Virtual Worlds

Upon watching the videos assigned, I instantly remembered when I used to play the Sims in the early 2000's. You were able to build your own character and basically live real life in a virtual environment. Second life is more in depth though as it has a lot more options than The Sims. A virtual world mixes reality into a simulated environment. In the Washington post article, "At hearing real and virtual worlds collide" shows how a hearing was broadcast in second life. I found this pretty amazing because they were able to watch in "second life" what was going on in real life conference meeting. Another article that intrigued me was published in the NY Times," I been in that club, but not in real life" these people were actually going to clubs in the virtual world. This virtual world was made by MTV and it basically replicated the lower east side of Manhattan. Virtual worlds can also be used for training pilots. They can fly a plane in a virtual world that is almost identical to flying a real plane. Even people at home can load up flight simulator on their computer and learn how to fly a plane.  This shows how technology can assist us with learning new things and is a major advantage of virtual worlds. It can also foster creativity and a major example of this is with the popular game Minecraft. You can create basically anything you want in blocks. In the future I think virtual worlds will allow us to feel like we are more in the virtual world. I can envision us all wearing virtual headsets and actually being able to interact with real life environment virtually. The only con I can see is that virtual worlds will make it harder for people to interact with real life people. It might make people more socially awkward.




Works Cited


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/01/ST2008040103032.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html