VIRTUAL WORLDS & SOCIAL INTERACTION DESIGN Mikael Jakobsson Umeå University Department of Informatics © Mikael Jakobsson Department of Informatics Umeå University 2006 Printed by Print & Media, Umeå University RR-06.02 ISSN 1401-4572 ISBN 91-7264-053-7 Organization Document type Author Department of Informatics Doctoral dissertation Mikael Jakobsson Umeå University Date of issue [email protected] SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden May 4, 2006 Title Virtual worlds and social interaction design Abstract This dissertation is a study of social interaction in virtual worlds and virtual world design. A virtual world is a synchronous, multi-user system that offers a persistent spatial environment for iconically represented participants. Together, these form an example of social interaction design. I have applied an arena perspective on my object of study, meaning that I focus on these socio- technical systems as places. I have investigated the persistent qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds. What I have found is that virtual worlds are as real as the physical world. They are filled with real people interacting with each other evoking real emotions and leading to real consequences. There are no fixed boundaries between the virtual and physical arenas that make up a participant’s lifeworld. I have found that participants in virtual worlds are not anonymous and bodiless actors on a level playing field. Participants construct everything needed to create social structures such as identities and status symbols. The qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds cannot be measured against physical interaction. Doing so conceals the qualities of virtual interaction. Through the concepts of levity and proximity, I offer an alternative measure that better captures the unique properties of the medium. Levity is related to the use of avatars and the displacement into a virtual context and manifests itself as a kind of lightness in the way participants approach the interaction. Proximity is my term for the transformation of social distances that takes place in virtual worlds. While participants perceive that they are in the same place despite being physically separated, the technology can also create barriers separating participants from their physical surroundings. The gap between the participant and her avatar is also of social significance. As a theoretical foundation for design, I have used Michael Heim’s writings and practices as a base for a phenomenologically grounded approach, which provides an alternative to the dominating perspectives of architecture and engineering. Based on an explorative design project and the earlier mentioned findings regarding social interaction, I have formulated a model for virtual world design called interacture. This model takes the interaction between participants as the fundamental building material and the starting point of the design process. From there, layers of function and structure are added, all the time balancing the design between fantasy and realism. I have explored the possibilities of using ethnographic studies as the foundation for a participant centered design approach. I have aimed for an inside view of my object of study both as an ethnographer and as a designer. One outcome of this approach is that I have come to understand virtual worlds not just as places but also as processes where the experience of participating can change drastically over time as the participant reaches new stages in the process. In conclusion, the method of integrating ethnography with design and the understanding of social interaction as the fundamental building material is woven into a general approach to the study and design of socio-technical systems called social interaction design. Keywords Language Interaction design, virtual worlds, massively multiplayer English online games, internet studies, computer mediated communi- cation, virtual reality, virtual ethnography, human-computer interaction, interacture, social interaction design ISBN, ISSN and key title Number of pages 91-7264-053-7, 1401-4572, RR-06.02 205 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Let me start with a quote from sociologist Erving Goffman: “You’re empathetic enough—because you’ve been taking the same crap they’ve been taking—to sense what it is that they’re responding to. To me, that’s the core of observation. If you don’t get yourself in that situation, I don’t think you can do a piece of serious work.” After having spent ten years in virtual worlds working on this dissertation, I feel that I have met Goffman’s requirements. I also feel deeply in debt to all the virtual world participants out there that have been taking the crap together with me, and in the process made this work possible. Privacy concerns prevent me from naming anyone, and you are too many to mention anyway but you know who you are. Thanks! I would like to thank my advisor Erik Stolterman and Michael Heim who has functioned as a mentor for me. I would also like to thank all the people I have collaborated with in the projects that have led to this dissertation: Anna Croon Fors, Helena Holmström, Vicki Popdan, Daniel Skog and T.L. Taylor. T.L. gets double-extra thanks for her tireless efforts in giving comments on everything from grand ideas to misplaced commas. I would furthermore like to thank Michele Dickey, Jonny Holmström, Andreas Lund, Kenneth Nilsson, Gunilla Wiklund, and the Virtual World Design Team at ACCD who also have helped me along the way. Finally, I would like to thank everyone at Informatics in Umeå and K3 in Malmö for being great colleagues and of course my family in Boden for all their support. CONTENTS Prologue – Bill’s Story ................................................................................ 1 Chapter One – Worlds Through Technology............................................ 7 Of keyboards, Women, Mice and Men.................................................. 8 Through the Free Interaction Smoke Screen.......................................... 9 Stepping Out....................................................................................... 10 Graduating from the Scandinavian School........................................... 12 Approaching Virtual World Studies..................................................... 14 Interlude One – Virtual Birth................................................................... 17 Chapter Two – Virtual Worlds Defined .................................................. 23 Stand by for the establishing shot......................................................... 24 What is a Virtual World?..................................................................... 24 Synchronous or Micro-Asynchronous?................................................. 29 The Systems ........................................................................................ 30 The Projects ........................................................................................ 37 Conclusions......................................................................................... 43 Interlude Two – Vicki’s Story................................................................... 45 Chapter Three – Social Interaction Design Studies................................... 51 A Model for Social Interaction Design Studies..................................... 52 Being There......................................................................................... 53 The Arena Perspective ......................................................................... 54 Addressing the Outside View............................................................... 58 Making the Conceptual Shift............................................................... 62 Capturing Net-Life.............................................................................. 64 The Inside View: The Case of Everquest.............................................. 72 Interaction Design Studies................................................................... 82 Social and Technological Construction................................................ 84 Social Interaction Design Studies......................................................... 85 Two Sides of the Same Coin................................................................ 87 Interlude Three – Phrank’s Story.............................................................. 89 Chapter Four – Understanding Social Interaction in Virtual Worlds ........ 95 Investigating the properties of social interaction................................... 96 Social Vacuum? ................................................................................... 97 Equalization? ......................................................................................100 Constructing Structures......................................................................102 Constructing Status ............................................................................108 Constructing Identities.......................................................................117 Constructing Bodies ...........................................................................120 Between Bodies ..................................................................................123 Technical Construction of Sociality ....................................................128 Weight ~ Levity..................................................................................132 Distance ~ Proximity..........................................................................134 From Equal to Social ..........................................................................136