Participation of the young ones in virtual worlds : A look at experiences and motivations

Abstract

Virtual worlds have become very popular and there have been some attempts to find the motivations and experiences of using them. The aim of this paper is to analyze the motivations and experiences of young ones to utilize virtual worlds. The paper identifies the activities that children perform in virtual worlds, features they use as well as the reasons for abandoning these virtual worlds. The paper presents results of a qualitative field study. The results indicate that features that are liked in the virtual worlds are similar to games. The most liked features for virtual worlds were developing characters and doing things in groups. The activities that were liked the most in virtual worlds were: chatting or doing different things with friends; playing games; and exploring new places. The main reasons to abandon virtual worlds were increased needs for social networking and better gaming experiences. Students showed interest in using games and virtual worlds at schools, but were generally rather skeptic about this possibility.