A virtual world is an interactive simulated environment accessed by multiple users through an online interface. Virtual worlds are also called "digital worlds," "simulated worlds" and "MMOG's." There are many different types of virtual worlds, however there are six features all of them have in common:
1. Shared Space: the world allows many
users to participate at once.
2. Graphical User Interface: the
world depicts space visually, ranging in style from 2D "cartoon" imagery to more
immersive 3D environments.
3. Immediacy: interaction takes place
in real time.
4. Interactivity: the world allows users to alter,
develop, build, or submit customized content.
5. Persistence: the
world's existence continues regardless of whether individual users are logged
in.
6. Socialization/Community: the world allows and encourages
the formation of in-world social groups like teams, guilds, clubs, cliques,
housemates, neighborhoods, etc.
Commercial
Gaming
Commercial gaming worlds tend to focus on a singular fictional
theme and consistently follow formal conventions such as character-focused
avatars, progression through an interactive narrative storyline, and a series of
competitive events. Strongly influenced by fantasy, science fiction, and anime
genres of literature and film, the majority of sizable virtual worlds in
existence today are commercial gaming worlds. Examples include Everquest, Lineage 2, and World of Warcraft. While Virtual
Worlds Review includes several top-quality gaming worlds on the review list, we
mostly feature worlds that fall outside the traditional gaming mold. Fortunately
there are many other great sites that contain comprehensive lists of commercial
gaming worlds. Here are a few:
Socializing / Online Community Building
In addition to the traditional fantasy RPG worlds, there are many commercial community-focused virtual worlds that emphasize socializing rather than gaming. These worlds offer a more open-ended experience and are strongly influenced by the cultures of text-based chat rooms. Although small-scale, casual games may be incorporated into a social world, participants are not necessarily there to win or play a game, but rather to socialize with others and, in many cases, create and decorate a personal space such as a home, room, or apartment. Social worlds tend to use settings based on idealized versions of reality. Most provide some basic building tools and the ability to host activities and events that revolve around a wide variety of topics.
Education
Some virtual worlds have been created for educational purposes. In most cases, educational worlds are sponsored by academic institutions or nonprofit organizations, although some educational worlds are sponsored by corporations. Educational worlds come in a wide variety of forms, including 3D recreations of museum and gallery spaces, computer programming tutorials, virtual libraries, and meeting spaces for online university courses. Active Worlds Educational Universe is one of the oldest and largest networks of educational worlds. Adobe Atmosphere is also being used to build virtual worlds for educational purposes. A great example of a corporate-sponsored educational world is Mokitown.
Political Expression
Virtual worlds can serve as forums for political expression and debate. While real-world political issues can crop up in gaming, social, and educational worlds, there are a few cases in which completely separate virtual worlds have been built for the purpose of political debate or even experiments in various types of self-governing online communities. A great example of a virtual world with a political focus is AgoraXchange.
Military Training
Virtual world technologies are also being used in some interesting ways by the U.S. military. America's Army is being used as a tool to recruit potential soldiers, while companies like Forterra Systems are working with military groups to develop training simulations.
And this is just the beginning. As these technologies develop further over the next several years, virtual worlds will be used for all types of purposes as more people begin spending more time in them. If you're new to the "world of virtual worlds" we hope that Virtual Worlds Review will serve as a user-friendly, informative place to learn a bit about them. For those who are already familiar with virtual worlds, we hope the site will let you know about other types of worlds you may not have heard of before. In either case, welcome and enjoy the site.
Reference: What is Virtual World?
Pros and Cons based on Second Life
Pros
Second Life offers major opportunities for enriching learning in the vocational training and education (VET) sector. Its 3-D perspective allows interaction in a very realistic way. One walks into buildings and undertakes activities. While photographs and videos can offer something of a similar experience, this is restricted by the photographer or video maker. In Second Life, for instance, a design student can walk into room, put furniture in it, get a real sense of proportion and perspective and quickly change the ambience with colour, textures and furniture. In many areas, few classroom experiences can offer the same level of reality.
An added bonus is the real people one meets in Second Life. The ‘painting and decorating’ teacher involved in the project was exploring in Second Life one night when she walked into a spectacular building. Apart from the wonderful architecture, the building was full of superb furniture and décor, sculptures and artwork. It transpired that the building was built by a real-life architect in the UK. The teacher got talking with him and he agreed to meet her students in Second Life, take them through the building and discuss aspects of design and architecture with them. Whilst a simple Internet search would have found the architect, without the 3-D environment he would not have been able to engage the students so fully. The students could look, explore and experience in a way not possible through other media.
The adaptability of Second Life is an exciting aspect. This was highlighted when an island was finally purchased for the project. It was a barren island with a lake in the middle and hills around it. In three days, one teacher and two students, with Internet access at home, flattened the hills, reduced the size of the lake and put trees, paths, park benches and a rotunda on the island and introduced ducks and butterflies. The ‘Paluma Resort’ building was built and furnished with a reception desk, a bar, comfortable chairs and a fire, a striking front entrance and excellent signage. A water slide, dance floors, spa, motorbikes, four-wheel terrain vehicles and swimming and diving pools offered a range of activities for tourists. Whilst the planning and collecting of objects had taken several weeks, the actual transformation from barren land to resort happened quickly. These were not IT students but Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning students who had a dream to create the holiday resort.
Cons
For newcomers, Second Life can be a little daunting. Whilst most students involved in the project took to it enthusiastically, some of the mature-aged students felt quite unsafe when not on the project’s private island. Strange avatars, conversations and activities were often confronting and sometimes disturbing. Whilst most regular and long-term Second Life residents strive towards a safe community within the world, there is an element among avatars which enjoys causing disruption and discomfort to others. There is a complex abuse report mechanism within Second Life and avatars are encouraged to report any abuse. Reports are investigated and offending avatars can be confined to what’s called ‘the cornfield’ for a set period.
Just as in the real world, there’s good and bad in Second Life. There is gambling, strip clubs, raunchy clubs, combat areas and so on. This was another reason why a private island away from the mainland held great appeal for the project team. That does not mean there is no value in learners experiencing some of the risks of life in an online environment. Protective behaviour, knowing what personal information should not be given out, knowing how to respond when pressed for personal details – all these are necessary skills in today’s world of increasing technology use.
There are some ugly aspects to any virtual world – and Second Life is no different. There is a line of thought that virtual worlds attract a higher proportion of predators than exist in real life. This may well be true. There is a risk of coming into contact with obscene images or individuals in most online participation. There is no getting away from this aspect, other than to arm all users with robust protective strategies and the capacity to discern what is appropriate and know when to turn the computer off. This is a role educators must take very seriously.
Reference: Pros and cons
Virtual
platforms are at a turning point in terms of how they approach legal rights for
user-created content. The practice of requiring users to assign all potential rights
generated from their creations has begun to move toward allowing users to
retain rights. But, although this direction appears to be beneficial for providing
an incentive to increase creativity, liberating rights through a TOS/EULA to
allow users to retain copyright is more complex than a simple decree. Rather,
this liberalization of rights has led to an environment where rights are unclear,
infringement is rampant, and the ultimate result will be chilled creativity. For
these blossoming worlds to continue to expand based on user creations, any
rights that users have must be addressed more specifically; first at the
copyright interpretative level, and then, more importantly, at the localized
platform level. At the local level, the TOS/EULA can clearly and accurately
define the sets of rights that users have based on the creativity that occurs
in that platform. At an even more localized layer, an expansive set of well-defined
code-based user licenses can let the users themselves have the greatest control
over their creations. Approached thoughtfully and deliberately, these sources
of rights-determination could provide the most appropriate set of incentives to
encourage the greatest amount of creative activity for these evolving virtual
worlds that are flourishing with content created by the users themselves.
Virtual worlds won’t save civilization, given human nature seems to replicate itself in digital worlds. It could potentially be more like “The Matrix,” if you the machines get too smart, but in the near term you can count on virtual worlds becoming an economic force in business and entertainment. It’s not hard to imagine the intersection from Facebook and Second Life, for example, where, as Rosedale predicts, people will spend more time in virtual worlds than on the ’standard’ Web. Some of us will continue to hang on to the analog world…
Reference: The future of virtual worlds
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