Communicating age in Second Life: The contributions of textual and visual factors
new media & society
2015, Vol. 17(1) 41–61
© The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/1461444813504270
nms.sagepub.com
The Aim of Study: The research was designed to examine age identity among residents of Second Life. Age identity can be described as one of the key factors that people perceive themselves for social interactions.It can be categorised as a pre-interactional factor which influences one to sense the tendency to communicate or belong to a particular group, e.g., older people (McCann et. al).
The virtual world (Second Life to be accurate) has provided its users with lots of control for their choice of self-presentation. There is a broad range of possibilities for any participant to recreate their desired identity through their experience in sims.
The Method of Study: This research has a mixed practice of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to analyse verbal and non-verbal preferences of communication among various age groups in Second Life. There were 201 participants chosen to play in a 2-hour long custom-built game (a point-and-click mystery quest) during which they would help a group trainee detectives to find a lost moonstone. This kind of game activates team work, verbal communication and problem solving among participants.
All players were accompanied by one of the researchers in shape of an automaton. The mentioned researcher had the minimum possible interaction with the rest of the group. All verbal (i.e. chats) and non-verbal (e.g., avatar gesture / movement) were recorded in video format. The participants then were asked to answer 15 minutes questionnaire about their experience in Second Life.
The Result of Study: There was a clear difference between in-world chat formats of each age group.The older age group preferred to practice complete sentences even for saying greetings or asking a question from other team mates and fewer slang words.Younger adults, on the other hand, used one world emotion worlds such as wow! and cool!The latter had also shown interest in spending more time in the world after the game finished. They would go around and experience few other sims and meet new avatars.
In the case of appearance, older age group did not show much interest in using furry avatars (half animal-half human). The younger ones were quite more adventurous about forming their appearance in Second Life.
Although Second Life avatar preferences may be slightly limited in adding wrinkles to face, having grey hair was a signature addition which that was not used even for one avatar. It seems like participants liked to present an ideal form of their own identity.As the research shows, all the avatars were younger than actual residents.
This study was one of the first quantitative attempts to record different practised preferences in the virtual world related to age identity of users. So I think there is a lot of potential in this field.
new media & society
2015, Vol. 17(1) 41–61
© The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1461444813504270
nms.sagepub.com
The Aim of Study: The research was designed to examine age identity among residents of Second Life. Age identity can be described as one of the key factors that people perceive themselves for social interactions.It can be categorised as a pre-interactional factor which influences one to sense the tendency to communicate or belong to a particular group, e.g., older people (McCann et. al).
The virtual world (Second Life to be accurate) has provided its users with lots of control for their choice of self-presentation. There is a broad range of possibilities for any participant to recreate their desired identity through their experience in sims.
The Method of Study: This research has a mixed practice of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to analyse verbal and non-verbal preferences of communication among various age groups in Second Life. There were 201 participants chosen to play in a 2-hour long custom-built game (a point-and-click mystery quest) during which they would help a group trainee detectives to find a lost moonstone. This kind of game activates team work, verbal communication and problem solving among participants.
All players were accompanied by one of the researchers in shape of an automaton. The mentioned researcher had the minimum possible interaction with the rest of the group. All verbal (i.e. chats) and non-verbal (e.g., avatar gesture / movement) were recorded in video format. The participants then were asked to answer 15 minutes questionnaire about their experience in Second Life.
The Result of Study: There was a clear difference between in-world chat formats of each age group.The older age group preferred to practice complete sentences even for saying greetings or asking a question from other team mates and fewer slang words.Younger adults, on the other hand, used one world emotion worlds such as wow! and cool!The latter had also shown interest in spending more time in the world after the game finished. They would go around and experience few other sims and meet new avatars.
In the case of appearance, older age group did not show much interest in using furry avatars (half animal-half human). The younger ones were quite more adventurous about forming their appearance in Second Life.
Although Second Life avatar preferences may be slightly limited in adding wrinkles to face, having grey hair was a signature addition which that was not used even for one avatar. It seems like participants liked to present an ideal form of their own identity.As the research shows, all the avatars were younger than actual residents.
This study was one of the first quantitative attempts to record different practised preferences in the virtual world related to age identity of users. So I think there is a lot of potential in this field.
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