Constructing social spaces in virtual environments: A study of navigation and interaction

Virtual environments introduce a new type of space that people inhabit. Two virtual worlds, Active Worlds and Onlive Traveler were observed to investigate how social norms involved with personal and group space, privacy, crowding and territoriality affect people during interaction and navigation. The results parallel many findings on social norms in physical environments. People were disturbed when their personal and group spaces were violated and when spaces were crowded. Privacy was also indicated through positioning and other signals. The results suggest that virtual environments are perceived by people as a social space.