著者

和田 崇

出版者

地理科学学会

雑誌

地理科学 (ISSN:02864886)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.62, no.4, pp.237-257, 2007-10-28 (Released:2017-04-15)

参考文献数

19

被引用文献数

2

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The geographical characteristics of communications through the online game "Virtual Farm" were examined, focusing on four analytical: design strategies to attract users, the actual communications themselves, the geography of the game as a communication space, and the relationships between cyberspace and real space. As a result, the followings were pointed out. (1) "Virtual Farm" was started as a pilot service to examine the possibility of cooperation between radio broadcasting and the Internet. In the beginning, users were attracted through radio broadcasts and offline meetings, held mainly in Hiroshima city. In addition, users were attracted through the Internet, regardless of their actual physical locations. After the radio broadcasts ended, users were attracted only through the Internet. (2) Users of "Virtual Farm" communicate using a bulletin board that is part of Virtual Farm and other media, such as websites, bulletin boards, and social networking services, which they create themselves. Although they communicated through radio broadcasts and offline meetings in the beginning, this stopped after the radio broadcasts ended. Since then, users have communicated with each other only through the Internet. (3) "Virtual Farm" provides a virtual world in which users conduct economic activities and communicate with each other. We can see characteristics of "locale", as defined by Anthony Giddens, in "Virtual Farm", except that the users do not physically exist there. User communications about "Virtual Farm" are concerned not with the real space in which the users live, but with the cyberspace in which they live virtually. In fact, user communications take place in two cyberspaces-the online game and the other communication media that they create themselves.