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

Dr Savvas Papagiannidis, Lecturer in Management, Business School, Newcastle University UK

Dr Michael Bourlakis, Senior Lecturer, Business School, Brunel University, UK

Prof. Feng Li, Prof. E-business Development, Business School, Newcastle University UK

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. All papers will be double blind refereed.

Important dates:

• Last date for submitting the manuscript: 31st May 2008
• End of the first review cycle: 1st of July 2008
• Tentative date for completing the revised papers: 15th  August 2008
• Tentative date for completing the second review cycle: 15th September 2008
• Submission of the final manuscripts for print: 15th October 2008