Spiritual Enlightenment in Virtual Worlds. Designing a Religion Site in Second Life

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2012 in the subject Art - Computer Art / Graphics / Art in Media, grade: 87.5/100, National Cheng Kung University (Institute of Creative Industry Design), course: Media & Interaction Design, language: English, abstract: The growing of Internet users is amazing. Among these users, there are users who even practice their religion online. A study conducted by Pew Internet & America Life Project found that 64% of the Americäs 128 million Internet users have done things online that relate to religious or spiritual matters.

In response to this need, there are some churches and missions¿ organization started doing online ministry. In line with this development, there is another medium arise called Virtual Worlds. USATODAY and the Christian Post reported that Leaders of Christian, Jewish and Muslim sites estimate about 1,000 avatars teleport into churches, synagogues or mosques on a regular basis while hundreds more list themselves with Buddhist, Pagan, Wiccan and other groups.

This research is based on Christian Theology with narratology and ludology as video game study¿s on designing a religious site in the Second Life®. This study answers questions like; what are the significance features of Second Life for spiritual enlightenment to its users? And what are the design patterns of the ¿religious site¿ (the site as mentioned in RQ1)? It uses ¿research through design¿ by "Design-Implementation-Evaluation" of a religious site in Second Life. The findings suggest that Second Life and its features could be transformed into ¿sacred¿ place and give spiritual enlightenment to its users. The features of Second Life which provide spiritual enlightenment to its users include: Animation, Audio Visual and the Interactive Environment. There are four design principles in resulting of this research including; Storytelling, Mapping, Affectiveness and Virtual Ritual which could be used in designing religious site in Second Life.