I HAVE AN AVATAR THEREFORE I EXIST: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN METAVERSES

Electronic Commerce Research: Special Issue Call Reminder

Deadline: 1st December 2007

For more information please visit:
http://www.ebusiness-newcastle.com/news/article.php?id=40

I HAVE AN AVATAR THEREFORE I EXIST: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN
METAVERSES

Millions of users from around the globe participate in massive multiplayer
online role playing games (MMORPG), such as Second Life and World of
Warcraft, 3D worlds that are often considered the next generation Web. With
their user base growing at an exponential rate we are already experiencing
the development of a phenomenon that may be as significant as the Web
itself. The rapid development of MMORPGs and metaverses is likely to bring
about significant business as well as social, legal, policy, methodological
and technological opportunities and challenges.

This special issue aims to explore these and contribute to this rapidly
expanding field by focusing on issues relevant to electronic business and
management. Academics and practitioners are invited to submit conceptually
and empirically based original papers addressing areas such as those listed
below:

Business opportunities and challenges
Marketing implications
Identity management issues
Virtual economies and economic policies
Virtual entrepreneurship and metaverse ebusiness models
Developing MMORPGs and related strategies and ebusiness models
Real money trading Consumer and business ethics in metaverses
Case studies (e.g. Second Life, World of Warcraft etc)
Human-computer interaction issues in metaverses
Psychological aspects of participating in metaverses
Legal issues (e.g. copyright and ownership of virtual property)

The above areas are just indicative and this special issue would welcome
papers discussing other relevant topics. For the manuscripts guidelines
please visit the journal's web site. All papers, accompanied by a short
biographical note for each author (approximately 200-250 words per author),
should be submitted as an email attachment to the Guest Editors (Email:
savvas.papagiannidis@ncl.ac.uk). All papers will be double blind refereed.