VIRTUAL WORLDS: THE NEW MARKETING LANDSCAPE?

A (CHRISTMAS) MASH-UP...

Andrew Pressey

Birmingham Business School

CYBERPUNK – THE FOUNDATIONS OF CYBERSPACE (AND VWS)

The manifestations and consequences of cyberspace are captured imaginatively in

works of popular fiction – such as the novels of William Gibson (Neuromancer, 1984), Jeff

Noon (Vurt, 1993), Vernor Vinge (True Names, 1980), and John M. Ford (Web of

Angels, 1980)

RESEARCH PROBLEM

“[our] inability to understand technology and perceive its effects on our society and on ourselves is one of the greatest, if most

subtle, problems of an age that has been so heavily influenced by technological change”

Rudi Volti (1995). Society and Technological Change, Third Edition, St. Martin’s Press, New

York.

Virtual worlds and the notion of the avatar…

THE DARK SIDE OF THE WEB AND VIRTUAL WORLDS

Net compulsions (online shopping and online gambling addiction)

Cyber-stalking Cyber-bullying Cybersexual addictions Privacy issues/data protection Cyber-relational addiction (chat rooms, social

networking, personal messaging and email addiction) Culture-centric issues: Hikikomori (Japan) Others?

In 2004, 67% of parents thought that the Internet had a positive impact on the lives of their children, which

had fallen to 59% in 2006

http://i.bnet.com/blogs/internet-addiction-chris-pirillo.jpg

VIRTUAL WORLD OBSESSIONS “The game almost ruined my life, it was my life. I ceased

being me; I became Madrid, the Great Shaman of the North. Thinking of it now, I almost cringe; it’s so sad.”

“…the most addictive part for me was definitely the gain of power and status…”

“Their compulsion became steadily more destructive. They grew increasingly withdrawn, walking around like the zombies from “Night of the Living Dead.” Unless I pried them (forcibly) from the computer, they would spend five or six hours at a time absorbed in these online fantasy worlds. My wife tried to calm me down by observing that “at least they’re not out having sex or doing drugs.” But how would that be any worse?”

“A parent down the street confided to us that his 12-year-old son was so obsessed with video games that he wouldn't take even a three-minute break from gaming to go to the bathroom – with unfortunate results.”

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=5fzduwJXPaEGsM&tbnid=Od-oMJ9NIPgvWM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/people-blog/2007/virtual-worlds-and-blended-reality/&ei=F5uwUsnxDqqb0QXP5IDIAg&psig=AFQjCNHOL_yExeD74rnDnHpagLh4mgEMNQ&ust=1387391790368074

VIRTUAL WORLD PARTICIPATION

VW AND CURRENCIES – VALUELESS GEEK TERRITORY?

James Howells (Newport, Wales) accidentally threw away hard drive with 7500 Bitcoin

credits (Internet/VW currency) only for this to increase in value to a worth of c.£4m a few

months laterThe Guardian (27/11/2013)

TWO SIDES TO VIRTUAL WORLDS...

Two studies Potentially positive aspects of virtual world

usage (the presence of market mavens – or ‘cyber mavens’ – in virtual worlds and the achievement of optimal experiences, or ‘flow’)

Potentially negative aspects of virtual world participation (usage addiction and its pathological consequences and problematic spending in virtual world channels)

A (BRIEF) NOTE ON RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Study One: Cyber-Mavens and flow (n=448, conducted in Second Life)

Market mavenism (Feick and Price, 1987), Flow (Novak, Hoffman and Yung, 2000)

Study Two: Usage addiction and its pathological consequences and problematic spending in virtual world channels (n=662, conducted in Second Life and World of Warcraft)

Addiction (Horvath, 2004; Griffiths and Hunt, 1998), Pathological consequences (Morahan-Martin and Schumacher, 2000), Problematic Spending (composite measure)

STUDY ONE: CYBER-MAVENS AND FLOW

Cyber-mavens transcend channel (physical, web, VW)

Three groups (‘High Mavenism’ n=103, 24%; ‘Moderate Mavenism’ n=309, 68%; ‘Low Mavenism’ n=36, 8%)

VW mavens experience higher levels of flow (arousal, challenge, control, speed/interaction, skill, time distortion and telepresence) (NB. Italics note significant at p<=.05)

Telepresence (feeling in a different world), Arousal (a measure of stimulation), Challenge (capabilities being stretched), and Skill (web-knowledge)

STUDY TWO: VW USAGE ADDICTION AND PROBLEMATIC SPENDING

Addiction (Social Sanctions, Uncontrollable Play, Excessive Play, Displacement)

Polythetic measure (half of all items) = (n=28, 4.22% of respondents)

Monothetic measure (all items) = (n=16, 2.4%)

Monothetic measure of addiction employed to create three groups (‘High’, ‘Low’, and ‘No addiction’)

Pathological consequences significantly highest for high addiction group (Experiencing interpersonal, work or academic problems, Personal distress, Mood-altering use, Withdrawal symptoms)

The ‘High VW addiction’ group scores high on problematic spending (intention to escalate spending and continue excessive usage) in comparison to the ‘Low’ and ‘No addiction’ groups

IMPLICATIONS: THE NEW MARKETING LANDSCAPE?

“As social networks give rise to “social marketplaces,” social influence will be a powerful contributing factor to purchase decisions. These processes are worthy of careful examination by consumer behavior researchers” (Hoffman and Novak, 2009)

As Ogden (1996) noted some time ago: “Cyberspace in all its myriad incarnations has emerged as society’s latest frontier – full of hope and promise but also fraught with peril and vulnerabilities.”

FUTURE RESEARCH

“I will get a ‘second life’ only when I’ve managed to get a ‘first life’...”

“There are more researchers in Second Life than participants...”

Avatars comprise not only “complex beings created for use in a shared virtual reality but any visual

representation of a user in an online community.” Avatars act as proxies for the real-world-self

offering the possibility for their human controller to explore “…hidden aspects of their identities” that “…differ substantially from one another and

from the creator’s public self”Paul Hemp (2006), HBR.

FURTHER READING

Barnes, S. J., and Pressey, A. D., (2012). ‘In Search of the ‘Meta Maven’? An Examination of Market Maven Behaviour Across Real-life, Web and Virtual World Marketing Channels’, Psychology and Marketing, 29(3): 167-185.

Barnes, S. J., and Pressey, A. D., (forthcoming, 2014). ‘Caught in the Web? Addictive Behaviour in Cyberspace and the Role of Goal-Orientation’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

Barnes, S. J., and Pressey, A. D., (2014). The Cyber-Maven and Online Flow Experiences: Evidence from Virtual Worlds, Working Paper.

Barnes, S. J., and Pressey, A. D., (2014). Pathological Virtual World Usage and Addiction: Problematic Consumption and Consumer Spending, Working Paper.