How does one’s game character gain value in online multiplayer game? What are the elements that contribute to the overall virtual identity of a player? Throughout the history of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) game characters have remained central figures for all types of in-game interaction and value perception. Recently, MMOGs have evolved to a stage where at least parts of one’s i...

This paper is an investigation of theoretical issues pertaining to art and design graduates as they embark upon their training as teachers. The expressive, ‘confessional’ nature of selected forum posts in their virtual learning environment are analysed in relation to the students’ identity transformation into teachers. This transition is profound in the case of artist teachers, for whom the con...

A two-part quantitative and qualitative study of role players within a virtual game world examined their prevalence, practices, and identity formation. Drawing on unobtrusive behavioral data captured by the game, combined with a large survey and traditional ethnographic methods, the study found that role players both negotiate identity and use their time online as a moratorium for their offline...

Identity management systems help users to organise their digital profiles in order to communicate parts of them, whenever needed and wanted, to communication partners like internet services or personal contacts. Most current identity management research tries to achieve the highest possible degree of data hiding for best privacy. After sketching some of these projects, this paper presents a dif...

Virtual communities are emerging as an effective marketing tool with increasing number of technologies supporting online communications. This study proposed that members’ satisfaction with virtual travel communities (VTCs) is positively influenced by their perception of, attitude towards, and trust in digital identity management (DIM) system employed in VTCs and tested the model using SEM analy...

Understanding the concept of Self and its relationship to virtual worlds is not a luxury. Virtual worlds render a universe not limited to present laws of nature, where perception of gravity may be suspended and humans may morph and communicate in ways yet imagined. As technology progresses, distinguishing virtual from reality may become more difficult. For some, this offers gains. For others, s...

A distinguishing feature of virtual communities is their sense of community, i.e., their participants’ feelings of membership, identity, influence, and attachment with each other. This study tests a model in which members’ perceptions of the group’s norms mediate the relationships between supporting each other and identifying each other with the members’ sense of virtual community. Two studies ...

The rapid growth of network access and the development of Web 2.0 have resulted in the popularity of virtual communities (VCs), such as Wikipedia, Facebook, professional forums and social network communities. The impact of VCs increasingly spreads over a broad range of fields, from social and educational to business. The content (i.e., knowledge) that VC members provide is the factor that deter...

Little is known about how girl players navigate through virtual worlds, negotiate their identity, and challenge cultural norms and practices. We investigated over 500 players in a science-themed tween virtual world called Whyville.net with girls being the majority (68%) of its 1.5 million registered players. Using logfile data collected over a six-month long period, we identified three distinct...