The Anatomy of a Virtual Research Project: Construction & Launch

Previously, I discussed my research project proposal around identity tourism in the virtual space. Continuing along those lines, I wanted to explore my experience and project consideration while preparing this project for launch. If anyone wishes to visit the space in-world, here is the SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Western%20University%201/117/154/208. It is open to any and all residents of Second Life. All I ask is that if you use any items, to please complete a survey and leave it in one of the dropboxes around the build. Thank you!

Second Life Building
For the overall appearance of the space, I wanted the area to be familiar to visitors in terms of layout. Most stores have a certain design that facilities the selection of items for purchase. Working on a limited Linden$ budget, I was creative in the use of textures, but overall, I wanted present a similar experience to what one would find while out shopping for clothes or other avatar commodities. The layout of the building was planned in advance as part of the proposal, though the final display of the various items changed slightly out of necessity for grouping similar offerings together. I did still want to offer positioning stands to allow avatars the option of adjusting the items if need be. This was most important in the cases of the packaged costumes offered on the lowest floor.

Although not originally part of the plan, the bottom floor proved the most challenging of the entire build as well as the most engaging for both me as the creator and for my guests thus far. My experience in various shapes as I adjusted items was challenging at times, especially when shaping the Man of Steel character. Spending significant lengths of time looking at my avatar as a male was disruptive to my connection with my avatar.

On the building side of things, I was out of my depth in many ways with these avatars but I love a challenge. This project forced me to explore the world of alphas and sculpted prims for the first time in addition to scripting. I’d have very little experience with scripts before, but coming from a programming background found this the easiest to pick up of the three new skills I had to learn. Alphas are definitely something I’d like to explore further but the labour-intensive crafting experience of building sculpted prims is the skill I felt gave me the most difficulty and yet the most proud accomplishments. It took many back and forth trips with the texture uploader to get each sculpted texture right but overall I’m extremely proud of what I was able to accomplish. Each of the offerings on that floor presented a new challenge and I loved every minute of it!

Launch & Further Development
The biggest stress of this whole project was getting it all set up and ready to go in time to have it open to students in class. As each of the above challenges came into light, it seemed like a never-ending task. It was launched on April 2, at long last, and so far the responses have been 100% positive. The only concern I have is that I may not be able to gather enough data to make any significant conclusions about virtual identity play. Ideally, I would like to continue to develop this project through the addition of more items as well as incorporating socialization spaces to explore the external impacts on avatar modifications. In my proposal, I touched on Ulrike Shultze’s view that the interpretation of a user’s virtual identity by others in that same space compromises a significant portion of that identity (Embodiment and presence in virtual worlds: a review). I address this a bit through some of the survey questions, but given the hesitation many users would feel to explore outside of the dress-up box in their modified avatars, I think including a safe space to explore avatar-to-avatar engagement while experimenting would yield interesting survey results.

 

The Anatomy of a Virtual Research Project: Proposal

Over the last while, I have worked on a virtual identity research project. I had proposed the idea as an engaging final project for the course. What I wanted to do was to enable visitors to explore the idea of virtual identity tourism. As Zhou et al. note in Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships, “the disembodied and anonymous online environment makes it possible for people to reinvent themselves through the production of new identities.” The major appeal for many to explore virtual spaces such as Second Life, where there is not goal-oriented experiences like those found in video games, is to explore beyond the boundaries that may limit the user in the actual world.

Initial Proposal
My initial idea was a larger than life dress-up box. I wanted to include a number of items that would allow users to change their appearance. Although we can do so in terms of clothing, haircuts, and tanning in the material world, the idea in this virtual space was to take it a step further. I wanted to have the items change the avatar directly. Clothing is only part of our identity in the virtual space and plays even less of a role next to the ability to change aspects that are otherwise difficult if not impossibly immutable in the actual world. I’m talking about specifically gender, physique, species, and other physical attributes along those lines.

The idea was to have a space where the above characteristics were openly available and from which guests would be free to choose as many or as few options as they desired. Just as a child’s dress-up box enables him or her to take on a completely new persona, I wanted that freedom for avatars in this space. The freedom and diversity of options were key because they would allow me to determine the length and impact of identity tourism in the virtual space.

Hypothesis
The hypothesis I presented within my proposal identified that likely users of a virtual space would feel attached to the physical appearance of their avatar to some degree, with more experienced or developed avatars having a stronger aversion to body modifications. Additionally, I anticipated most users would likely identify a few traits which they would refuse to change due to the user’s association with his or her own personality or the identity of his or her’s avatar, though this may be less likely in newer avatars within the space.