Abstract
The term large-scale virtual environment (LSVE) is not in the common usage. One might find discussion on massively multi-user online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and multi-user virtual environment (MUVEs), but these are sub-types of LSVEs and usually focus on the graphical element, not measuring the capacity of the individual users and the computation of their combined potential, nor the analysis of how they interact with one another to achieve mutual or opposite goals that affect the usage of data and their own nutritional resources. By investigating different user groups, internal and external representations and various thresholds, including the serendipity threshold, this chapter contributes to the understanding of how digital addiction manifests through a brain measurement called knol, which can be used as a floating-point unit.
TopBackground
Online communities have been multi-user insofar as many users contribute to the platform, but large-scale virtual environments taking the form of social networking services, such as Twitter and Facebook, have increased users of online communities from tens of people to thousands of people. Even if the technologies would have at one point been considered asynchronous, such as bulletin board systems, social networking services have, due to the volume of people using them, made such technologies virtually asynchronous. Large-scale virtual environments (LSVEs) can take the form of 3D Virtual Worlds (Feng & Song, 2011; Tseng, Tsai, & Chao, 2013). However, from the point of view of this paper the term is in its broadest sense to refer to information systems as they are seen in human-computer interaction (Mantovani, 1996a; Mantovani, 1996b; Suchman, 1987; Suchman, 2007). An important aspect of LSVEs, however, is that they are collaborative in the manner in which they are used, rather than being systems which have many actors who never interact (Clarke & Dede, 2007). This means that when seeking to understand how to increase participation in LSVEs, it should be assumed from the outset that the problems and opportunities that arise are no different from any other environment that is dependent on humans working together.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Ecological Cognition Framework: A framework for human-computer interaction based on post-cognitivist psychology.
Seductive Hypermedia: Hypermedia systems designed to seduce users.
Serendipity: The feeling generated when a chance occurrence leads to an unexpected benefit.
Serendipity Engineering: Using systematic processes to generate the feeling of serendipity in someone, even though it has not occurred by chance.
Seduction: The process of transforming someone’s mental state with or without their consent.