使用者虛擬化身之客製化對於虛擬世界中社會臨場感的影響

Abstract

由於網際網路的發達，許多通訊軟體的出現使得人與人之間的通訊變的不再困難，虛擬世界的出現更使得人們不再只能遠距離的通訊，更能遠距離的「在一起」，虛擬世界(virtual worlds)指的是運用電腦3D繪圖的技術所模擬出來「虛擬」的世界，透過網際網路讓位於兩地的人得以在線上同時存在一個虛擬的空間中，過去人們所熟知的虛擬世界大多屬於數位遊戲(digital game)的領域，例如大型多人線上角色扮演遊戲(Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game)，然而現今虛擬世界已經不再只是作為數位遊戲的工具，更被運用在社交、教育、醫療以及經濟等不同的領域中。在虛擬世界的許多應用中，社交都是一個重要的用途，人們希望透過虛擬世界讓處在兩地的人可以在線上同處一地，而這其中社會臨場感(social presence)扮演著重要的角色，實體臨場感以及社會臨場感對於使用者於虛擬世界中的沉浸(Immersion)都有正面的影響，因此在許多虛擬世界的開發中，也致力於提升使用者的實體臨場感以及社會臨場感以增加虛擬世界的「真實度」，過去的研究中，Bulu(2012)以及Garrison、Cleveland-Innes和Fung(2010)也曾指出社會臨場感會影響使用者於虛擬世界中學習的行為，當使用者的社會臨場感增加時，會越投入與他人的互動及教學，因此提升社會臨場感不只會增加虛擬世界的真實性更對虛擬世界的許多應用都有正面的影響，在透過先進的繪圖技術以及電腦硬體的進步讓虛擬世界越加精緻的同時，如何提升社會臨場感也是一個重要的課題。而虛擬世界的使用往往都需要透過虛擬化身，玩家在虛擬世界中倚靠這個虛擬的身體探索世界以及完成不同目標，虛擬化身為玩家在虛擬世界中數位化的呈現，也是一個相當重要展現自我的管道，Bente、Ruggenberg、Kramer和Eschenburg(2008)曾在研究中指出使用者社會臨場感的生成很可能是基於虛擬化身展現與使用者相關訊息以及表達非言語暗示的能力。本研究透過問卷觀察受試者在使用不同性質的虛擬化身於一段線上訪談中的社會臨場感與各變項之間的關聯，期待以不同的角度探討虛擬化身與使用者的關係以及對於使用者行為的影響。

As the Internet advances, many social networking applications have brought people closer than ever. With the emergence of virtual worlds, people can now, not only talk to each other remotely but also be with each other remotely. Virtual worlds are computer-based simulated environments populated with many users who can create their own digitalized figure called an avatar and simultaneously and independently connect to and explore them. In the past, most well-known virtual worlds are digital games such as massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Today, the development of virtual worlds has gone far beyond many people’s imaginations. They are used for social activities, education or even as tools to study the real world. In many virtual world applications, communication is an important use. People want to be with each other online. The feeling of mentally being with each other is often known as social presence. Social presence as well as physical presence have positive effect on enhancing immersion in virtual worlds. Thus, many virtual world developers aim to improve users’ physical and social presence to make their virtual worlds more authentic. Bulu (2012) and Garrison et al.(2010) have pointed out that social presence also has an effect on users’ learning behavior in virtual worlds. Users with higher social presence tend to be more involved. Therefore, improving social presence not only makes the virtual world more authentic but also improves the world in many other aspects. As developers are improving their virtual worlds with better graphics and new functionalities, how to improve users’ social presence is also an important issue. Research has shown that social presence might be based on the potential of avatars to convey nonverbal cues and relational information (Bente, 2008). As in virtual worlds, many nonverbal cues can only be expressed through avatars. In this research, we proposed an experiment to examine the effects of avatar customization on social presence, hoping to investigate the relationship between user and their avatars and how avatars affect their behaviors.