Presentation for the VWBPE 2011 Conference

1. Breaking the ice:
Play, friendships and social
identities in young children’s use
of virtual worlds
Jackie Marsh, University of Sheffield, UK

6. 32m

7. Commercial VWs for children
Persistent space that offers a range of
environments that are navigable through maps
Customisable avatar
Home for avatar
Games which earn in-world currency,
generally played individually
Free chat and safe-chat servers
Moderators
Information for parents on website
Link to offline world toys and related texts

8. Lauwaert (2009:12) suggests that
the ‘geography of play is the sum
of core and peripheral play practices
and consists of both physical and
digital elements, of tactile and
non-tactile components,of objects
and connections’.

15. *Primary school serving a primarily white, working-class community in an area of socio-economic
deprivation
*175 aged 5-11 children completed an online survey using Google Docs
*26 children interviewed (aged 5 - 11)
*Three 11-year-old children filmed at home using ʻClub Penguinʼ (CP) over a period of one month,
(8 hours, 48 minutes and 55 seconds of CP activity analysed). These 3 children and their parents
interviewed.
*Analysis undertaken of the literacy practices relating to CP that are conducted in online spaces external to
the virtual world.

16. Playgrounds study
AHRC funded study ‘Playground Games and
Rhymes in a New Media Age’, conducted by the
Universities of London, East London and Sheffield.
180 children at Monteney primary School
completed an online survey of media use.
Children drew maps of their online and offline
friendships.
11 children, 5 boys and 6 girls, interviewed about
these maps.

17. Key findings
In 2008 52% of children used virtual
worlds on a regular basis. Most popular
was Club Penguin, then Barbie Girls
In 2010, 90% of children used virtual
worlds. Most popular was Moshi
Monsters, then Club Penguin.
49% of these 5-11 year olds had used
Facebook, one of the attractions being
the virtual world, Farmville

18. I like you tube & bebo because I get to tark to my friends. I
sometimes go on club peniguin and play the games with my
friends!!!!!!!!!!!! (Girl, aged 8)
you can talk to people, you can excplore and you can have fun
with friends. (Girl, aged 9)
I like reading the books. I like playing with other penguins. I like
dressing my penguin up as a pirate. (Girl, aged 8)

19. Playing football (Boy, aged 5)
Becayuse you get to make your own penguin and its cool (Boy, aged 7)
Playing minnigames, taklking to people (Boy, aged 8)
Meeting my class mates and like to do up my room and chat to people play
games meeting people around the world (Boy, aged 10)

20. i can kill other peopal (Boy, aged 10)
I can chat to people and you can do a virtual kill (Boy, aged 10)
About that you can talk to other people and fight people and KILL THEM!!!!!!!
(Boy, aged 11)
I like explouring around and war games (Boy, aged 9)
U can dow things u cart dow in the real world eg j ump out of buildings and DIE!!!
(Boy, aged 11)

21. Who
children play
with
•Children played with siblings, relatives and
classmates, often in pre-arranged sessions
Sally’s father said, “I always find it funny
then, you know when they’re going on the
same thing. One’s sat in there, one’s sat in
there…all in the same room - I can’t stand it.
Then they’re shouting, “Suzy do this, Sally
do this”.

22. John (11): I look at a name and if it sound weird or not
right, I always press no, but thatʼs only occasionally
because I have only got one friend. If the name is not a
normal name, or sounds weird to me, I donʼt normally
press it.
Jackie: And what do you mean, a normal name?
John: If itʼs like, a funny name, or like, I donʼt know,
their real name, or like coolgirl or something like that,
I would normally press yes, but if it is something
weird...

23. Jackie: When you say you like the look of somebody,
what are you looking for exactly?
Sally (11): Looking for their clothes, hair and their posh
houses, but it doesnʼt really matter because Iʼve got a lot
of plain friends. So heʼs just got little hats and stuff
[pointing to an avatar of a user who does not have paid
membership], so most people donʼt click on him because
heʼs plain. Just because heʼs plain and got a fancy
background, they just wonʼt click on him because they
donʼt really….think, ʻOh heʼs not rich...I wonʼt go and
see him, so Iʼll just leave him outʼ. I just click on anybody.

24. Emily (11): Yeah. Some people like try and show off about
doing like crimes sometimes.
Interviewer: And say what?
Emily: Like, “Oh I’ve nicked a car today” or summat.
Interviewer: So what do you say?
Emily: I just...you can add them as your friend but I don’t, I
just have friends who I already know as friends.

25. Trust
Interviewer: So, your penguin, I’m interested in how you
think about your penguin. Do you think about it as a sort
of toy, as about it being you - is it you, is it a doll, how do
you think about that penguin?
John (11): Well like most websites that I go on, there’s a
version.....like penguin, there’s things that you can make
out of it. I think it’s like representing you. Because if you
dress up as someone completely different or something
completely different you can’t really trust anyone really.

26. Genres of play
Fantasy play
Games with rules
‘Rough and tumble’ play
Socio-dramatic play

27. Purpose Example
Reading newspaper to find out about events/ tips etc.;
Literacy for accessing or reading catalogues; using environmental print to navigate the
displaying information virtual world; reading game instructions; reading clues on
quests
Communicating to other penguins via chat/ safe chat; using
Literacy for constructing and
emoticons to express emotions to other users; sending
maintaining relationships
postcards; using Club Penguin to instant message others
Literacy integral to play - fantasy play, socio-dramatic play;
Literacy for pleasure or self- reading poems, jokes and stories in the newspaper and
expression submitting copy to it; reading books in the library; language
play; searching for Club Penguin machinima on YouTube
Literacy for accessing or Communicating to two or more other penguins via chat/ safe
displaying information chat; using chat in group ritual play
Literacy for identity Choosing avatars’ clothes and artefacts; choosing emoticons
construction and performance and phrases to express identity
Literacy for establishing and
Literacy in ritualised play; CoPs
maintaining social networks

28. The interaction order (Goffman, 1983)
Frames (principles of structure
underpinning social situations) operate
across online/ offline
Literacy utilised in the construction/
maintenance of the interaction order
Literacy is used to render transactions
in virtual worlds as ‘predictable,
reliable, and legible’ (Misztal,
2001:313)

29. Online/ offline
145 children completed maps of online/ offline
friendships Class 3 Offline Online
M (B)
B (G)
D (G)
T (B)
W (B)
L (G)
K (B)
L (G)
M (B)
L (G)
A (G)
68% had N (G)
M (G)
online
J (B)
C (G)
A (B)
friends in
A (G)
A (B) J (B)
J (B)
their class
A (G) B (B)
J (B)
C (G)
B (B)
M (B) E (G)
J (G) A (G)

30. Interviewer: Did you ever ask him?
James (7): Yeah but he said still no. When I asked him
over and over he said, “No, no, no”.
Interviewer: And did you feel upset or sad about that?
James: No I didn’t thought I was missing owt.

31. Interviewer:! So did you choose children to play with in the playground that you played
with online, or not?
Carl (7):! No ‘cos....I played with James, I didn’t play with him online.
Interviewer:! Oh right OK. So why didn’t you play with him online, James?
Carl:! Because he didn’t have an account.
Interviewer:! Oh right OK, he didn’t have an account. And did it make any difference to
how you felt about him playing in the playground?
Carl:! No.
Interviewer:! No, OK. And do you think he felt any different?
Carl:! No, ‘cos we played a lot in the playground.

32. Mary (10):Well usually the people online I usually....the people that are online I
usually just play with them, and then if I go out and play in the yard I kind of
just play with all my friends and people like if they’re not playing with anyone
else and then go and talk to them and see what’s the matter.
Interviewer:!So you don’t seek out people that you play with online?
Mary:!Erm...no.
Interviewer:!Does it make any difference do you think in the playground or play
with Moshi Monsters “I’ll play with her today” or do you not think about it or....?
Mary:!No, I don’t usually think about it, I just like go to school and see who’s
there and play with them.

33. Interviewer:! So how do you think you can tell the children who might break the rules then?
Carl (7):! Because erm....if like they shout out and they thump people in faces sometimes.....
Interviewer:! In the playground?
Carl:!Yeah. And if they’re going to say something like “I don’t like you”, and like Kyle when I’ve gone to his house,
my nan-nan lives next door to him and I go to her house every night, Kyle swears when we go round to play football,
and that’s why I didn’t ask him to my accounts.
Interviewer:! Oh right OK, because he might get you into trouble.
Carl:!Yeah.
Interviewer:! And get you banned.
Carl:!Yeah. Because if they’re banned we can never add that account on to Moshi Monsters ever again.
Interviewer:! Oh gosh. And did Kyle ever ask to be your friend on the internet?
Carl:!Mmm, about 5 times.
Interviewer:! And what did you say to him?
Carl:!I said, “Sorry, I don’t want to get banned from it”.

34. Interviewer: So how do you decide who you are
going to play with on the internet and who you’re
not?
Allie (8): Because it’s like....I go up to them and
talk and see if they’re nice or not, and then if I go on
the internet and play with them I know they’re not
going to like mess around with my stuff on it.

35. Online-offline play
Children owned artefacts and games related to
Club Penguin e.g. Nintendo game, cards, key ring.
Children played games based on virtual worlds in
the playground e.g a version of tag in which the
person caught became a penguin.

36. Conclusion
Online and offline worlds closely related for
children
Engagement in virtual worlds engenders a range of
play and literacy activities
We need to build on these experiences in
developing a critical digital literacy curriculum in
classrooms