Tag: Survey

You Can Take Part in a Social VR Lifestyle Survey

There is a bilingual (English/Japanese) user survey currently making the rounds of Twitter, which intrigued me, so I took it myself, and I also decided to amplify awareness of it by posting about it here on my blog. PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT MY SURVEY!!!

According to the description of the survey:

The survey takes approximately 5 min and you can answer it only once. Please refrain from disclosing any personal information. Please share the survey with others.

Purpose: The purpose of this survey is to investigate the virtual life of social VR users that have increased in numbers since the beginning of COVID-19. Some questions focus on love and phantom senses (VR senses). The results of the survey will be published as a report in a form that does not identify the individual.

Eligibility: Users who have used social VR (VRChat, Rec Room, Neos VR, etc.) with a VR head-mounted display at least 5 times in the last year, and are English or Japanese speakers. (Please refrain from answering if your connect to social VR from desktop or phone)

Organizers: Research unit “Nem x Mila” If you have any questions, feel free to contact us on Twitter!
– Nem (@nemchan_nel) : A virtual economist and the world oldest independent VTuber (self‐professed) from Japan. HTC official VIVE ambassador.
– Mila (@BredikhinaL) : An anthropologist at the Geneva University from Switzerland.

I do find it a bit odd that there is not a university or college more strongly associated with this survey, although one of the surveyors is from Geneva University. There are no detailed instructions about data collection and any potential risks of participating, which normally are included with surveys involving human subjects; such statements tend to be the standard operating practice at most institutions of higher education, which leads me to think that this survey instrument has not been vetted by a university ethics board. It all seems rather informal (not that that’s a bad thing).

The fact that both the surveyors also give only their online Twitter handles raises a bit of a red flag to this academic librarian, too. Also, I don’t know how and when the surveyors plan to publish their survey results, other than they state, “The results of the survey will be published as a report in a form that does not identify the individual.” So it could be an academic report, or perhaps some other kind of report.

You should also be aware that the survey asks about sex as well as love in social VR! I found a few of the survey questions to be…rather interesting! 😉 So consider yourselves forewarned.

If you do want to participate in this survey, here is the link. Remember, you have to have had to have used any social VR platform (Sansar, VRChat, Rec Room, AltspaceVR, NeosVR, etc.) at least five times in a VR headset (they’re not interested in users who connect to these platforms on a desktop PC using a flatscreen monitor, or a mobile device like a cellphone or tablet).

Social VR Research Alert: You Can Participate in a Clemson University Research Survey of LGBTQ+ Users of Social VR Platforms

Back in October of 2019, I wrote a blogpost about a research study being conducted by Clemson University on the use of social VR. Well, Clemson University’s Gaming and Mediated Experince (CU GAME) Lab, led by Dr. Guo Freeman in their School of Computing, is conducting a survey of LBGTQ+ (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, Queer, etc.) users of social VR platforms—including conducting interviews in AltspaceVR, Rec Room and VRChat, if you wish!

If you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and you are interested in being interviewed for 60 to 90 minutes about your experiences in social VR, particularly with respect to self-presentation and social support, then you are invited to fill out this online form (more information about the research study can be found here). The form states:

We are a group of academic researchers at Clemson University who are conducting a research project about social VR. We are interested in interviewing individuals who identify as LGBTQ+, and understanding their experiences.

No personally identifiable data will be asked or collected, but we’ll ask general demographics questions (age, location, race, etc). You do not have to answer any questions that you do not feel comfortable answering.

If you have experienced any social VR platforms / applications / environments (AltspaceVR, Rec Room, VRChat, etc.) and are willing to be interviewed, please fill out the form … and we will contact you for more details about this research project.

Here is the link for a document with more information about the study.

Feel free to email us at dacena@clemson.edu if you have any questions.

Interviews are to be scheduled during the month February, and can be done via telephone call, Discord (text or voice chat), Zoom (voice or video chat), or even on the social VR platforms AltspaceVR, Rec Room, or VRChat!

If you are interested, here is a the website (including a list of current research publications) by the Clemson University GAME Lab.

Are you a member of the LGBTQ community and use one or more social VR platforms? Clemson University wants to interview you! (Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash)

Dr. Tom Boellstorff’s Research on Virtual Cultures in Pandemic Times: You Can Take Part in a Survey About Your Use of Animal Crossing and Second Life

How are you using virtual worlds during the coronavirus pandemic?
(today’s styling credits for Vanity Fair can be found at the end of this blogpost)

Wagner James Au, of the long-running virtual worlds blog New World Notes, reports on a timely research study being undertaken by Dr. Tom Boellstorff, a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine:

The study is led by my pal Tom Boellstorff of UC Irvine, who’s easily among the most preeminent academics with a focus on virtual worlds. (He’s the author of Coming of Age in Second Life, among many other related works.)

“I’ve been conducting various research projects in Second Life for almost 17 years now,” Tom tells me, explaining the genesis of this study. “A couple years ago, I completed a study of disability in Second Life, and after that wonderful research experience moved on to some other projects (I’m actually finishing up a book on the Intellivision video game system from the early 1980s, which is great fun!) But then when COVID-19 hit, I decided to return to Second Life to see how COVID-19 is reshaping online interaction. I was lucky enough to get support from the National Science Foundation that means I have three wonderful graduate research assistants. Until next April we are conducting research in both Second Life and Animal Crossing. It’s a wild ride, setting up research with very little warning, but it’s been a great experience for all of us.”

(I have written about Tom before here, here and here on my blog. You can watch Draxtor Despres’ full hour-long documentary about Dr. Tom Boellstorff’s earlier research on ability-diverse users of virtual worlds, Our Digital Selves: My Avatar is Me, on YouTube. I can recommend this film highly! Drax did a great job.)

According to the webpage describing the research project:

This research project is about how COVID-19 is reshaping online interaction. As many have noted, what we call “social distancing” is really physical distancing. Due to the pandemic, an unprecedented number of people have been socializing online, in new ways. Better understanding these new digital cultures will have consequences for COVID prevention: successful physical distancing will rely on new forms of social closeness online. It will also have consequences for everything from work and education to climate change.

We are a research team using the methods of anthropology to study online social interaction. Anthropologists use in-depth qualitative methods, in particular participant observation, interviews, and focus groups, to understand culture—the meanings, practices, and relationships that make up the “common sense” of our everyday lives. People often think of anthropologists as people who travel to “exotic” or “remote” cultures, but the methods and theories of anthropology can be used to study culture anywhere in the world. That now includes online cultures.

Our research takes place entirely online, focusing on two virtual worlds: Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Second Life. We work as a team in these two virtual worlds to understand how people are using virtual worlds in the wake of the pandemic. Central to the project is that there is not just one way to be online. Virtual worlds are places where individuals interact with avatars in online environments. They have different characteristics than social network sites like Facebook, streaming websites like YouTube, or chat programs like Zoom, though they share some features with all of these. Better understanding how people are using virtual worlds in the wake of the pandemic might provide innovative strategies for preventing viral transmission, by forging new forms of social closeness in the context of physical distancing. It might also help us better respond to the transformed social lives we are all destined to encounter in the wake of COVID-19.

Among the preliminary research findings is the following:

At least some of the time, virtual worlds can be a way to be alone, not a way to socialize. Due to the pandemic, many people are living with family members and roommates, and have less privacy than before. Virtual worlds can be places to get away from this. In other worlds, the pandemic has led not just to social distancing, but what we might term being “socially packed.” Virtual worlds can provide a different kind of “social distancing” to counter this loss of privacy.

Here’s the Animal Crossing: New Horizons survey and the Second Life survey. Each survey should take 10–15 minutes to complete. If you play Animal Crossing or use Second Life, please take part in the surveys!

Vanity Fair is wearing:

Thank you to Wagner James Au for the heads-up!

You Can Take Part in a Research Survey on Your Use of Social VR During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Dr. Miguel Barreda-Ángeles, a Communication Science researcher the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, is conducting a survey on the use of social VR platforms during the coronavirus pandemic. He says:

The aim of this study is to understand how people are using Virtual Reality social networks (for instance, VRChat, AltSpaceVR, etc.) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The knowledge generated can be useful for understanding the role of new communication technologies in health crises. 

The survey is completely anonymous; we do not collect information that could be used to identify you. It takes about seven minutes to complete it. 

If you are interested in participating in this survey, here is the link to get started.