A case study of learning in a 3d multi user virtual environment

IMMERSIVE SIMULATION GAMES:
A CASE STUDY OF LEARNING IN A 3-DIMENSIONAL
MULTI-USER VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

JOHN YAP YIN GWEE
(BA Multimedia Design, Curtin University of Technology)

A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND NEW MEDIA
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
2012


IMMERSIVE SIMULATION GAMES:
A CASE STUDY OF LEARNING IN A
3-DIMENSIONAL MULTI-USER VIRTUAL
ENVIRONMENT

JOHN YAP YIN GWEE
(BA MULTIMEDIA DESIGN, CURTIN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY)

A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS AND NEW MEDIA
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
2012


Declaration

I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and it has been written by
me in its entirety.

I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used
in the thesis.

This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university
previously.

Name: John Yap Yin Gwee
Matric. No.: HT081332A
Date: 12 April 2013


Table of Contents
Summary
Chapter 1.0: Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------

1

1.1: Context of Study -------------------------------------------------------------

2

1.2: Relevance of Study ----------------------------------------------------------

4

Chapter 2.0: Literature Review ------------------------------------------------------------

7

2.1: Serious Games: Games and Immersive Environments ----------------- 7
2.2: Presence -----------------------------------------------------------------------

15

2.3: Flow, Immersiveness and Engagement -----------------------------------

20

2.4: Research Questions ---------------------------------------------------------- 25

Chapter 3.0: Methodology ----------------------------------------------------------------- 26
3.1: Overview ----------------------------------------------------------------------

26

3.2: Virtual Ethnography ----------------------------------------------------------

27

3.3: Proposed Design of The Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) ---------- 29
3.4: Data Sources ------------------------------------------------------------------- 34
3.4.1: Screen captures of in-progress simulation game -------------- 34
3.4.2: Participant-observations ------------------------------------------- 37
3.4.3: Interviews (post exercise) with 36 students -------------------- 38
3.4.4: Interviews (post exercise) with lecturer ------------------------- 38
3.5: Data Collection Process -------------------------------------------------------

39

3.6: Data Coding for Analysis ------------------------------------------------------

42


Chapter 4.0: Findings ------------------------------------------------------------------------

44

4.1: Virtual Identity: Choice of Avatars -----------------------------------------

44

4.2: First Contact: Accessing the VLE -------------------------------------------

48

4.3: Local Chat Activity ------------------------------------------------------------

54

4.4: Avatar Behaviours ------------------------------------------------------------

58

4.5: Presence of Other Avatars --------------------------------------------------

61

4.6: Sense of Time and Immersive Engagement ------------------------------

65

4.7: Challenges in the Game -----------------------------------------------------

65

4.8: Strategy and Sense of Competition in the Game ------------------------ 66
4.9: Affordance of Activities Not Possible in Real Life -----------------------

69

4.10: Assessment of Students’ Learning Objectives and Outcomes ------- 74

Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion ----------------------------------------------------

78

References -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

90

Appendix A - Simulation Game Brief


Summary
Playing online games is a pervasive phenomenon observed in our daily lives of
today’s evolving digital age. As online games like World of Warcraft, Diablo and online
virtual environments like Second Life begin to emerge as some of the biggest gaming
communities that we indulge in, it became evidently possible that learning could take place

in such an influential digital medium. Such game play concepts begin to emerge
progressively as educational technology enabled for learning, particularly Serious Games, a
game-based learning concept targeted at specific learning other than entertainment. The
Serious Games initiative was popularly identified as the new education technology wave
that will fulfil the learning ambitions which edutainment has failed to achieve in past
experiences.
This thesis seeks to develop a case study of a design of a robust virtual learning
environment in the form of a simulation game, using the serious games concept in a 3dimensional multi-user virtual environment. The design of the game, based on a real life
case study, will also leverage on the affordances of the virtual environment and be heavily
influenced by the significant factors of presence, flow, immersive and engagement theories
in a virtual environment. The game will first actively engage the students of an academic
module in a fun and challenging task, thereafter, to empower and afford them the ability to
test out various decision options in the environment without any consequences in reality.
Students were then academically assessed in their turning in of a reflective essay, based on
their heuristic experience of the game in relation to the real life case study.
An eclectic mix of data was consequently collected in a qualitative perspective to
build up the case study, including online ethnography, avatar-participant observations,
communication transcripts and post-exercise, in-depth interviews with the lecturer and a
sample of 36 undergraduate students from the module. The thesis hopes to design a fun
and engaging game that can leverage on affordances of a multi-user virtual environment to
encourage emotional reactions for the real life case, predicted to be able to derive a positive
learning outcome for reflective and critical thinking that was challenging to achieve in
traditional methods of learning. Students’ behaviour was found to be generally neutral or
positive towards virtual simulation of games for learning. Though communications can be a
challenge at first, some students deployed other modes of communication to overcome


such communicative challenges between themselves. Their perceptions and attitudes
towards presence of virtual elements and interactivity were positively reflected in demands
for more challenges and loss of consciousness of time in the game. Lastly, the assessment of

the learning outcomes achieved by the participation in the simulated game generated
significant and positive learning engagement in the submissions of their post-experience
reflective essays.


Acknowledgments
This research was never conceived to be an academic thesis at first. It was my deep
foray into this parallel universe of Second Life that opened my eyes to a world that I had
always only imagined in dreams and fantasy. The experience and subsequent encounters
made me want to write this so that the world will know the immense potential of what this
world could do for our world today. Most people steered clear of virtual and game
environments with the paranoia of being sucked into a stereotyped world of crazy
delusions, thus their disbelief that true friendships or relationships can never exist in such
virtual circumstances. That is NOT TRUE. I want to first and foremost thank Mr Eric Kostal, a
current research faculty in Mississippi State University, also known as Indigo Lucerne in
Second Life, for he, whom we have never met in person, has inspired me and selflessly
shared such levels of intelligence, creativity and character that made us friends for life
despite our geographical distance apart. Thank you, my friend, for all our crazy discussions
about simulations, about avatars and life in the middle of those nights. My gratitude for this
lifelong friendship cannot be described enough in this short paragraph.
Its amazingly bizarre how a chanced encounter with Antonio, son of Ms Sofia
Morales, in Second Life, sparked off this entire opportunity to realistically use this platform
for research in learning. My deepest heartfelt gratitude for Sofia, for it was your tenacity,
faith and risks that you took that made all these possible. Thanks also go to Mr Alvin Saw
Teong Chin, my creative friend, classmate and fellow compatriot in the vision that one day
games will change and shape the landscape we live today.
My most sincere thanks also goes out to Associate Professor Milagros Rivera, for
taking that second chance in me, for believing in my passion for this concept and that I will
make this thesis work against all odds of my medical condition, crazy work schedules at
work and family.

Extra thanks go to my 2 supervisors, Dr Zhang Weiyu and Dr Anne Marie Schleiner,
who have in spite of their hectic teaching schedules in the department, were always patient
and made time for me to steer me towards the right direction and focus to complete this
academic thesis.
Special thanks goes to Associate Professor Cho Hichang, for having taken his module
on Computer Mediated Environments, his most important teachings also eventually became
the appleseed of theories and analogies of communications that inspired the direction of a
large part of this thesis. Thank you for sharing this amazing wealth of knowledge and
inspiration.
To my fellow coursemate and BFF, Kintu Annie Joseph, I wonder what would I do
without you. For that tenaciously loyal friendship, you are the 1 pillar of strength that I
could not have asked for more in life. Thanks for being there for me when the going gets
tough.
Last but definitely not least, I want to specially mention the appearance and
entrance of the Karasu in my life. Without you, life would be meaningless. Without you, I
would not have done anything right. My eternal thanks to you for becoming the love and
centre of my life. Hooray!


1.0 Introduction
Digital games are prevalent in everyday contemporary life ranging from the simplest
gaming engagements from children on various forms of digital media to the intense
indulgence in role-playing gaming communities by the adults. A report from the
Entertainment Software Association reflects such pervasiveness of gaming, stating “75% of
heads in households play games, and that 62% of the game players are over 18 with a mean
age of 30” (Gibson, Aldrich, & Prensky, 2007). Evidently, the leisure hours that gamers spend
in such popular online games like World of Warcraft 1 (WoW), amounts to a staggering 5.93
million years to its community yearly (McGonigal, 2011). Gaming advocators like Gonzalo
Frasca and Jane McGonigal proposed that such gaming phenomenon could possibly be used
to help us find solutions to our real world problems by playing these games (Frasca, 2001;

McGonigal, 2011).
Online games can also be understood as virtual environments, for example, Club
Penguin, Habbo, Gaia (Wankel & Kingsley, 2009) has a thriving teenage population and both
adults and young players populate the realms of Open Wonderland (previously funded by
Sun Microsystem Laboratories), Activeworlds and Second Life 2 (SL). Such digital worlds
provide us with a myriad of activities such as socializing, entertainment and learning (Hodge,

1

World of Warcraft is a commercial massively multiplayer online role-playing where game players control a
fantasy character avatar within a game world in third- or first-person view, exploring the landscape, fighting
various monsters, completing quests, and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) or other players.
(source: />2

Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab, launched since June 23, 2003. Free client
programs, or viewers enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars.
Residents can explore the world (known as the grid), meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual
and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another. It is a virtual world
intended for people aged 16 and over.

1


Collins, & Giordano, 2009). Multi-User Virtual Environments3 (MUVEs) like SL, amongst the
largest of virtual environments with over 21,000 simulators since March 2009 (Schiller,
2009), can be deployed in an enhanced learning mode for learners to encourage
“communication, interaction, collaboration, teamwork, feedback, engagement and
constructivist learning activities” (Hodge, et al., 2009). Various modes of communication
and learning can now be implemented in such virtual spaces to achieve learning objectives
when engaging, appropriate and effective pedagogical practices and learning theories are

implemented.

1.1 Context of Study
One of the ways that digital or online games are helpful in a real world context is in
the industry of education. As of summer 2009, over 4000 educators have joined the SL
Educators List, and more and more educational institutes joining the SL grid (Wankel &
Kingsley, 2009). After their initial stage of establishing presence in the virtual world, schools
using SL have started to lean towards the vision of providing “student-centred, especially
collaborative activities” (Atkins, 2009). The fact that SL, unlike most mainstream commercial
games like WoW, has neither game rules to abide by, nor any hierarchy in gaining gaming
credits or progress experience in “levels” (Jones, 2008), makes it a popular choice among
virtual worlds for education especially since it is cost free and this encourages many
interested educators to get started (Wankel & Kingsley, 2009). From University of

3

Multi User Virtual Environments refers to online, multi-user virtual environments, sometimes also called
virtual worlds. They are built on 3 important aspects: The first is a server or a farm of servers, which are used
as the host of the virtual world. Second, a program or an interface is needed that allows people to create a
user name and some sort of identity that they can use when they log into the server. The third is there has to
be some reason for the person to want to be in the Virtual Environment.

2


California’s Davis Medical Centre to language learning with The British Council to cultural
heritage learning of Singapore in Temasek, innovative researchers in the virtual education
frontier have pioneered and paved the way for the vast possibilities of virtual education in
MUVEs like SL (Rufer-Bach, 2009). In the last few years in education, the gradual acceptance
of educational games in the curriculum has helped engage students in learning (possibly

further fuelled by the novelty of its introduction), and has also led to a lower attrition rate of
learning students generally (Moreno-Ger, Burgos, & Torrente, 2009). The virtual
engagement of attending classes in virtual environments is also now provided for students
in the universities today (Wang & Hsu, 2009), and is usually offered as an overlapping
concept commonly known as ‘e-learning’, for enhanced learning or even distance education
(Susi, Johannesson, & Backlund, 2007).
Notwithstanding SL as a 3-Dimensional (3D) MUVE with advanced capabilities in a
virtual environment, there has been an increase in popularity of other mainstream social
networking sites on the internet, like “blogs, facebook and wiki” (L. Jin, Wen, & Gough,
2010). However, the emergence of these networking and social software like Facebook are
noted to be still limited to the heavy use of “text, image and video” media. By contrast, in a
MUVE like SL, the 3D simulation of live human gestures and spatial navigations appeals to
our natural reactions to non-verbal behaviours in synchronous communications (L. Jin, et al.,
2010). In “social virtual worlds” like SL, players can “explore, meet others, socialise and
participate in individual or group activities for education or business purposes”(L. Jin, et al.,
2010). It might appear that MUVEs like SL, possess some relevant qualities and affordances
for learners which other technologies lack. The affordance referred here can be defined as
“attributes of something in the environment to an interactive activity by an agent who has

3


some ability” (Dalgarno & Lee, 2010; Greeno, 1994). In this context, we infer the meaning of
affordance in association to the ability learners are given in a VLE (Dalgarno & Lee, 2010).

1.2 Relevance of the Study
The objective of most game-based learning is largely to yield a better and deeper
understanding of the teaching content. This study will draw on a few different areas of
observed behaviours, phenomenon, and new media paradigms through the study of a
simulation game made for learning. One of the more pedagogical tools educators draw

upon is the case method approach. Through the case method of teaching, students can try
to further understand teaching contents based on related research in various publications
and the internet. Developed in 1870 at Harvard University, the case method of teaching has
been practised and associated particularly with law schools and most business schools
(Shugan, 2006). Critics of the method alleged that such case contents are sometimes not
written in pertinence to the actual social impact, cause and effects of real life situations.
They also contend that the selection case tends to overemphasize or underwhelm the
underlying connections and correlations of illustrated scenarios (Flyvbjerg, 2006). It might
appear to be highly engaging to partake in such a typical case in reality, but it does not
necessarily translate into knowledge transfer that students can associate with in their
cognitive or affective domains of learning (Anderson, Krathwohl, & Bloom, 2001), since it
really is just written texts to be analyzed and discussed in a class, with little engagement
emotionally. It is also time consuming to synthesize large amounts of contents in illustrated
cases(Heskett, 2008) and neither possible nor feasible for the students to revisit an actual
industrial accident site due to geographical distances or other hazardous threats.
4


In our current demanding climate of innovative education, the pervasiveness of
games in the lives of high school and college students made it a popular “medium of choice”
for education (Jenkins, Klopfer, Squire, & Tan, 2003). MUVEs like SL, are fast becoming one
of the few known virtual 3D environments that academic institutes have been leveraging on
for their new technologies in education recently. Using avatars, which are essentially 3D
digital representations of its users, educators saw the justification of deploying the
technology when simulating environments and its affordances for education. Since a MUVE
is “conceptually” built up mirroring what the real physical world looks like, a 3D MUVE
would also serve to provide an “enhanced feeling of presence” of themselves in an
environment (Park, Hwang, & Choi, 2009). With more advancements in technology that
enable the customization of contents and environments, these gaming platforms now
empower game designers and even amateur players with a large amount of flexibility and a

powerful decision making ability to “play out consequences” (Jenkins, et al., 2003). Such
natural advantages of the gaming platforms make a 3D MUVE, conducive vehicles to expose
students to the learning process. James Paul Gee established that a simulated military video
game like “Full Spectrum Warrior” 4 can be beneficial for learning, since a basic simulation
game can embody “values, identity and doctrines” in context, thereby enabling learners to
examine all possible actions and decisions that could eventually bring about a consequence
(Gee, 2005). With a highly immersive environment that allows for zero life-threatening
consequence in simulating our physical world in all possible scenarios, the MUVE becomes a
learning environment with such learning affordances.

4

Full Spectrum Warrior is is a real-time tactics videogame. Gameplay revolves around the concept of fire and
movement, with one team providing suppressive fire while the other moves. The game has also been adapted
by psychologists to assist veterans from Iraq overcome the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
(source: />
5


This research, would firstly assume the significance of the current gaming
phenomenon’s impact in our lives, and therefore highlight and examine the learning
derivatives and impacts of serious game design in a MUVE like SL. Secondly, by leveraging
the affordances of the unique nature of the virtual reality, this study will attempt to
introduce the notion of game play to exploit and experience the simulated learning from the
serious game without real life consequences, to examine 3D virtual environment as a gamebased learning environment as a viable resource for such educational purposes. The design
of the simulation game will attempt to encapsulate the factors leveraging on the
exploitation of presence in an asynchronous mode of learning for multi-users in a virtual
environment. Considerations of other factors of heuristic design will also include the
psychological influences of flow and engagement. Various ethnographic methods of online
observation and qualitative techniques of query through in-depth interviews will be applied

to the field for the anthropological study of a cohort of students subscribed to a real
learning module in an institute of higher learning. Data will subsequently be collated and
analyzed to isolate relevant themes from a representative sample that will support or relate
itself to the existing literature in games research. The research would then finally analyze
and present the factors, issues, phenomenon, potentials and impacts of such a virtual
learning environment through a serious game perspective.

6


2.0 Literature Review
2.1 Serious Games: Games and Immersive Environments
In the mid-60s, retrospective observations has indicated in academic publications,
that games had shown immense possibilities in shifting the learning paradigm with the
evolvement of digital and simulation games in the social sciences (Gibson, et al., 2007).
However, this research will need to exclude the review of game literature published from
the 1980s and early 1990s because of the lightning-speed evolvement in digital game
technology that has rendered most of these past publications obsolete and inapplicable to
our current state of technology. The other reason for excluding them here is ultimately, that
games that were built in the earlier era have little relevance and had mostly failed to deliver
much expectations of possible learning (Becker, 2010). This review is not intended to be an
exhaustive repertoire of all studies on game research but a broad selection of relevant ones
covering the field of serious games for learning. The aim of this presentation will eventually
highlight the possibility and impacts of the implementation of learning using a MUVE as a
virtual learning environment.
In the monumental year of 2002, serious games first gained the world’s attention
when it was founded as an establishment, at the “Serious Games Initiative” by Woodrow
Wilson Center for International Scholar in Washington, D.C.; despite the commercial failure
of previous edutainment software as an educational technology (Michael & Chen, 2006;
Susi, et al., 2007). Serious Games have since come a long way by sustaining a slow but

incremental progress in extending substantial foothold in the potentials of the convergence
of both learning and gaming into teaching contents in schools. In an effort to present this
change of our learning paradigm, this chapter will seek to build a body of knowledge by
7


exploring and understanding the representations, significance and impacts of serious games
in the domains of learning today.
There are various definitions, analogies and related concepts drawn on the current
meaning of serious games. These perspectives were established in the current applications
of games and their derived definitions from the various industries of entertainment,
government, corporate, healthcare, military, educational etc, none of which have led to a
commonly accepted definition of serious games as yet (Susi, et al., 2007). One of the most
common understanding of serious games defined simply by most serious games advocators
is: “a game in which education (in various forms) is the primary goal, rather than
entertainment” (de Freitas, 2006; Michael & Chen, 2006). A more detailed but direct
definition from Crookall defined the concept as, “computerized simulation/game for
training and learning” which leverages on computing power with its superior video graphics
for the education (Crookall, 2010).
The concept of serious games as a means of enhanced education has also often been
directly associated with other educational phenomenon like game-based learning and digital
game-based learning established by the likes of James Paul Gee and Marc Prensky
respectively. Gee, referred to learning games as “problem solving spaces” that enables the
learning of individuals in a variety of domains, skills and disciplines (Gee, 2009). If built with
the correct features and implementation, game-based learning environments would
become such a vehicle for players to experience the combination of both entertainment and
learning (Gee, 2009). With similar optimism to this gaming phenomenon in education,
Prensky’s vision of a “digital game-based learning” (DGBL) evolution also seeks transforming
the education system on the premise of coupling entertainment and engagement of games
8

with learning contents (Prensky, 2007). Prensky believed that maintaining a high level of
constant learning style and motivation needed to sustain engagement, will result in a good
digital game-based learning system. With this, Prensky conclusively alleges that even serious
games must be entertaining, for the youth of today he calls “digital natives”, and the “game
generations” (Prensky, 2007).
In another critical and important comparison of serious games with computer games
made for entertainment, Zyda, critically addressed the existence and significance of more
substantial components like “story, art and software” in contrast of those serious games
which only emphasize pedagogy. Like Prensky’s notion of DGBL in emphasizing learners’
engagement through fun or entertainment elements, this approach was highly
controversial. This is because it contrasted most educators who emphasized heavily on
pedagogy over story, where the latter is usually the driver of the entertainment in most
games (Zyda, 2005). Zyda proposes that in the future, through the assimilation of serious
games into the education system, learning can become visceral and intuitive. Zyda’s vision
was of a future perfect “emotion-cognizant” game mechanism designed to reduce or
diminish the conventional questions and answers tutoring system that schools practiced
traditionally today (Zyda, 2007). This hypothesis was grounded in the game developers’
measurement of “immersive experience” using presence, where the dichotomy of serious
game conspicuously excludes pedagogy, as a subordinate and separate factor, to implement
instructional design into the gaming experience (Zyda, 2005). Most educators
misunderstood and deemed it a frivolous perspective that undermined pedagogy when
what Zyda really was asserting, was that it is through the addition of pedagogy as means to
instruct for learning, that makes any form of game a serious game (Susi, et al., 2007).

9


Despite the surgence of serious games and development of numerous overlapping or

related concepts of education technology, many areas of learning games research have yet
to be fully conducted, theorized and explored (Gibson, et al., 2007). Serious games,
alongside with the advancement of technology brought forward by the commercial
developers of the game industry, will in essence transform learning by deploying “scenarios
to fail safely and creating memories through suspended disbelief that improve performance
through recall” (Harris, 2009). Thus the importance of the players’ allowance and tolerance
for failure during the learning process becomes paramount in leveraging on such
affordances of the learning environment.
Before we go further into the affordances of the virtual simulation as a game made
for learning, it is crucial for us to understand the nature of the medium of digital games, its
capabilities and its representation. Janet Murray introduced a popular analogy of video
games as a medium, alongside with a few other digital mediums, and isolated 3 critical
factors: immersion, agency and transformation (Murray, 1997). In this similar digital context
drawn in parallel to simulation games, Murray theorised that in an immersion, the digital
medium although assumed to be making its players suspend disbelief, was actually actively
aiding them in the construction of a belief in the unreal world instead (Frasca, 2001;
Murray, 1997). This theory also alleged that it was always the players’ subconscious
inclination to accept and partake in a make-believe world and not to doubt the realism of it
which led us to fortify this belief of the imagined (McGonigal, 2003; Murray, 1997).
McGonigal also conceptualised a similar factor of this “longing to believe” in the imagined
despite the consciousness of reality as “the Pinocchio effect” (McGonigal, 2003).
Consequently, we would begin to desire a perceptible result in the environment, where we

10


experience ‘agency’, which Murray referred as our need for the medium to carry out a
meaningful action and to witness the cause and effects of that representation (Murray,
1997). Finally, Murray asserted that with the belief of the imagined and ability of seeing the
consequences in the immersion, it therefore empowered us an ability to transform and

comprehend the consequences as new, multifaceted forms of representations (Murray,
1997). In extending the cultural representation of digital games, Murray also concurred with
Michael Tomsasello’s earlier findings which identified insightful benefits derived under
“joint attentional scenes”, a cognitive framework which shapes the basic cognitive
development in humans (Murray, 2006, 2007; Tomasello, 1999). In this theory, Tomasello
established 3 beneficial cognitive reinforcements in the “core adaptive benefits” of games
which included: the awareness of the self as an entity agent and object with others, the
ability to empathise with another being and the ability to impart knowledge and learn from
it (Murray, 2006, 2007; Tomasello, 1999).
In what could be seen as an extension to the establishment of Murray’s theory, her
former Masters student Gonzalo Frasca, further examined the influence of video games and
simulations in his foundation study of ludology (studies in video games). He alleged that
digital games can be used as a method to represent simulation which has immense potential
to “foster critical thinking, creating personal empowerment and effecting social change”
(Frasca, 2001). Frasca highlighted an important fact through his differing perception with
Murray, of Tetris as a simulation, which concluded in a fact that as a player of the Tetris
game, one could test out consequences of its rules while as an observer, the rules remained
limited as how it was being portrayed (Frasca, 2001). This further proved that the meanings
behind any simulation game was never dictated entirely by the author but is instead

11


deciphered individually and uniquely by each observer’s or participant’s perceptions (Frasca,
2001, 2003). The participants in particular, when in the game, often have such control over
the consequences via the reactive response to an impetus (for example: joystick, gamepad,
keyboard keys) by the player and then they form differing representations through this
behaviour (Frasca, 2003).
The way video games, digital games or simulation games are visually represented
might not be original environmental designs that are out of this world, since they inherited

these from models existing in reality. In similar representation to serious games used for
experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) in education, digital games can be designed to model our
reality and at the same time strategically devised with rules and procedures to achieve
goals. Such games can be designed to impart skills and learning through a player’s heuristic
process of the causes and effects exacted in the environment (Gee, 2009). With the
accessibility and availability of such games in the age of internet, particularly serious games
like “Darfur is Dying” 5, they can also provide an avenue for learning through activism for
social change of a real situation in Africa. The learning objectives of a serious game like
“Darfur is dying” has encapsulated various dangerous consequences that can happen to the
specific playable characters while carrying out familiar, domestic tasks. These were devised
and designed in the hope of engaging its players to incite empathy for victims exposed to
such environments filled with fear and hardship in light of perils of genocide (Huang &
Tettegah, 2010).

5

“Darfur is Dying” is a thesis project of Susana Ruiz, University of Southern California, created as a pioneering
project of serious game made to instigate or encourage real social changes of the genocide in western Sudan
in Africa. The game combines several smaller game sequences to give the player a range of consequences and
experiences aimed at invoking empathy for the victims and consequently educating a need for social change.
(Source: />
12


In earlier scholar reviews, it was also discovered that in the eclectic use of games for
education which includes a multitude of disciplines like healthcare and common literacy,
there were signs in the prevalent usage of simulations, particularly to achieve learning by
experience (Becker, 2010; Mitchell & Savill-Smith, 2004). One successful simulated game by
Jesse Schell and students from Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center,
“Biohazrd: Hotzone”, is an example of how education leverages on its technology to engage

their students in such learning by experience (Squire & Jenkins, 2003). The obvious fact that
a dangerously simulated environment cannot be replicated nor experienced in reality makes
the game a suitable answer to the constraint of risks involved. With the ability to simulate
various settings in the hazardous environment of exposed toxin, students who experienced
the game could, individually or use group strategies, to learn essential survival and
evacuation management skills in a crisis like these. Skills they could learn included observing
signs and symptoms in victims, formulate how to deploy emergency remedies by trying out
different alternatives or predicting outcomes in familiarly simulated environments like, a
shopping mall (Squire & Jenkins, 2003).
What MUVEs have essentially brought to us, is the ability to host learners as players
in “worlds where we experience things” thus making the virtual state of a serious game a
much “deeper and abstract space” of learning (Gee, 2009). Galarneau and Zibit quoted
Kelly, who described that players in games have progressed at a deeper level,
“...they are making progress on an emotional level. They’re
not just getting ahead in the virtual world, but actually
maturing, growing, learning from their experiments with
behaviour, and reformulating their views of themselves and
13


their fellow human beings as a result of their experiences in
the virtual world” (Galarneau & Zibit, 2007; Kelly, 2004).
Such game experiences in the virtual environment can also take players into a
psychological and emotionally-charged learning journey, which could ultimately bring about
an attitude change that shifts one’s values and belief system (Hung & Van Eck, 2010). In
order to study how players emotionally perceive their characters and how they detect their
sense of ownership to its social perspectives, we can examine how they personalize their
virtual outlook to carry out game tasks to solve problems (Huang & Tettegah, 2010).
Through the use of a virtual representation in games like “Darfur is Dying”, “Biohazard:
Hotzone” and even “Full Spectrum Warrior”, digital games afford us the ability to put

players into the dimension of learning through problem solving (Gee, 2009). The players’
virtual representations in digital games are also known as the avatars, often referred to as a
personal digital and graphical representation of their real self. Celia Pearce inferred that in
games, the “addition of the avatar gave the player a specific, customizable identity and
sense of embodiment” that empowered “all players to enjoy a new kind of inhabitation and
agency in the world, of which they are now physically and representationally a part (of each
other)” (Celia Pearce, 2007).
Unlike most video games or massively multiplayer online role-playing games, SL
avatars were highly customisable and can exist in various forms ranging from fantasy states
to forms that resemble our human selves. With the absence of typical restrictive game rules,
avatars in SL also did not require health replenishments to survive and would not perish or
reduce any survival vitalities like games such as WoW (Clark, 2011). Besides these
characteristics, MUVEs like SL also empowered its avatars with abilities that are not possible
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in real life, including navigation and movement without physical exhaustion (by flying,
walking or running) and the ability to communicate and interact with multiple people using
text, gesture and voice within the environment (Reeves & Minocha, 2011).
Arguably, the biggest benefit these games bring to learning is the possibility of
accessing such rich immersion in a learning environment by a much wider mass of people
(McGonigal, 2011). “Learning communities” could be evolved organically by leveraging on
the natural advantage of the MUVE being asynchronous and by assuring respectful
communication practices that gives players a sense of social community and bonding to one
another in a virtual environment for learning (Riedl, McClannon, & Cheney, 2011). Such a
communal nature also enabled a common virtual experience, making it attractive to
communicate in when it resembled familiar elements that learners could have experienced
in a typical classroom in reality (Brown, 2008). Furthermore, with each student experiencing
the dynamic environment differently, it makes class discussions more reflective when
students discuss individual experience of their choices played in an off-game mode (Jenkins,

et al., 2003). The affordances of the environment which fostered social communication,
development of behaviours, enhanced interactivity evolved will bring us further into
another important aspect of discussion in the virtual learning environment.

2.2 Presence
The concept of presence has been often been used to measure the immersiveness
and to detect engagement of human subjects of “being there”, in a virtual environment
mediated by technology (Klimmt & Vorderer, 2003). It is important that we understand the

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explication of the presence concept by notable scholars before we discuss the occurrence of
this phenomenon in human experiences in virtual environments like SL.
The human experience becomes virtual in 2 perspectives: When the process of
experience is “mediated by a man-made technology” or when objectification of the
experience is “artificially created or simulated by technology” (Lee, 2004). The result of such
a virtual experience when engaged by its users has been defined as any “presence caused by
virtual technologies” (Lee, 2004; Sheridan, 1992). The significance of such impacts of
presence has been a constant factor identified and emphasized by scholars from various
disciplines for measuring experience and interactions of users of such technologies (Biocca,
1997; Biocca, Harms, & Burgoon, 2003; Lee, 2004).
According to Biocca and Lee, the experience of humans in simulations resulting from
technology has been known to broadly exists in 3 forms of presence: physical, social and self
(Biocca, 1997; Lee, 2004).

There is manifestation of physical presence, when the

psychological state of human sense virtual or simulated objects as how they would of
physical objects in reality (Lee, 2004). Physical presence also disregards sense of

transportation since it does not warrant for “feeling of self-existence” in the virtual reality,
resulting in its possible inclusion of virtual experiences resulting from both low and hightech media (Lee, 2004).
Social presence is evident in psychological states where the human sense of the
“virtual social actors” (avatars as non-human intelligences) in the virtual environment are
perceived to be no different from the human self in reality (Lee, 2004). This is particularly
prevalent in MUVEs dominated by the interactions and exchanges of the avatars. However,
social presence defined here by Lee, should not be confused with another common
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interpretation of the presence concept which refers it to the degree of “social richness in
the interpersonal interaction of its users that a medium could bring” (Lee, 2004; Short,
Williams, & Christie, 1976)
Self presence is referred as the psychological state of humans in their virtual self (eg.
their avatar) being experienced just like its true self in reality (Lee, 2004). When technology
users of MUVEs experienced self presence in the environment, they do not realise any
difference between their virtual self (eg. an avatar), be it “para-authentic” or artificially
created by the virtual environment as any different from their real self (Lee, 2004).
In a nutshell, Lee’s explication has established the assumption that presence can
exist in a multitude of experiences by users when they become indifferent and oblivious to
the nature of its artificial presentation, or its mediation in objects, agents and environments.
It became clear that the way humans experience the virtual environment, is depended
largely on how they would perceive the physicality and environment of the game, the
artificial characters involved and the human’s own game avatar forged in the environment
(Lee, 2004). Biocca, Harms and Burgoon also established an important fact that the social
presence or copresence in an environment is usually determined by the ability to sense
another avatar in virtual reality. This also meant that the computer mediated
communications (CMC) that gave birth to the interactivity between avatars are mandatory
factors that dictate the experience of “being there” with another being (Biocca, et al., 2003).
Lee et al conducted another recent noteworthy experiment which compared online

educational games made up of multi-players with offline games and standalone games using
traditional mediums. The results from this study have established the positive impacts of
social presence with multi-players in online games since these studies observed a mediated
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