The role of place as a potential influence on the experience of presence in virtual environments

Abstract

The growing popularity of massively populated online virtual environments raises questions about the nature of the human experience within these environments and offers new opportunities to explore existing concepts such as presence and place. The central research question addressed by this thesis is whether sense of place is a potential influence on the sense of presence in Second Life. In tackling this issue two sub-questions are posed: (1) Do users of Second Life experience a sense of place when engaging with this medium and if so how is it manifest? and (2) What is the nature of the relationship between sense of place and sense of presence? The findings of an empirical analysis of the contents of naturally occurring conversations between users in Second Life suggests that sense of place is primarily manifest through conversations relating to social interactions. In turn, these social interaction-based conversations appear to contribute to inducing an experience of presence in this virtual environment by contributing to the medium's social richness. This supports the view that that sense of place is a potential influence on the sense of presence.