Virtual worlds can foster meaningful relationships and communities despite the lack of physical interaction. They operate through similar social principles to offline communities, with people making friends, offering support, and bonding over shared interests. Trust is especially important in virtual worlds, as interactions are based on building reputation over time through consistent behavior.
13. So how can the interactions in cyberspace be meaningful ? In traditional definitions of “community”, there’d be no such thing in cyberspace How can you develop meaningful relationships with people you’ve never met ?
14. It’s been happening for years These virtual worlds are the places which the online communities are tied to
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16. Places of collaboration ? Neualtenburg: an experiment in collective democracy
20. Virtual worlds are designed for sociability people must rely upon one another to survive and advance Whatever role trust plays in offline communities, it plays in online communities because these interactions are human-bound
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22. Who Plays? Men: Eighty per cent in Fantasy titles Twenty to twenty-Eight years old 25) Students or tech-heads
23. Who plays? Women Twenty percent of Fantasy-based games Sixty percent of The Sims Online Thirty to thirty-five years old * In a Relationship* Seventy percent play with partner* New mums
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26. Virtual communities operate in very similar ways to other communities – both on and offline They bring together distributed individuals based on common experience, motivations and reputation This is particularly true for virtual world participants because of the explicit social design of the software Trust varies according to communication medium Trust is paramount Don’t jeopardise that trust.