Dipaola, Steve. "Authoring the Global Self: Identity, Expression and Role-Playing in Virtual Communities." Proceedings of CGSA (Canadian Game Studies Association). 2008.
http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/40
ABSTRACT
We examine Traveler, a social-based 3D online virtual community with over ten years of continuous community use as a case study. Traveler is a client-server application allowing real-time synchronous communication between individuals over the Internet. The Traveler client interface presents the user with a shared user created virtual 3D world, in which participants are represented by avatars. The primary mode of communication is through multi-point, full duplex voice, managed by the server. This paper reports on the initial design goals of the developers in the mid 1990s to emulate natural social paradigms, and then more recently, reports on how the online community uses distance attended multi-point voice and opened end 3D space construction to express themselves both on a personal level and collaborative level to facilitate a tight socially based community.
http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/40
ABSTRACT
We examine Traveler, a social-based 3D online virtual community with over ten years of continuous community use as a case study. Traveler is a client-server application allowing real-time synchronous communication between individuals over the Internet. The Traveler client interface presents the user with a shared user created virtual 3D world, in which participants are represented by avatars. The primary mode of communication is through multi-point, full duplex voice, managed by the server. This paper reports on the initial design goals of the developers in the mid 1990s to emulate natural social paradigms, and then more recently, reports on how the online community uses distance attended multi-point voice and opened end 3D space construction to express themselves both on a personal level and collaborative level to facilitate a tight socially based community.
