Academic Second Life Studies
- User Acceptance of Virtual Worlds by Marc Fetscherin and C. Lattemann, June 2007
An Explorative Study about Second Life
Our report assesses the user acceptance of Virtual Worlds, specifically Second Life. By means of a survey with almost 250 respondents this report provides first empirical results of the user acceptance of Second Life. The data has been gathered during spring 2007. Our results show that 90% of respondents have less than a year experience, 70% access Second Life from home and 54% with a desktop. There are 67% of respondents who are not afraid of giving personal information. Almost 60% are very likely to buy virtual goods from Second Life, and 42% are willing to use their credit card to purchase on Second Life. About 70% perceive Second Life improves collaboration and communication, and more than 60% perceive that it improves cooperation between people. 56% of respondents perceive Second life as easy to use. Finally, our results indicate that people are using Second Life not to change their identity, but rather to explore and visit new places and meet people.
- The Unbearable Likeness of Being Digital: The Persistence of Nonverbal Social Norms in Online Virtual Environments, Nick Yee, Jeremy N. Bailenson, Mark Urbanek (Department of Communication, Stanford University), Francis Chung (Department of Computer Science, Portland State University) and Dan Merget (Department of Computer Science, Stanford University) Summer 2006
This study basically says that avatars display the same interpersonal distance characteristics as real people, and similar eye contact. It implies that people treat their avatars as an extension of themselves, not as a puppet or external object.