Medical Virtual worlds is also used by the Starlight Children's Foundation, to help hospitalized children (suffering from painful diseases) to create a comfortable and safe environment which can expand their situation. Disabled or chronically invalided people of any age can also benefit enormously from experiencing the mental and emotional freedom
31. COMMERCIAL Advertising Actual buying/selling – Apple, Oakley etc. Platform for viewing user’s feedback and reactions. Gathering place for companies
32. DELL’S ISLAND IN SECOND LIFE
33. EDUCATIONAL Shift from physical to online classes – more collaboration and student’s participation is possible. It allows users to be able to carry out tasks that could be difficult in the real world due to constraints and restrictions, such as cost, scheduling or location. Social sciences
34. Survey Toward this end, the authors concurrently ran two different surveys (denoted Survey A and Survey B) The reason they did not include all the questions in one long survey is that we felt that such a survey would be too long for many respondents After data cleaning, they had 97 completed responses to Survey A and 100 completed responses to Survey B.
35. Survey Cont’d Each participant was paid $150 Linden Dollars Limitation Surveys were conducted entirely in English
36. Results of Survey Real life brands that establish a virtual presence are more likely to be remembered in the real world. If subjects are satisfied with their experience in a store in SL, they will be more likely to shop at the associated store in the real world
37. Results of Survey Cont’d 57% of participants had purchased a product within SL, but only 6% had purchased a product in real life as a result of having seen it in SL or other virtual worlds. Thus, the potential for taking advantage of potential crossovers between SL and real life does not appear to have yet been fully realized.
38. Results of Survey Cont’d 48% of the participants have visited 6 or more stores per month Majority of the stores visited in SecondLife do not have real world counterparts.
39. Results of Survey Cont’d People were more likely to spend money on their avatar's appearance or on acquiring/buying virtual objects than on developing real estate A considerable number of participants do not purchase Linden Dollars at all A small number of the participants have purchased thousands, and even tens of thousands of Linden Dollars. However, the majority of participants spent little to nothing on the purchase of Linden dollars.
40. Results of Survey Cont’d Participants reported an average SL session length of approximately 3–4 h Over 70% of participants do not participate in other forms of online social networking like Facebook or MySpace Survey Conclusion: There exists much potential for business applications in virtual worlds. Even if most people engage in SL for social reasons, they still interact with the businesses there
41. DISADVANTAGES OF THE VIRTUAL WORLD People get away from reality. Internet dating is misleading. Lag: Using virtual environments as a collaborative tool is only as strong as the weakest link. If one user has a slow connection, collaboration will not be optimal. Very expensive technology for proper utilization for businesses. Up till now the prime purpose is killing time and entertainment. People moving away from traditional hobbies.
42. Research about social computing in virtual worlds Began in computer science, engineering and, other applied technological sciences: With focus on Creation and Enhancement of Virtual 3D environment Soon potential applications in business and education became apparent to practitioners and academics.
43. Research about social computing in virtual worlds Because of the uniqueness of the subject, much of this work is still in formative phase. The Research, on a broader level is categorized into 2 areas: Research in Business Research in Education, Social Sciences and humanities
44. Research in Business Important virtual worlds research revolves around these key areas: Strategy-business models Market research Advertising General marketing Retailing and services Organizational management Management information systems Organizational collaboration
45. Strategy-business models A fundamental issue for companies is determining the most suitable business model that goes in line with their virtual worlds objective. Example of Electronic gaming industry: Up-front fixed fee Advertising Pay-as-you-go extras
46. Strategy-business models Electronic Arts decided to use a business model based solely on advertising and pay-as-you-go extras for their new game Battlefield Heroes in North America. This has helped them in reducing piracy and giving customer a choice of when to pay for upgrades and other features. 90% of 1500 gamers indicated that they would be willing to watch ads if they could play the game for free.(Survey)
47. Market Research Facilitated by easy access to large number of consumers providing accurate information in virtual worlds about their behaviors in the real world.
48. Market Research
49. Advertising Competitors of advertising in VW are Television and Movies. Campaigns can be reinforced in VW. A number of companies are present in Second Life.
50. Advertising Advantages: VW are populated by narrow and targetable demographic in terms of age and technology acceptance. The reach is potentially global. Thematic targeting to consumers of particular lifestyles. Disadvantages: One should not overstate the size of any virtual world as an advertizing market. Geographic testing is much less possible
51. Advertising Reverse Placement and Commercial translation has gone unnoticed since now. Researcher still know very little about the best way to talk to consumers in online environment.
52. Marketing Management Not only are virtual worlds for market research, they can be viewed as an entirely new markets. A key issue concerns how consumer behavior and product acceptance differ in-world from the real world. And does in-world experiences influences real world decisions.
53. Retailing and E-commerce Stores in SL
54. Retailing and E-commerce Sales Agent Avatar Example Good looking Avatar (likeability) Expert-looking Avatar (credibility)
55. Management Information Systems VW provide a space for an on-going interface between customer and service personnel. Helpful in creating vCRM.
56. Organizational and Collaboration Issues VW can influence how and where works get done. It can bring together people virtually. This support remote collaborative activities. (e.g. teams, medical research) Concern with this is whether the VW will add to the existing inter-firm communication system or replace it.
57. Research in Education Can overcome many of the limitations of internet and television-based distance learning. Over 150 universities have a presence in SL and use it for classes and tutorials. Libraries are also encouraging the use of VW. Development of Arts and Humanities
58. Research in Social Sciences Norms, cultures and social behavior in-world are different from those in physical world? Most VWs permit user-generated content and have a in-world currency. They also are linked to political, economic, legal and regulatory environments. Basically they try to keep it as real as possible to get exact information about consumers.
59. Conclusion The paper discusses about 6 things: Examines the past, present and possible future of virtual worlds. History of electronic gaming and social networking sites. The state of Virtual worlds according to the five-element taxonomy. Description of Second Life. Past and Future research in several business disciplines. A cursory summary on research in education, social sciences and humanities.