Download The Scientific Research Potential of Virtual Worlds

Presented by
Yeshwanth Boppana
Sowmya Nagubadi
overview
• Introduction
• SL and WOW
• Virtual Laboratory Experiments
• Observational Social and Economic Science
• Computer and Information Science
• Human Challenges
• Critical Views
• Critical Questions
Introduction
 Online virtual worlds have great potential as sites for
research in social, behavioral and economic sciences,
as well in human-centered computer science.
 The diversity of current virtual worlds can be
represented by SL and WOW.
 Virtual worlds suggest new potential for education
across all sciences.
SL and WOW
• SL and WOW have many similarities in the 3-D Virtual
worlds, objects, user interaction etc.
• SL has 6.5 million users registered and WOW has 8.5
million subscribers.
• SL is especially designed to mount formal experiments
in social psychology or cognitive science.
• WOW is a better option for nonintrusive statistical
methodologies examining social networks and
economic systems.
Contin…
 Researchers are exploring methods needed to create
entirely new generation games called pervasive LARPs
(live-action role-playing games).
 Interestingly most of the virtual world users are adults.
Virtual Laboratory Experiments
• SL facilitates creating online laboratories that can
automatically recruit potentially thousands of research
subjects.
• Creative scientists may be able to design experiments
that are feasible in virtual worlds but were never
possible before.
• Virtual worlds combine both AI agents and humancontrolled avatars implies many rigorous experiments
on this crucial issue can be conducted in them.
• Political experiments can also be carried in VW.
Auction House in WOW
Second Life
Observational Social and Economic
Science
• Many scientists and scholars are already conducting
research about virtual worlds and are using them as
environments to ask general social-scientific
questions.
• Economists say results of different VWs can be
compared to nations on earth.
• Research on cultural boundaries in VWs include
studies of gender specific behavioral norms in nontraditional environments .
 Wow is suitable for quantitative research, and
encourages individual to write “add-on” programs.
 Analyzing tools are being developed to analyze data
from servers that run another major online roleplaying game.
Computer and Information Science
 Major drawback of VWs is high latency and low
bandwidth.
 Management of bandwidth in WOW and its drawback.
 AI representations of humans to real world can be
more complex and features like responding creatively,
is been worked upon.
 Human computer interaction is one field where virtual
worlds can be used as laboratories.
 Wow and SL images are restricted to only screens.
Future development in this area is possible.
Human Challenges
 One of the major issue is the cognitive and emotional
relationship between humar user and their
representative are actively debated.
 Security issues are not focused in virtual world.
Examples : Company meetings etc
 Online research may require ethics scrutiny by
institutional human subject review boards.
 Transformation of some kinds of education at precollege level might harmonize with scientific values
more than traditional values.
Critical Views
 It was mentioned in the paper that virtual laboratories will
need sometimes huge numbers to conduct surveys. But
getting so many people into action is a very difficult task.
There are issues like interest of participation, time,
knowledge, cost, etc. So with all these constraints how far the
virtual laboratories will be a success is thought provoking.
 The paper goes describing the issues with examples as SL or
WOW. We can agree a major part of issues could be covered
with these two. But apart from gaming and creating from
existing pre-developed VW(virtual world), there could
possibly be more constraints out of this boundary.
 When there are still network and technical issues(latency)
related to online gaming in virtual worlds, can we predict a
perfect virtual world at the door step of every user? There was
only a question raised about it but no suggestions were given.
 The main focus of paper was on the credits of VW and its
potential of research in future. An alarming thing is when it is
involving so many users and other constraints, a potential risk
is also present. There is no mention regarding it. (Example: if
organizations are holding meetings in VW isn’t there a risk of
confidential data leak?)
Critical questions:
 An interesting question that arises when we read the paper is,
virtual world can be said as all the communication mechanisms
mixed together to make one sophisticated tool. It has many
advantages, but isn’t the attention given to virtual world and
potential of its future and research is beyond the limits?
 As given in paper there are many knots for an experiment to be
carried out in virtual laboratory, as the companies involved must be
ready to participate invest and implement features in their games.
How far can the virtual laboratory be successful with so many
constraints?
 Right now VR(virtual reality) is restricted only to computer
monitors. Do people really demand for a perfect full VR which is
not restricted to computer monitors or will the existing VR satisfy
the demands of people?
Questions?