What is a virtual world? Definition and classification

Abstract

In 2008, articles by Bell and Schroeder provided an initial platform from which to develop a coherent definition of the term 'virtual worlds'. Yet over the past ten years, there has been little development of the term. Instead there is confusion in the literature, with the introduction of new terms which are at times used to classify the type of virtual world and at others are used synonymously with the term. At the same time there has been a resurgence of interest in the potential of virtual reality which further muddies the conceptual waters. While the lack of a clear and common understanding of a term is not uncommon, there are implications for researchers and practitioners. To address these issues, this paper presents a new framework for the definition of virtual worlds, arguing what it is for a world to be virtual, the user experience that is a necessary part of this and the technical features which afford this. For the first time the relationships between commonly confused terms and technologies are identified to provide a much needed conceptual clarity for researchers and educators.

Immersive virtual field trips in education: A mixed‐methods study on elementary students' presence and perceived learning

“…With the rapid advancement of technological hardware for experiencing VR, popular discussions on VR often conflate the physical tool with the virtual experience itself. For example, although HMDs constitute only one of the various possible means of experiencing VR (Girvan, ), many believe that VR exclusively refers to experiences with HMDs. In contrast, researchers do not limit their definition of VR to the use of devices.…”

“…Feelings of immersion and involvement are strongly related to the presence in VR (Witmer & Singer, ). While Brown and Cairns () defined immersion by the degree of involvement and total immersion in the form of presence in a gameplay situation, Girvan () argued that, in virtual worlds, people can still feel present without the feeling of immersion attained by communicating with others. According to previous studies on presence, although the degree of involvement is an important component, other components determine the level of presence.…”

“…To differentiate HMD‐based VFTs from traditional ones, the current study uses the term “immersive” VFTs for the former. These immersive VFTs are unique in that they are not VR games or simulations because they do not provide any hypothesis testing or gaming components, neither are they identical to virtual worlds, since they do not share technological aspects of avatars, multiple concurrent users, communication or content creation tools, persistence and representation of space as defined by Girvan (). Considering that the feeling of being present in places can be essential to the successful use of VFTs in education, immersive VFTs would affect students' perceived learning by increasing presence.…”

Virtual world, defined from a technological perspective and applied to video games, mixed reality, and the Metaverse

“…Bartle initially described properties of a virtual world in his book, Designing Virtual Worlds, and later clarified each individual property. Researchers have attempted to provide a definition for a virtual world (e.g., through literature review), but aspects of each definition are still problematic. Current definitions simply can not be applied to contemporary technologies, allowing for the classification of technologies such as the online productivity tool, Google Docs; the video game, League of Legends (LoL); the many shards of the virtual world, World of Warcraft (WoW); or the Internet as a whole.…”

“…Twenty‐six technology samples were analyzed including commonly used software, communication technologies, video games, web technologies, and early and contemporary virtual worlds. The properties found in Bell and Girvan provided a starting point for the study.…”