Welcome to the Age of 3D3C: Digital, Design, Development, Community, Creation, & Commerce

This issue marks both the last issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (JVWR) in its current format and the launch of our 2021 drive towards 3D3C. This introduction by the journal's Editor in Chief, Prof. Yesha Sivan, concludes the past and looks to the future plans.

Redstone Jammin’: Conversational Analysis from a Collaborative Music-Making Activity in Minecraft

This paper describes an intervention in which the immersive environment of Minecraft was used for collaborative learning in creating musical pieces with the use of a metaphor of introductory physics circuitry. This study explored the affordances of Minecraft, of how learning within a collaborative group can happen differently, with each participant having diverse backgrounds both in music and in Minecraft and how they may use this to their advantage. Laurillard’s (1999, 2002) Conversational Framework was used as a basis in exploring and examining the social discourse between the participants to reflect how the distinct types of effective communication between the “expert” and the “novice” will conflate when both roles are not restricted to a sole individual, and analyses the behavior of the participants when the role of the expert, novice, or both simultaneously, are adopted in the music-making process.

Virtual Goods Purchase, Game Satisfaction and Perceived Justice: An Empirical Study of Players of PVP Mobile Games

Over recent years, the freemium business model has been a major revenue source for mobile games, namely to attract virtual consumption of players through differentiated game experience. This trend may pose challenges to the idea of “fair play,” an essential precondition for players to enjoy the game, player-versus-player (PVP) mobile game in particular. To keep track of players’ behavioral reactions to the freemium business model and their assessment of in-game experiences, we conducted a survey to disclose the relationship among the virtual goods purchase, game satisfaction, and perceived justice of PVP mobile game players (N=262). The results indicate that (1.) the game satisfaction mediates the effect of virtual goods purchase on perceived justice, and (2.) the utilitarian satisfaction demonstrates a greater significant indirect effect upon perceived justice than hedonic satisfaction. This study also discusses the implications of the above findings in terms of commerce, psychology, and culture.

Editorial: Rendering Sounds, Sales and Instructional Capabilities in a Virtual World

JVWR Assembled 2020 presents our final contribution to a focused effort within the capacity of Virtual Worlds. This issue includes three articles covering 360 audio technologies, instructional use, and the topic of purchase intentions in Virtual Worlds. The issue is led by devoted research partners who have worked together previously. Dr. Angie Cox, Professor of Business Technology and Process Improvement & Professor at the Air Force Institute of Technology, acts as the prime editor. Dr. Ryan Durbin, at the Washington State Patrol, and Dr. Vernell Hall, of Trident American Intercontinental University, act as the co-editors.

The Use of Ambisonic Audio to Improve Presence, Focus, and Noticing While Viewing 360 Video

Research has provided evidence of the value of producing multiple representations of content for learners (e.g., verbal, visual, etc.). However, much of the research has acknowledged changes in visual technologies while not recognizing or utilizing related audio innovations. For instance, teacher education students who were once taught through two-dimensional video are now being presented with interactive, three-dimensional content (e.g., simulations or 360 video). Users in old and new formats, however, still typically receive monophonic sound. A limited number of research studies exist that have examined the impact of combining three-dimensional sound to match three-dimensional video in learning environments. The purpose of this study was to respond to this gap by comparing the outcomes of watching 360 video with either monophonic or ambisonic audio. Results provided evidence that ambisonic audio increased perceived presence for those familiar with the content being taught, led to differentiation in what ambisonic viewers noticed compared to monophonic groups, and improved participant focus in watching the 360 video. Implications for the development and implementation into virtual worlds are discussed.

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.

Rising to the Challenge of Virtual in the Age of COVID-19: The Macro Framework of Three New Normals (3NN)

Following COVID-19, virtual technologies, theory and practice, are now core. Thus, our JVWR community is called upon to provide guidance, and we are required to collectively think and do. To jump-start this call for leadership, we present the 3NN framework (three new normals) to meet the mental challenge of the COVID-19 black swan and provide a strategic direction. Using the framework, and based on individual internal risk appetite and external market conditions, one should estimate the relative time each New Normal will take. Then, you or your organization must choose how to lead. For that, we provide a three-pronged tactic: defense, offense, difference.**(Yesha’s note: I dedicate this paper to the memory of Avishai Friedman, my beloved almost-twin cousin. We share a similar name following our grandfather, and an intellectual passion for thinking and doing. I am already missing his kind smile.)

Destruction as Deviant Leisure in EVE Online

In this article, I argue for the inclusion of ‘deviant leisure’—a concept borrowed from the neighboring field of Leisure Studies—to provide Game Studies with a more robust theoretical toolkit to examine negative player-to-player interactions within online gameworlds. As a means of adding additional vocabulary to describe norms violating behavior, this article uses the Massively Multiplayer Online Game EVE Online as a case study to demonstrate how deviant leisure can be an effective framework for unpacking some of the behaviors observed within gameworlds that don’t quite fit into other commonly used categories such as dark play, griefing, trolling, or toxicity. Of particular value for Game Studies, deviant leisure has within it an embedded critique of the social order. In this article, I argue that what is happening in EVE is a rejection of games being coopted by society into becoming an activity that must be productive, and instead via the lens of deviant leisure we can recast these events as a struggle for gameplay to return to leisure for leisure’s sake.

Artificial Beings Worthy of Moral Consideration in Virtual Environments: An Analysis of Ethical Viability

This article explores whether and under which circumstances it is ethically viable to include artificial beings worthy of moral consideration in virtual environments. In particular, the article focuses on virtual environments such as those in digital games and training simulations – interactive and persistent digital artifacts designed to fulfill specific purposes, such as entertainment, education, training, or persuasion.The article introduces the criteria for moral consideration that serve as a framework for this analysis. Adopting this framework, the article tackles the question of whether including artificial intelligences that are entitled to moral consideration in virtual environments constitutes an immoral action on the part of human creators. To address this problem, the article draws on three conceptual lenses from the philosophical branch of ethics: the problem of parenthood and procreation, the question concerning the moral status of animals, and the classical problem of evil.Using a thought experiment, the concluding section proposes a contractualist answer to the question posed in this article. The same section also emphasizes the potential need to reframe our understanding of the design of virtual environments and their future stakeholders.

Beyond Evil and Good in Online Gaming. An Analysis of Violence in ‘Overwatch’ Between Demonization and Proactive Values

Many studies have addressed and explored the effects of video games with an emphasis on violence and aggressive behaviors. This article’s aim is to go beyond the simplistic difference between negative outcomes and their absence by suggesting the concept of “meaningful violence.” For exploring possible instances of such a phenomenon, a content analysis (Gee, 2012) of online materials (online comments, user-generated content) from leading gaming media environments (Reddit, YouTube) was directed targeting the popular video game Overwatch. The theoretical framework adopted drawn its cornerstones from Educational Sciences, Philosophy, and Media Studies, spanning key concepts such as “symbolic imaginary” (Durand, 1999, Wunenburger, 1995) and phenomenological-hermeneutic analysis (Gadamer, 2004). Results point to an alternative overview of gaming violence, which puts in-game aggressiveness and sacrifice in a new light beyond counter-posed viewpoints. Implications are noteworthy for both researchers and practitioners, who can harness positive and proactive processes behind apparently negative attitudes and superficial measurements of explicit content and disruptive actions.