Does text-based virtual space influence collaboration?

Abstract This contribution reports the results of two experiments in MOO environments. MOO are text-based virtual realities. In some sense, they are more 'virtual ' than 3D graphical systems since the user does not see rooms, objects or characters but only verbal descriptions of them. One may hence wonder whether the spatial metaphor of MOOs does impact on the users behavior. The first study reveals that users modify their communication behavior when they meet their partner in a virtual room: the change communication verb, acknowledge more often and more quickly their partner message. Suprisingly, despite this sensitivity to virtual co-presence, the subjects do not often explicitly coordinate their movements. The second study indicates that the rarity of explicit acts of spatial coordination is (at least partly) explained by the fact that the MOO automatically provides spatial information through side-messages. We conclude that the spatial metaphors in MOOs does impact on users behavior, but that space is here perceived as a social concept rather than a physical or geographical concept. 1