Journal - New Media & Society
This is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes peer-reviewed papers on communication, media and cultural studies, sociology, geography, anthropology, economics, the political and information sciences and the humanities. It is a well known journal within media technology studies and it has an impact factor of 1.824. It is an international journal that treats both empirical and theoretical research mainly within new media development.
Paper Summary - Presence in virtual golf simulators: The effects of presence on perceived enjoyment, perceived value, and behavioral intention
In this paper the main problem is about peoples feeling of presence (telepresence and social presence) when they play a golf game using a virtual golf simulator. The perceived enjoyment, perceived value and behavioral intention were measured using questionnaires. The results showed that the social interactions had higher value than the technology of the simulators themselves, i.e. the success of the virtual golf simulators may be more related to an enhanced sense of socialization with other players, rather than the virtual reality technology itself.
Critical examination
In my opinion the authors had a nice balance between telepresence (to which extent the player is present in the virtual world) and social presence (to which extend the player is present in the physical simulator area) in their report. Although the amount of male subjects were significantly higher than the female subjects and the fact that they only tested this feeling of presence on experienced virtual golfers may have affected their results a bit. I believe that the usage of questionnaires were appropriate within these circumstances. They examined many people and the only other alternative would be to use physiological tools to measure cognitive and emotional responses, which would take a lot of time and would not necessarily improve the results.
Moving on, their discussion contain a high amount of extensive information, although the information remain relevant. They conclude that social presence plays an important role in enhancing the experience of presence in virtual golf simulators. Social presence has a very positive effect on perceived enjoyment and perceived value. They also end with a broader look on the psychological benefits of the report when it comes to presence in virtual worlds in general. Another good aspect is the fact that they emphasize their methodological limitations. All and all I think they succeeded in evaluating the results, although I miss some discussion on how and why the subjects did not feel “transported into the virtual environment” (telepresent) to a higher extent.
Briefly explain to a first year student what theory is, and what theory is not.
A theory is something that aims to explain, inform or in some way provide logical grounds for further research. Simply stating facts or referring to different research papers or other sources is not theory due to its lack of logical argument, but it can function as support for theory. Theory at least has to answer the question why. It can also answer the question of what, how, when, where and what will be. Theory can also explain relations between different variables and/or data. A strong theory often contain very few statements and build a logically detailed case from there. It tells a story of why acts, events, structure and thoughts occur.
Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?
The main theories used by Lee, Chung and Lee (2012) is about perceived enjoyment, perceived value and behavioral intention and the sense of tele- and social presence. Their empirical research were supported by facts and information from research prior to their own and they also supply a strong hypothesis (a prediction). Their hypothesis is highly testable and they provide extensive discussions and explanations to their results. Because of this I draw the conclusion that their theory should be classified as type four (Explanation and Prediction, EP) (Gregor 2006).
Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?
EP theory implies understanding of causes and predictions as well as description of the theoretical constructs and their interconnectedness. This type of theory provide a very solid ground to future arguments and future research and it is applicable in many different research areas (although often very specific sub areas).
The limitations of EP theory is that it is often very specific to one case and is therefore not always applicable on a broader scale. The article I chose, for example, only examines one specific type of golf simulator on a very specific type of people (die hard golfers). Therefore the results may not be applicable to all golfers or all people for that matter, which they clearly state in their discussion.
Resources
Lee, H.-G., Chung, S. & Lee, W.-H., 2012. Presence in virtual golf simulators: The effects of presence on perceived enjoyment, perceived value, and behavioral intention. New Media & Society, 15(6), pp.930–946. Available at: http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/doi/10.1177/1461444812464033 [Accessed November 18, 2013].
Gregor, S., 2006. The Nature of Theory in Information Systems, 30(3), pp.611–642.
Sutton, R. & Staw, B.M., 2013. ASQ Forum What Theory is Not., 40(3), pp.371–384.
I think the limitation you mention about EP can just as well be seen as a very strong strength. Focusing on the limitation of it can sometimes even make on disregard this. Specific EP can be extremely useful for those it effects. Then again, the question itself requires you to search for limitations.
SvaraRaderaI agree with you that the "limitations" I speak of could be viewed as strengths but I argue that it is mostly a limitation due to its lack of broad perspective aspects. In order to be able to say something in general about the presence in golf simulators you have to be able to apply it in a wide scale. Not entirely sure that I understand what you mean by your second sentence?
RaderaHi.
SvaraRaderaInteresting choice of paper where I find the results to be quite obvious. I think people in general play games together for the fun experience and the social interaction, rather than pay attention and enjoy the technology itself even if it's indeed interesting to try out but it's not really the main point. The purpose of games is to have fun and for multiplayer games like golf where you can play together, I think you'd mostly be seeking the social interaction, play against each other. Those are my thoughts at least.
Thats a very interesting paper you found. It combines something very relevant with media technology, which is telepresence, and something that, to me, is a big interest. I have never actually played a virtual golf simulator though which is a shame. So i can't say much about the experience on that really, but since i play real golf i can say that in my opinion the social interaction is very important in a sport like golf. It's not very fun to go out and play for four hours all by yourself. You want to talk between the holes and have someone that you can compete with to play at your best. The same can also be said about a virtual golf simulator i guess except that the competing is of another difference because you can't lower your handicap there. I think the result is very interesting and i wonder who the people was that they had questioned, if it were people who had much experience of playing real golf or not.
SvaraRaderaJust like the people above I found the article you found pretty interesting. I have played golf for several years and tried out a golf simulator on two quite different occasions. The first one involved a pentathlon at Ballbreaker, involving beer and competition, it made the social interaction more important than the game, so in that case the social presence was much more important than the telepresence.
SvaraRaderaHowever, this summer when I were going to buy a new driver I got the chance to try out some clubs at the store, and even though I got some social feedback from the person helping me I thought it were more important how the ball travelled in the air, how far, in what direction and so on. I found myself more focused on the screen in front of me than the people behind me so I think that it all depends on the purpose of the simulator. Is it to buy a new club, or is it to have fun with your friends?
It's pretty cool how far this technology has come and by simply adding a accelerometer near the clubs head you could get data on pretty much everything about your swing (top speed, rotation etc). That's why I'm more interested in why you assess this paper as type four (explanation and prediction)? What was the prediction in this paper and what made it "highly testable?"
To answer your questions the focus of the golfers in the paper were to have fun by playing golf and not to buy new clubs.
RaderaIn the paper they aim to examine the relative importance of two dimensions, telepresence and social presence, in presence occurring during the virtual golf simulator experience. They provide a prediction that perceived enjoyment (a term defined in the area of social psychology) will supply the behavioral intention to play again. This perceived enjoyment also supplies perceived value (yet another term which I won't go into any deeper but you get the gist of it). The perceived value also increases the chances of a person playing again.
All and all they predicted that the sense of presence (both social and telepresence) would supply the relations described above. I mean that they over estimated the impact of telepresence as we saw in the results.
Hope this gave you a satisfying answer! :)