MASTER STUDENT IS RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS FOR HER THESIS RESEARCH!!

[milla0097]

Hello everyone! 🙂

I am a student attending a master's degree in Tourism, Culture, and Society at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (the Netherlands), and I am looking for people who are interested in participating in my thesis project. 

My research topic is virtual tourism, SecondLife virtual replicas of real touristic destinations, and the development of expectations on actual sites.

To conduct my research, I need around 15 participants to undergo an individual online interview with me, which will take approximately 30 minutes. 

To protect your privacy and maintain your anonymity, a consent form will be sent for you to read and sign before the interview that explains how the gathered data will be treated.

The type of participant that would suit this research is a SecondLife user who: 

• visited Little Santorini (SecondLife replica) multiple times 
• engaged with some or most of the touristic or social activities proposed in Little Santorini 
• visited the actual destination of Santorini (real-life island) 

For the purpose of this study, it is essential that the real-life visit happened after the participant engaged with the SecondLife replica.

If you are interested, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me at the following e-mail address: 616296ca@eur.nl 

Also, if you don't match the criteria but you happen to know other SecondLife forums or group chats, I might ask if you can share this message or send me the name/link of the forum. This would be of great help for me 🙏 

Thank you for your attention 😁 So looking forward to working with you!! 🤞

[Lindal Kidd]

A thesis based on only ONE data point? What about other replicas of Real Life destinations? Paris 1890s, Sydney, New York New York, Miami Beach, SS Galaxy, Pompeii?

What about tourism-worthy places in SL that are NOT replicas of real world places? Da Vinci Gardens, Lost Forest of Chakryn, Mount G'al?

Could Second Life as a whole be considered a "tourist destination"? What about other virtual worlds? What is the relationship, if any, between visiting a destination and making your own destination?

[Krystina Ferraris]

Why just little Santorini, I don’t like beach destinations in SL or RL but love mountains and grasslands. I agree with Lindal, one data point for a master’s thesis isn’t a great idea… sounds more like a 1st year paper.

[Silent Mistwalker]

I'd be happy to visit Santorini. Will you paying all my expenses because I can't afford to go traipsing off across the globe?

[Rowan Amore]

Since you've stipulated very specific requirements, I doubt you'll find the people you need in these forums.  

You could try discussing this with the builder of Little Santorini.  

 

[milla0097]

Hello to everyone and thank you for your replies. I get your point of you, since studying multiple virtual replicas was part my original idea as well. However, my supervisor suggested to focus just on one destination so to have a clearer line of comparison among the collected testimonies. So for now I'd like to follow this format since I also have limited power over it. Although, I don't completely exclude the possibility to include the other replicas in the future in case I find myself struggling to find enough participants. 

[Maitimo]

My guess is that there's probably not one single person in the entire world who fulfils these criteria.

[Madelaine McMasters]

8 minutes ago, Maitimo said:

My guess is that there's probably not one single person in the entire world who fulfils these criteria.

An easy spin on Googlewhacking?

[Sid Nagy]

6 hours ago, milla0097 said:

Hello to everyone and thank you for your replies. I get your point of you, since studying multiple virtual replicas was part my original idea as well. However, my supervisor suggested to focus just on one destination so to have a clearer line of comparison among the collected testimonies. So for now I'd like to follow this format since I also have limited power over it. Although, I don't completely exclude the possibility to include the other replicas in the future in case I find myself struggling to find enough participants. 

I recommend that you at least switch to one of the top notch tourists attractions in real life, like something with Paris, London or Berlin.
Santorini isn't really top of the bill in Europe, although beautiful (but I only know it from pictures I just googled).
As others already wrote, it is doubtful that you will find enough people who are familiar with Second Life and have been on Santorini in the real world.
Ik hoop voor je dat het je lukt, maar heb serieuze twijfels.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Ayashe Ninetails]

2 hours ago, milla0097 said:

Hello to everyone and thank you for your replies. I get your point of you, since studying multiple virtual replicas was part my original idea as well. However, my supervisor suggested to focus just on one destination so to have a clearer line of comparison among the collected testimonies. So for now I'd like to follow this format since I also have limited power over it. Although, I don't completely exclude the possibility to include the other replicas in the future in case I find myself struggling to find enough participants. 

As mentioned already, you might (big might) have an easier time if you chose a location like London, New York, New Orleans, Paris, etc.

Even if a person didn't set out to tour one of those locations based only on what they found in SL, there's a much greater chance they found themselves there due to work, family, a wedding, etc. Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but just wanted to toss that out there.

[Coffee Pancake]

5 hours ago, milla0097 said:

The type of participant that would suit this research is a SecondLife user who: 

• visited Little Santorini (SecondLife replica) multiple times 

• engaged with some or most of the touristic or social activities proposed in Little Santorini 

• visited the actual destination of Santorini (real-life island) 

For the purpose of this study, it is essential that the real-life visit happened after the participant engaged with the SecondLife replica.

I want to write a masters thesis showing that virtual tourism directly leads to real tourism.

Good luck finding a single person who supports that assertion, best not mention the staggering number of people who don't.

 

Like really .. I've travelled a fair bit, I have never and will never visit a SL recreation of a location I'm interested in going to in person. At best it's going to be hot garbage, at worst utterly irrelevant and fake. I might wander about google street view, but even then, that's more likely to dissuade me from actually going, so I make a point of not doing that till after I've committed.

[CaithLynnSayes]

Didn't this happen a few days ago? I'm having a dejavu here. Speaking of a dejavu. I'm gonna do the exact same rant (kinda) like i did on the last one. - Don't change the color of your text to something dark. some people are using dark mode (build into this forum) and that makes it really hard to read.

 

By the way. LL, you can do something about that in the code. Just saying  

 

 

OMG off topic! How dare I !

[Sid Nagy]

LL should include the permission to go off topic in their premium plus package.  

 

[kali Wylder]

So are we supposed to be impressed by that tabloid style header?  Looks like something in the check out stand at the grocery store.

[Luna Bliss]

7 hours ago, milla0097 said:

Hello everyone!

Hi   And welcome to SL and the forum.

Well, I might visit a location in SL and if done especially well I'd check it out online, garner more information. I'm afraid just seeing the creation in SL wouldn't be enough to motivate a visit though.

Perhaps in the future, and especially in VR, what you're aiming for might be possible. I know when I saw the Grand Canyon in VR I certainly felt a strong desire to experience it.

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, kali Wylder said:

So are we supposed to be impressed by that tabloid style header?  Looks like something in the check out stand at the grocery store.

I'd counter with .. the target audience for SL do check out at the grocery store

[Silent Mistwalker]

2 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I'd counter with .. the target audience for SL do check out at the grocery store

Checking out can mean something entirely different than the context you're using it in. As in brain checking out... 🤭

Edited March 21, 2022 by Silent Mistwalker

[ValKalAstra]

I'm kind of curious about the reasoning behind this. It's so oddly specific with that hard focus on one specific sim. Usually the virtual tourism research is done more broadly, from what I remember. Say, Italy.

Then you can could go and ask Assassins Creed players for example, you can go and check out Italian speaking Sims in SL, you can go and check what's happening in VR chat and what expressions of local culture in global scales might look like there.

Instead it's one very specific reason area that you'll be hard pressed to find someone that has been there, even harder that they need to have seen both, virtual and physical spaces and yet harder still they need to be willing to take up your interview offer.

Not to trash the research outlook, I've done some laser focus research too but... this is such a tiny sample size that if you find even one person, you might accidentally have found them all.

I say good luck but I sure hope the location ain't locked in with your Prof and you can broaden it or switch focus still.

Edited March 21, 2022 by ValKalAstra
Me no speak English

[Arielle Popstar]

3 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I want to write a masters thesis showing that virtual tourism directly leads to real tourism.

Good luck finding a single person who supports that assertion, best not mention the staggering number of people who don't.

 

Like really .. I've travelled a fair bit, I have never and will never visit a SL recreation of a location I'm interested in going to in person. At best it's going to be hot garbage, at worst utterly irrelevant and fake. I might wander about google street view, but even then, that's more likely to dissuade me from actually going, so I make a point of not doing that till after I've committed.

Virtual tours in real estate are used quite a bit to connect buyers with properties and houses that they eventually purchase, so the idea of Virtual tours of tourist attractions not being used, is far fetched. Certainly would be something I would use if I was to be considering a trip somewhere to get an idea of a place.

Some figures for Real Estate:

95% of home buyers use the Internet to look for homes

51% of people buy homes that they found online, so adding VR to this seems like the obvious next step

71% of Millennials are positive towards the use of VR, this is unsurprising as most Millennials are quick to adapt to new technologies. On the other hand, older generations might take a bit more convincing

Most people looking for a house visit on average between 5 and 7 homes before settling on one. Virtual Reality could really cut down the time wasted viewing properties that people then don’t want to buy

Already 77% of clients want to do a virtual tour before doing a ‘real’ visit

68% of clients want to see what their furniture would look like in their new home

62% of Americans now choose their real estate agency on which one provides 3D virtual reality tours

[Madelaine McMasters]

53 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

56 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

I'd counter with .. the target audience for SL do check out at the grocery store

Checking out can mean something entirely different than the context you're using it in. As in brain checking out... 🤭

I suppose it's possible that the target audience for SL is people who check out when logging in.

I've either seen, or been evidence of that.

[Coffee Pancake]

47 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Virtual tours in real estate are used quite a bit to connect buyers with properties and houses that they eventually purchase, so the idea of Virtual tours of tourist attractions not being used, is far fetched. Certainly would be something I would use if I was to be considering a trip somewhere to get an idea of a place.

Some figures for Real Estate:

95% of home buyers use the Internet to look for homes

Because that's the only  independent step an individual can take.

47 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

51% of people buy homes that they found online, so adding VR to this seems like the obvious next step

but for all that online shopping, the conversion rate isn't great. You really do need an agent.

47 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

71% of Millennials are positive towards the use of VR, this is unsurprising as most Millennials are quick to adapt to new technologies. On the other hand, older generations might take a bit more convincing

71% of 25 to 40 year olds ... 

The idea of virtual reality and the realty of a head mounted brick and sick bag are very different .. if VR sold half as well as people selling VR claim, we would all be using it already. Also .. Millennials are such a huge cohort depending on the date range, which for some reasons tends to get manipulated to fit the participants.

47 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Most people looking for a house visit on average between 5 and 7 homes before settling on one. Virtual Reality could really cut down the time wasted viewing properties that people then don’t want to buy

No it really can't.

47 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Already 77% of clients want to do a virtual tour before doing a ‘real’ visit

Where did you copy pasta these numbers from ?

47 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

68% of clients want to see what their furniture would look like in their new home

When asked a very specific and leading question. 

 

Ok I found it ... 

https://www.meero.com/en/news/real_estate/944/2739-the-power-of-virtual-reality-tours-in-real-estate-en

Lazy astroturfed amalgamation of study data from 2019 that got copy plastered over dozens of website hawking related services and technology as part of a SEO campaign.

If you just wanted to argue and say I think you're wrong, I would much rather you just did that and gave your own personal perspective, not googled up some cruft as though it was in any way authoritative.

[Kathlen Onyx]

Not only do they have to have visited both, the criteria specifically states: 

10 hours ago, milla0097 said:

For the purpose of this study, it is essential that the real-life visit happened after the participant engaged with the SecondLife replica.

So that just took away the one person she may have found.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Sam1 Bellisserian

[Persephone Emerald]

8 minutes ago, Sam1 Bellisserian said:

Not only do they have to have visited both, the criteria specifically states: 

So that just took away the one person she may have found.

Maybe the 2 or 3 people she could have found. I answered her in email, but I visited Santorini many years before Second Life existed, and I'm not going to travel to Greece at this point in my life. Also, even though Americans have a decent amount of disposable income on average, they don't travel to Europe and the Mediterranean nearly as much as Europeans do, in part because it costs us so much more for airfare and we get fewer vacation days. 

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I suppose it's possible that the target audience for SL is people who check out when logging in.

I've either seen, or been evidence of that.

Some never even checked in.

[Rowan Amore]

I'd say a majority of people visit destination regions like this because they KNOW they will probably never visit in person.  That's one of the beautiful things about SL for me.