Introduction
When people think of play, many most likely revert back to their childhood and picture their innocent games of make-believe and pretend. According to Brian Sutton-Smith, author of The Ambiguity of Play, play “glorifies freedom, originality, genius, the arts, and the innocent and uncorrupted character of the childhood vision” (Sutton-Smith, vii). He claims that play is ambiguous, and can deal with many different ideas and characters such as animals, children, adults, fate, power, identity, imagination, phantasmagoria, the self, frivolity, as well as many other outside factors (Sutton-Smith, v). However, I’d like to focus on Sutton-Smith’s definition above that relates play to glorifying freedom and innocence and play as an element of imagination and make believe because this is my most enjoyable form of play.
Inspiration
The inspiration for my project is the movie, “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” because it is my favorite fantasy movie. When watching these movies, a person can get lost in the colorful worlds, detailed characters and incredible adventures that create the magic of the film. This is the old technology I would like to stem from. Watching movies is in itself is an exciting and imaginative form of play. You get emotionally attached to the characters and are sad when the movie ends. But most of the time you are sitting in a theater or a room and just watching the film. I want to take this idea a step further. I want to allow people to step inside the movies they watch. So instead of being a passive receiver of the movie, I want a person to be able to interact with the film and its characters. To achieve this heightened sense of play, I have developed the Virtual Realm.
Users/Settings/Social Elements
The player must be over 18 years of age for equipment liability reasons and this type of game can appeal to all different types of people: male/female, younger/older, lower/upper class etc. The Virtual Realm can be compared to places like virtual reality arcades and interactive shows like Medieval Times. The Virtual Realm can be a solitary experience or people may choose to interact as a group. They can enter into the same chamber (fits 3 people max, depending on size of chamber) or they can all enter different chambers and interact in the scene together by being different characters.
The Making of the Virtual Realm
The Virtual Realm is a new virtually reality based playground where a person can go if they wish to interact with their favorite movies.
Wagner, Richard. “Outlines of the Artwork of the Future,” in Multimedia from Wagner to Virtual Reality, eds. R. Packer and K. Jordan. W.W. Norton, 2001.
Virtual worlds such as Second Life and IMVU — which show a 3D environment on a 2D screen rather than immersing the user inside a room or by using an HMD — and the more recent rise of Oculus Rift have all contributed to the rekindled interest in VR. However, major technology and usability advances are still required for a low-cost, broadly used immersive virtual environment. In the meantime, growing popularity of 3D entertainment using 3D glasses — and, increasingly, 3D smart television screens and projections that do not require glasses — may relegate immersive VR to permanent niche status. Currently, augmented reality applications (which superimpose information on the user's view of the real world rather than blocking out the real world) or mixed-reality scenarios (where HMDs and context-aware software are used in a hybrid augmented/virtual environment) are more popular technology approaches to the problem of marrying immersive VR to a consumer
By the virtuality of a thing I mean the seeming of it, as distinct from its more concrete "reality," which may not be important. ... I use the term "virtual" in its traditional sense, an opposite of "real". The reality of a movie includes how the scenery was painted and where the actors were repositioned between shots, but who cares? The virtuality of a movie is what seems to be in it.
Discover a universe of possibilities and explore the world like never before. Virtual Reality (VR) brings you to distant lands, places you in the middle of an Elvis Presley performance and brings you face to face with an inhabitant from a different universe.
In the videos there would be a basic plot set up, but depending on the reaction to choices the plot would change and pull the character into a different situation. To illustrate, the character a real person portrays could be given the choice to aid different subplots of a story based on which character they choose to listen to or help. This could be written in as a choice between saving two people from death. Heather Wright, an executive producer at Aardman Animations discusses the transition between the entertainment industry today and Virtual Reality: “‘Storytellers of the filmmaking variety traditionally like to lead the viewer on a journey which is predetermined for them. With VR, viewers are essentially being let loose in a story to explore it for themselves. This requires a whole new film grammar which is certainly exciting but does turn the tables on the filmmakers.’”(Dredge). Wright was part of the project between Aardman Animation and BBC Connected Studios that produced one of the first interactive Virtual Reality projects called “We Wait” in 2016. This interactive film was a perception altering video that placed the viewer as a character making the journey across sea with a Syrian family. Virtual Reality could also expand from purely entertainment and aid technological
Using 360° stereoscopic spherical video and 360 x 360 surround sound from professional VR video cameras can capture virtual reality environment. The virtual reality environment can be emerged in by the users using head-mounted displays.
The word “play” has numerous meanings to different people in different contexts. Therefore it cannot have one definition and is described in a number of ways. Smith (2010) describes play as involvement in an activity, purely for amusement and to take part for fun. That play is “done for it’s own sake, for fun, not for any external purpose.” (Smith, 2010. P4) Therefore, as one precise definition cannot be presented for the word ‘play,’ it is described in a number of ways such as social dramatic play. Briggs and Hanson (2012) portray social dramatic play as the building blocks of a child’s ability to accept the possibility to step into another world, building and developing on children’s higher order thinking, accentuating the child as a social learner. Another example of play is exploratory play, which is described as children being placed in an explorer or investigator role, to identify the cause or affect a resources that is presented to them has. (Briggs, M and Hanson, A. 2012) Games are also another example of play. They are included on the basis that playing games with rules, regardless of age, can develop a child’s intellectual capabilities along with their physical, behavioural and emotional health. (Briggs, M and Hanson, A. 2012).
Many theorists have tried to define play as a concept, however, no two agree on a set definition. Their backgrounds and induvial lifestyles influence the way they see the importance of play. Reed and Brown also believe that there isn’t an agreed definition of play because is something that is felt rather than done (Reed & Brown, 2000 cited in Brock, Dodd’s, Jarvis & Olusoga, 2009). In spite of this, it is clear that most theorists uphold the ethos that play is imperative to a child’s learning and development. There is a wide range of different studies and theories which helps us develop our own perception of what play is. In my personal experience I have found play to be a way of expressive our emotions, exploring and learning new things, thus
The term Virtual Reality (VR) is used by many different people with many meanings. There are some people to whom VR is a specific collection of technologies, that is a Head Mounted Display, Glove Input Device and Audio. Some other people stretch the term to include conventional books, movies or pure fantasy and imagination. However, for purposes of this research, we restrict VR to computer mediated systems. We would define Virtual Reality as a way for humans to visualize, manipulate and interact with computers and extremely complex data.
Using a MUD does not require the paraphernalia commonly associated with virtual reality. There is no special hardware to sense the position and orientation of the user’s real-world body, and no special clothes allowing users to see the virtual world through goggles and though through “data gloves”…Instead of using sophisticated tools to see, touch and hear the virtual environment, users of MUD systems are presented with textual descriptions of virtual locations. Technically, a MUD software program consists of a database of “rooms”, “exits” and other objects. The program accepts connections from users on a computer network, and provides each user with access to that database…Within each system users can interact with each other and with the virtual environment which the MUD presents to them (Reid, 1994).
Virtual reality can be defined as a, "technology that enables users to enter computer generated worlds and interface with them three dimensionally through sight, sound, and touch" (Newquist 93). Virtual reality combines computer simulation and visualization into a single, coherent whole (Peterson 8). Researchers say it embodies an attempt to eliminate the traditional distinction between the user and the machine. Virtual reality is intended to provide a means of naturally and intelligently interacting with information (8). Virtual reality is contending to be the interface of the future, allowing ordinary users to use their senses to interact with complex data.
A very wise man; Charles Schaefer, once said “We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” To begin with, there is no one explanation about what play really is, other than the fact that it holds infinite numbers of definitions according to every single individual. Play is just not a physical body movement involved in an activity, but more than that if you look outside of the box. For centuries, play has been practiced in its own unique way with not only children, but adults as well.
Definition of virtual reality is "A technology that assures participants that he was actually in another place by replacing the main sensory input with data received by the computer" [6] [10]. One of the key elements of the virtual reality of cyberspace; it is a space fantasy or simulation environment. Which is always linked here is a virtual world and immersion virtual reality, perception is born into the world of alternatives such as ethereal or other point of view of our world
Virtual reality gives huge benefits in education and helps to improve student engagement. It’s one of the best ways to engage and helps the students to understand the subject through virtual reality system. Especially in the virtual reality game will bring significant impact to teenagers. The major three types of impact are social difficulty (socially impaired), physical and psychological difficulty. Even virtual reality is a great tool to learn, but it is not a universal learning method for all of the educational areas. Too much of virtual reality for students will cause social difficulties because an inescapable aspect of social life is the formation and maintenance of interpersonal relationships (Biocca and Levy 1995). Constantly using virtual reality will cause isolation from the societies because the person already made his or her own social area which only exists in the virtual world. VR will provide a communication environment in which the dangers of deception and the benefits of creativity are amplified beyond the levels that humans currently experience in their interpersonal interactions (Biocca and Levy 1995). It could lead to low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness and insignificance, even self-destructive acts (Cartwright, 1994). VR games could mindlessly, energy sapping diversion, bring electronic isolation, a playground for immortality (Kershner 1995). Virtual Reality game brings physical and psychological difficulties when they over run and it could be called as cyber sickness. VR interventions were able to increase physical activity capacity and performance in children with CP (Cerebral palsy) or early brain injury. Cyber sickness is one of the physiological impacts durin...
Virtual Reality is a new form of interactive media that is here to stay. A time may come when people might get tired of it but the chances of that happening are really low as the content that can be offered in VR systems is almost limitless.