Onverse is a free, online virtual world which you can download onto your computer and connect with users across many nations. Over the past few years, the phenomenon of virtual worlds had become extremely popular. KZero, an analytics company specializing in virtual worlds and the virtual goods market stated that the number of users in virtual worlds has increased by 350 million users as compared to this time last year. Brian Menneecke, professor at Iowa State University explains this phenomenon in his article, “Second Life and Other Virtual Worlds: A Roadmap for Research”:
“As of early 2008, Second Life supported almost 12 million
unique avatar accounts, and World of Warcraft had more than 11 million subscribers. This growth is due in part to
the engaging, 3D environments that provide users with stunning visuals, animations, role playing opportunities, and
social communities. Much like Facebook and MySpace, part of the popularity of virtual environments come from the
interaction that users experience with peers, friends, acquaintances, and, in many cases, strangers.”
This social networking component of Onverse is one of the primary ways users get to know each other and develop a friendship. Avatars on Onverse can use the chat feature as a way of communicating. The chat feature does not work to chat with avatars across the entire Onverse world. Instead, only the “local” avatars nearest to you will receive your chats. This was designed to allow the avatars to more easily connect and socialize with each other. There is also an online forum in which users can discuss things about the world, games, or other general topics. The goal of the forum is to stimulate discussion and form connections between Onverse users. Onverse is a relatively small virtual world in comparison to other virtual worlds such as Second Life of World of Warcraft. However, the numbers are steadily increasing as Onverse continues to gain more popularity.
A longitudinal study of number of Onverse users, starting May 10, 2011 and ending October 11, 2012. Source: http://www.updowner.com/onversecom/onverse.com
One questions that researchers of virtual worlds are trying to answer is: How does one select his or her virtual world? This question is extremely complex, as there are so many factors that contribute to how a person selects a world. There is not much research on this yet, as virtual worlds are still relatively new. However, Edward M. Roche from Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) and John Lester, from Linden Labs both offer a way in which researchers could address this complicated question. They explain,
“Certainly research needs to apply what we know about decision theory to these questions. Essentially, there is a need to match two sets of factors: those describing the adopter, and those describing the virtual world. But what factors? Here is where the inherent “social encoding” of virtual worlds comes into play. Virtual worlds are 100- percent engineered environments, and nothing is random. The researcher must understand how the virtual world is programmed to work, e.g., what avatars can do and not do and why. A general model is needed that maps virtual world characteristics against adopter needs”.
Once this research has been conducted, this will yield extremely interesting findings and a better insight into why people choose their respective virtual worlds and what makes them stay involved. An Onverse avatar, iamjerome explains why she initially chose Onverse, and why she continues her involvement:
“They have a very positive introduction video that makes you want to play the game. I was intrigued by how they advertised that it is a 3D game because I have been trying out different games for a while trying to find a good one. Onverse was the one that kept me hooked because of how different it is. I kept playing because there is lots to do in Onverse and I do love how it is a 3D virtual world”.