Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Teachers College Educational ...

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Scarcella, R.C. (1996). Secondary education and second language research: ESL students in the 1990’s. The CATESOL Journal, 9, 129–152. 77
User Experiences with Avatar Customization in Second Life and Lord of the Rings Online Selen Turkay, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525W 120 th St, New York, NY, 10027 Email: st2282@columbia.edu Abstract: This paper will present an exploratory study on users’ experiences with avatar customization tools in two different virtual worlds: a social virtual world, Second Life and a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO). Preliminary findings highlight fundamental differences in participants’ engagement in avatar creation and experience with the tools. Introduction The word “avatar” has become very common in daily life thanks to an increasing number of virtual worlds (Kzero, 2011), and various consumer media, including James Cameron’s film Avatar. In virtual worlds, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user. Avatars’ visual and behavioral characteristics depend on the theme and technical aspects of a virtual world. For example, Linden Lab chose “Your World. Your Imagination” motto for Second Life (SL) allowing its users to customize their avatars to a great extent. SL provides over 150 unique sliders for users to customize their avatar appearance (Linden Lab, 2008). Creating avatars can be considered a form of art in SL but it may be challenging to design a desired avatar for a novice user with these sliders. This is similar to the experience in the Metaverse, which the idea of SL is based on, as described in Snow Crash (Stephenson, 1992). Other virtual worlds provide users with different choices. For example, the Lord of the Rings Online is Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings books. In this game, players can choose among four races (humans, elf, hobbit and dwarf) and nine classes. Each race and class has different characteristics both in appearance and as abilities. When users customize their avatar appearance, they scroll through preset options for head shape, eye shape, hair style, mouth, nose and so on and have a wide range of choice for colors (such as eye color, skin color and hair color). They can also adjust weight and build. Study Previous studies showed that customizing avatars can effect users’ enjoyment, and using customized avatars may increase learning and engagement in a virtual world (Bailey, Wise & Bolls, 2009; Turkay, 2011). However, if we are to study the relation between the extent of avatar customization and user relations with their avatars, we have to take available technology and tools into consideration. For this purpose, we designed a study with two different virtual worlds: a social virtual world, SL, and a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG), Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO). Thirty-two participants (female=17, male=15) were asked to create a SL avatar as part of their assignment in a graduate level class. Forty participants (female=21, male=19) were asked to create an avatar by using LotRO avatar creation tools. In both conditions, participants were aware that they would be represented in the virtual world by the avatar over multiple play sessions. After avatar customization, participants were asked to fill out a 5-point Likert scale survey about their avatar customization experience (O’Brian & Toms, 2009). Open-ended questions asked why participants customized their avatars the way they did, and the reasons for their naming choice. Results Preliminary results show that there are significant differences between users’ engagement in customizing their avatars in LotRO and SL. In general, LotRO players were engaged in their avatar customization process significantly more than SL users were (p
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Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Te
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Table of Contents Math Strategies i
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Harnessing the Power of Emotionally
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Think Facts introduces four charact
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Guidelines for an Online Networking
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Mode S = Synchronous A=Asynchronous
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Investigating Potential Factors to
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Investigating the Effects of Choice
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Videogames in Institutional Practic
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Youth in the Digital Age: Digital M
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Augmenting The Arrival: Students’
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Connected to Word Problems: Improvi
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ased approach. Future research may
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MOOCs, Open Education, and Implicat
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Promoting Healthy Eating Habits Thr
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Page 35 and 36: Figure 2: The Aesthetigraph represe
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Page 39 and 40: Using Weblogs to Increase Language
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Page 43 and 44: “Media Literacy in Action: Using
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Page 47 and 48: Liu, L., & Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (200
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Page 59 and 60: Exploration of concepts to facilita
Page 61 and 62: Exploring the Intersection of Forma
Page 63 and 64: Barab, S. & Squire, K. (2004). Desi
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Page 71 and 72: References Bethel School District v
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Page 91 and 92: References Allen, E., & Seaman, J.
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