Third Places Take First Place in Second Life: Developing a Scale to Measure the ‘Stickiness’ of Virtual World Sites.

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine what drives visitor retention in successful businesses operating in online virtual world environments. The study draws motivation from increasing anecdotal evidence reporting on high profile corporate brands withdrawing from operations in Second Life - citing low visitor traffic as their motivation. Early adopter corporations that established business operations in Second Life did so anticipating benefits from the new technology akin to the quantum leap made when they embraced the World Wide Web. While disappointingly low visitor numbers left many virtual world operations looking like desolate ghost towns, there are businesses enjoying active repeat customers. Drawing on Oldenburg’s Theory of Third Place, this study seeks to quantify the reasons for high customer retention in successful virtual communities. To this effect, a questionnaire is developed and administered by a team of avatar researchers who interviewed over 250 avatars in Second Life. Website stickiness measures are reviewed and applied to virtual world sites. Conclusions are drawn and future research directions proposed.

Interdependent Self-Construal, Self-Efficacy, and Community Involvement as Predictors of Perceived Knowledge Gain Among MMORPG Players

“…The degree to which respondents perceived themselves to be meaningfully integrated into/involved with an MMORPG-based virtual community was measured using five items, all adapted from Halverson. 35 …”

Virtual Rituals: Community, Emotion, and Ritual in Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games—A Quantitative Test and Extension of Structural Ritualization Theory

“…Support groups of all types exist online and provide a space that allows for emotional outlet. MMORPGs can serve as a "third place" that allows the strain of emotional work to be directed to other venues (Halvorson 2011;Oldenburg 1989;Soukup 2006;Steinkuehler and Williams 2006).…”

“…Indeed, online communities bring together like-minded individuals or communities of choice (Halvorson 2011;Oldenburg 1989;Wellman 2001). Analogous to other communities of interest or choice, members of MMORPG communities become connected through general knowledge of the game and concern over the state of the game and its players.…”

“…Over the past two decades, SRT has been applied widely to study various social phenomena and extended across eight theoretical applications: (1) deritualization, the breakdown of social and personal rituals in the response to natural disasters Webb 2007, 2008), extreme disruptions of the social order (Knottnerus , 2005, and ecological stress during the East Asia Dark Ages (Sarabia and Knottnerus 2009); (2) ritual identity construction and the transformation of character, identity, and group membership among Chinese Americans Knottnerus 1999, 2006), Italian Americans (Knottnerus and LoConto 2003), and the ritualized duties and inequality of the Malawi (Minton and Knottnerus 2008); (3) the enactment (i.e., activation and mobilization) or failure to enact ritualized practices in organizations, institutions, communities, and individuals exemplified by ritualized maltreatment/neglect in nursing homes (Ulsperger and Knottnerus 2007, 2009a, 2009b, 2011 and ritualized deviance in the Enron corporation Ulsperger and Knottnerus 2006); (4) reproduction of RSPs and social structure among groups, including the slave plantation system Knottnerus, Monk, and Jones 1999), boys and girls in the nineteenth-century French educational system (Knottnerus and Van de Poel-Knottnerus 1999; Van de Poel-Knottnerus and Knottnerus 2002), ancient spartan society (Knottnerus and Berry 2002), and reproduction of social structure in task groups (Sell et al 2000); (5) strategic ritualization (ritual legitimators, sponsors, entrepreneurs, and enforcers) and the role of power exercised by groups like the Orange Order Knottnerus 2007, 2010); (6) ritual dynamics involving social inequality, distinction, exclusion, and persecution such as royal women in ancient patriarchal India and NGO volunteers addressing women's rights in India Knottnerus 2004, 2008) and golf, civility, class, and exclusion in America (Varner and Knottnerus 2002); and (7) applied research, social policy, and personal/social change-SRT has informed a set of policy recommendations to reform nursing homes and reduce elder abuse and improve end-oflife care (Ulsperger and Knottnerus 2013).…”

Developing third places to foster sense of community in online instruction

“…Oldenburg () defined third places as physical, public locations where local residents informally gather to converse with each other. Third places differ from other public venues because emphasis is placed on informal conversation with community members (Halvorson, ). This phenomenon contrasts with locations where community members gather (eg, movie theaters, post offices, shopping centers) but experience minimal interaction (Denning, ; Portillo, ).…”