Mentor: Philipp KraemerBy: Jennifer Wu

Use Netspeak So I Know You’re Real

Defining Virtual Worlds

MMORPG Simulations User Creation

What Can We Find in Virtual Worlds?

BusinessIBM

EducationExhibit at UK

MarketingMercedes-Benz

The Digital Crowd:

Anonymity

Computer-generated virtual agents

Human-controlled avatars

What do avatars do?

Immersion: Default to Different

Embodiment & Extension & Expression

Being a Part of the Digital CrowdPresence: realism

Co-Presence: InteractionPresence + Co-Presence = Human-ness

The Big Question

What factors influence the perception of human-ness in

avatars?

Design

• Does style of language affect perception of humanness in avatars?

• IV: • Human/non-human appearance• Use of Netspeak or formal English in

introduction

Procedure

• 83 students at the University of Kentucky participated in an online survey:

Which is controlled by a human?

Conditions

1. Man with Netspeak/Tiger with formal English

2. Man with formal engish/Tiger with Netspeak

3. Images only4. Text Only

NetspeakFormal

The avatar that used Netspeak (behaved realistically) was more frequently perceived as human-controlled even when it looked like a tiger instead of a man (appeared realistically).

Human/Informal Human/Formal0

5

10

15

20

25

22

6

0

18

Male

Tiger

Control Group Results

13

6

Avatar Only

MaleTiger

Choices of Human Controlled Avatar without Introductions

15

3

Text Only

InformalFormal

Choices of Human Generated Introduction without Images

What does this mean?

Style of language is a significant factor in behavioral realism. Utilizing Netspeak can promote presence in virtual interactions.

Ummm....lyke...R u evn real?!?!?!?How do i no???????

Bibliography• Bainbridge, W. S. (2007). The Scientific Research Potential of

Virtual Worlds. Science, 317 [5837], 472-276.• Jarmon, L. (2009). Pedagogy and Learning in the Virtual World

of Second Life. Encylopedia of Distance Learning, (2), 1610-1620. 

• Mennecke, B. E., Triplett, J. L., Hassall, L. M., Conde, Z. J., & Heer, R. (2011). An examination of a theory of embodied social presence in virtual worlds. Decision Sciences, 42 (2), 413-450.

• Neustaedter, C., & Fedorovskaya, E. (2009). Presenting Identity in a Virtual World through Avatar Appearances. Proceedings of Graphics Interface pages, 183-190.  

• Second Life website. www.secondlife.com . • You, S., & Sundar, S. S. (2013). I feel for my avatar: embodied

perception in Ves. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 3135-3138.