Socio-Linguistic Factors and Gender Mapping Across Real and Virtual World Cultures

Abstract : This study examines a large corpus of online gaming chat and avatar names to explore gender differences in virtual world (VW)language use. In particular, we examine the relevance of socio-linguistic observations of gender in face-to-face conversation to the contemporary space of VW chat interactions in online gaming environments. In addition, we study the relationship between a player's gender and naming decisions for online avatars in terms of linguistic observations based on sound symbolism.