The JVWR, Volume 13, No. 2-3

Published: December 22, 2020

Welcome to Volume 13, No. 2-3 (2020) with papers on Rendering Sounds, Virtual Goods Purchase in mobile games, collaborative learning in Minecraft and 360 audio technologies.

During 2020 — accelerated by COVID-19 — we revisited our mission as well as our method of operation. As a result of the process, this issue marks both the last issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (JVWR) in its current format and the launch of our 2021 drive towards the age of 3D3C: Digital, Design, Development, Community, Creation, & Commerce.

The key conclusion and choice we made were to reorient our focus from pure virtual worlds to 3D3C which stands for:

• Digital: A key force in the 21st-century which has become the #1 force for change.
• Design: The idea that we can control the future by “wanting” and “forming.”
• Development: The realization that we are all changing/moving at respective maturity levels.
• Community: the people-oriented power to build, show, generate, and share.
• Creation: The need to create.
• Commerce: Gaining monetary value from the above for long term sustainability.

In its nascent form, 3D3C – which also builds upon 3D (three dimensional), a core of JVWR – will be further developed in 2021. We will refine this concept and then develop our role in serving the 3D3C community.
We are also replacing our backend, a process set for completion at the end of Q1-2021. Please stay tuned for our CfP (call for people :-), where we will share more of our plans and call for collaborators.

JVWR Assembled 2020 presents our final contribution to a focused effort within the capacity of Virtual Worlds. This issue includes three articles covering 360 audio technologies, instructional use, and the topic of purchase intentions in Virtual Worlds. The editorial team is a perfect match of diverse perspectives and experience and, when combined, construct a splendid read for academia and practitioners.

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Editor-In-Chief Corner

Welcome to the Age of 3D3C: Digital, Design, Development, Community, Creation, & Commerce

Yesha Y. Sivan

Issue Editors’ Corner

Rendering Sounds, Sales and Instructional Capabilities in a Virtual World

Angie Marie Cox

Peer Reviewed Research Papers

Virtual Goods Purchase, Game Satisfaction and Perceived Justice: An Empirical Study of Players of PVP Mobile Games

Hui Xiong, Weijie Yu

Redstone Jammin’: Conversational Analysis from a Collaborative Music-Making Activity in Minecraft

Kenneth Y. T. Lim, Lionel J. T. Lim

The Use of Ambisonic Audio to Improve Presence, Focus, and Noticing While Viewing 360 Video

Richard E. Ferdig, Karl W. Kosko, Enrico Gandolfi