Virtual environments provide places for "being there together," for avatars to interact with each other in computer-generated spaces. These environments range from immersive systems in which people have life-size tracked avatar bodies to large-scale spaces, such as Second Life, where populations of users socialize in persistent virtual worlds. In this book, Ralph Schroeder brings together the research on how people interact in virtual environments, providing a state-of-the-art survey of the key topics in a framework for understanding this technology and its future implications.
"Ralph Schroeder has been at the center of research on telepresence for more than a decade. In the current book he takes his unique historical perspective and looks ahead to how new media will change the fundamental processes of social interaction."-Jeremy Bailenson, Stanford University
"The widespread use of social networking and social media, coupled with advances in rendering technologies and the ubiquity of computer networks have been sparked a renewed interest in online virtual environments. Ecological and green issues force us to think again about the cost of meeting face-to-face, and the potential alternatives. In this book Schroeder maps out the current state-of-play for virtual environments, drawing a nuanced picture of where we are, how we got here, and where we are going next. This is a must read for those of us interested in how we communicate now and in the future."-Tim Regan, Microsoft Research
"Many readers will be familiar with Ralph's previous edited books, which have served as important points of reference for researchers in the field of multi-user virtual environments. In this new book, Ralph gives a detailed overview of MUVE technologies and their social implications, and gives a compelling account of where these technologies are leading. The issue that Ralph highlights, how we ourselves are represented in the MUVE, is one of critical importance to the wide-spread acceptance of next-generation telepresence technologies."-Anthony Steed, University College London
Virtual environments provide places for 'being there together', for avatars to interact with each other in computer-generated spaces. They range from immersive systems in which people have life-size tracked avatar bodies to large-scale spaces such as Second Life where populations of users socialize in persistent virtual worlds. This book draws together research on how people interact in virtual environments: What difference does avatar appearance make? How do avatars collaborate and play together? How do the type of system and the space affect how people engage with each other? How does interaction between avatars differ from face-to-face interaction? What can social scientists learn from experiments and other studies of how people interact in virtual environments? What are the ethical and social issues in doing this research, and in the uses of this technology? And how do virtual environments differ from other communication technologies such as videoconferencing systems and other new media? This book is a state-of-the art survey of research on these topics, and offers a framework for understanding this technology and its future implications.
