Nowadays, virtual worlds are often associated with games, especially MMORPGs. MMORPGs stand for massively multiplayer online role-playing game. MMORPGs allow the user to create and customize a character and interact with other characters (owned and created by real people) in a virtual world. These games are often associated with younger audiences, ranging from children to adolescent to teens to young adults — all depending on which game you decide to play.
Although games often have a bad rep for being “wasteful” or encouraging procrastination in kids, they provide a platform for those who may have a harder time socializing or adjusting in the real world. This may be due to mental or physical disorders, trauma, surgeries, accidents, and so forth. These virtual worlds allow these people to socialize, speak, and even establish organizations for a cause that they may relate to.
In Nicole Saidi's article "'Naughty Aunties' battle autism with virtual interaction," she discussed the positive effects and opportunities people with autisim experience using Second Life, a virtual world that allows people to communicate with each other's avatars, and how the platform allows them to communicate with each other and learn how to socialize.
The platform allows for pixelated representations of the environment and people and because it's an online platform, it creates a comfort zone that encourages users to step out of their shell and start mingling. Savill, the individual responsible for Naughty Auntie's, said, "You're on your own computer, in your own room, in your own space... [s]o you’re not going out into the real world meeting people, you’re going meeting people online and in your own home, so you’re perfectly relaxed" (Saidi).
Second Life and many other available platforms today, is said to "[excel] at minimizing geographical separations between people and bringing people from all over the world to meet together quickly and easily" (Saidi).
Based on previous lectures we've had in this class and a previous class I've taken last semester, Second Life also served as a platform for businesses to schedule meetings with people all over the world. It was a less expensive alternative and quite an effective one as well, as people easily got online and connected.
In regards to education, according to Joe Earle's "The Virtual World Moves into the Classroom," there are schools that are starting to use virtual reality as another platform for their lectures. Some teachers find that, with the right applications, the addition of the VR as a supplement to lessons can entice and excite the students; as stated in the article, "[t]hey're taking virtual field trips to faraway places, learning about the lives of refugee families or studying the inner workings of volcanoes. Some are making their own VR products for use by others" (Earle).
I think some cons of virtual worlds is that, in our technological era, there are lots of hackers and predators that can ruin a person's experience of the virtual world. In the same case where people feel more free and comfortable socializing in an online space, there are people who feel more open to bullying others online. Since users can easily change accounts and pretend to be someone else, it's easy for people to bully or ruin other people's lives without consequence.
Despite that, the beauty of virtual worlds is its limitless capacity to create whatever the user desires. Using the right program and resource, the user can create many pieces of work, whether it'd be an organization, an art piece, or a prototype design for a product.
I think with how games are developing in graphics, virtual worlds will start looking much more realistic in the future. In addition, with how much work put into them, they'll probably become more expensive as well. Dependency on virtual worlds may grow excessive (since too much of anything often is a bad thing) and may take away the beauty of seeing something face-to-face in its actuality.
iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction by Nicole Saidi, CNN, March 28, 2008. available from:http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTCText
The virtual world moves into the classroom Posted by Joe Earle | Sep 14, 2018 https://www.reporternewspapers.net/2018/09/14/the-virtual-world-moves-into-the-classroom/
Your comment on the VR world becoming more expensive is something I had not yet thought of. We always look at the way technology can grow, and we complain about the lack of features we want. But with these features come expense. There are so many research and development costs that go into these projects that the economy night not even allow for us to have a large future in the VR department. Great job!
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