This essay examines articles to compare and contrast whether there are entrepreneurial opportunities existent in the virtual world Second Life. A virtual world is a computer mediated environment which can be either be a two or three dimensional simulated environments, where one or more human participants inhabit and interact via their avatars; various features include chat, instant messaging and voice (Multimedia Victoria, Acumentum Pty Ltd, 2007, p.2; Bloomfield, 2007, p. 12). Second Life was launched in 2003 by Linden Lab; the three dimensional virtual world has allowed commercial interaction (Multimedia Victoria, Acumentum Pty Ltd, 2007, p.3) which will be focused on throughout this essay to examine the aforementioned question. The following articles are assessed, Making real money in virtual worlds, Real Commerce in virtual worlds, Would your business benefit from a second life? and Worlds for Study to convey that although there are in-world limitations present for entrepreneurial opportunities when enacted upon, successful commercial achievements are also examined through utilising examples from various in-world organisations.
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Avatar appearances and their commercial activities are regulated by Linden Lab, written in the terms of service in the signup process to register into Second Life, to comply with a variety of international laws (Vitzthum, Kathuria and Konsynski, 2009, p.4). This is especially important as Second Life has a virtual currency, the Linden Dollar to facilitate commercial transactions which are exchangeable for real dollars in a marketplace (Multimedia Victoria, Acumentum Pty Ltd, 2007, p.2). Among criticism, is that regulation changes sometimes results in a larg...
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...thical implications in metaverses’, Technological forecasting & social change (0040-1625), 75 (5), pp. 612-620 , Viewed 11/07/2011,
• Vitzthum, S; Kathuria, A; and Konsynski, B (2009), ‘Real Commerce in Virtual Worlds’, ICIS 2009 Proceedings. Paper 22, Viewed 11/07/2011, pp. 2-5,
• Multimedia Victoria in conjunction with Acumentum Pty Ltd, (2007), ‘Would your business benefit from a second life?’, learning from the Melbourne Laneways project, Viewed 12/07/2011, pp.2-5,
• Bloomfield, R, (2007) Worlds for Study: Invitation - Virtual Worlds for Studying Real-World Business and Law, and Politics, Viewed 13/07/2011, pp. 2-17,
Laudon, Kenneth C. Traver, Carol. E-commerce: Business. Technology. Society 3th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle NJ, 2007.
Bell, James J. "Exploring the ‘Singularity’." Evolving Ideas. 2013-2014 ed. Plymouth: Hayden McNeil, 2013. 51-58. Print.
“They key idea underlying the impending Singularity is that the pace of change of our human-created technology is accelerating and its powers are expanding at exponential pace.”
Role-playing games are becoming increasingly popular in this age due the assistance of the Internet. In these types of game a person can assume a character and give this character a personality, physical features and “live” through them. All though in past years “pen and paper” types have dominated the rpg world, now MUDs are making it possible to role-play along with thousands of others A MUD is a network-accessible, multi-participant virtual reality that is primarily text-based. (Bruckman, 1992). Although the term “virtual reality” often refers to a computer-simulated environment that contains varying degrees of audio/visual interface, this form of virtual reality is mainly text-based. Elizabeth Reid further explains by saying:
Asian countries have never been unfamiliar with gaming software. From the very beginning when Japanese companies developed various game councils, Asian countries, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, became large markets for computer and video games. In addition to the spread of gaming system technology in Asia, countries like Taiwan, China, and South Korea that have abundant labor resources have developed sufficient, but inexpensive computer components and software in recent decades. Online games have existed in Asia since more than a decade ago, but did not come to the mainstream of software development until early 1997. Online games became mainstream with the introduction of the Internet café. Although some reports show that the appearance of Internet café and online games seems to promote the development of computer software design in Taiwan and increase the revenue for several computer component companies, it brings new social problems. There exists a management crisis of the cafés, and censorship or copyright problems with software. While the Taiwanese government is trying to eliminate the problems by putting more restraints on this modern business, it also has the dilemma not to violate people’s freedoms and rights. In this paper, I will first discuss Internet cafés in Taiwan and the famous (or infamous) online game known as “Heaven.” Then, I will present some ethical issues brought about by this new high-tech business and the opinions voiced regarding the pros and cons of the governmental regulations. Finally, I will also discuss my points of view concerning to this matter.
The majority of the adult American population age 18+ is unfamiliar with the ever-growing virtual community known as Second Life. Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab, which offers its residents a place to connect, a place to shop, a place to work, and a place to love. There are many advantages for people to create a Second Life for themselves. Second Life’s residents are given the ability to explore any region they choose and allows one the ability to be themselves, or even someone different. For many, it is a freeing experience from the daily routine of “real life”. Second Life’s virtual experience also has sound; audible conversation, babbling brooks, wind in the swaying trees, and built-in chat and instant messaging. Residents purchase property, game with other residents, create objects, join clubs, attend classes, start businesses, or just hang out. The presentation of Second Life is extraordinary, making it a significant, almost guilty, indulgence. Before embarking on a journey in Second Life, one must first create an avatar. New Second Life users choose from standard male and female avatars. Residents and their avatars do not always choose the gender they are in real life. Once the gender choice is completed, residents go on to tailor their avatar’s look in a way they believe mainly suits their style, or the Second Life “lifestyle” they selected. For instance, a trained user may possibly craft a cat that follows him all over the place. Residents build items for diverse reasons. Several do this in order to strengthen the theme of a certain region or specific avatar; some construct items simply for amusement. Even though Second Life extends a convincing adventure for residents from different...
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 Currencies are increasingly becoming a part of not only the virtual world but also the real world. There are many problems associated with virtual currencies. Due to its similar to paper currency, a lot of questions have risen regarding its acceptance among the people in the market. Virtual currencies are growing in popularity and although they were large used by speculators who were looking at it as a way to make money by buying them at a lower prices and selling them at higher prices (much like trading foreign exchange).
Clark, T. (2001). Virtual schools: Trends and issues: A study of virtual schools in the United States. Retrieved October 18, 2003, from http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/virtualschools.pdf
The Internet is rapidly becoming widespread and widely used as a tool for globalization across the world. As the Internet became more easily accessible by most people in the world, the web is bringing significant implications and changes to the way we live, including the way we shop. There is a rapid growth with e-commerce and moving businesses onto the web and retail success is no longer about stores and shopping centers. In developed countries, about two thirds of the population have access to the Internet making the option of online shopping is easily accessible to most people (Valerio). With the ease of shopping in your own home there are many benefits of doing your shopping online. Consumers can easily compare prices online, there is a larger range of products on the web, you can save time by having your shopping delivered right to your doorstep and it also overcomes physical barriers. Over the last decade online shopping has challenged and replaced the traditional means of physically going into shops as the digital world has provided customers with further convenience, flexibility and comfort from shopping from your own home.
The Information revolution is changing our daily lives. With the rapid development of computers and the internet, online commerce has become quite common and plays an important role in the modern world. Online business has been booming in recent years. US online retail sales rose an average of 11% in the first three months of 2009 (“US Online Sales Up,” 2009). The growth of online sales may be due to the growing number of consumers who shop online.
...t is that human reasoning abilities have allowed mankind to develop a virtual telescope far beyond the reach of our newest space viewing technologies. With this theory, humans come closer to realizing our place within the multiverse and the uniqueness of our own universe. The conflicting ideas, though difficult to prove one way or another, provide an impetus that will stimulate further research into this field, opening new doors and potentially useful technologies that could further humans’ understanding of everything on which our knowledge rests.
" Go Virtual for Safer Online Shopping." PC World 27.11 (2009): 35. MAS Ultra - School Edition. EBSCO.
The field of young entrepreneurs looking to create their own success in the business world is rife with digital and app based start-ups. In fact, if you were to sit down 100 business students and asked them what their big business idea was, odds are plenty of them would take the form of a digitally based product. There is no doubt that success can be found in such realm, history tells us that, but many young entrepreneurs are finding that there is still plenty of life in so-called ‘traditional sectors’.
growth in usage by both consumers and businesses. The unique capabilities of the Internet has captured the attention of the marketing community. While a growing number of companies have or are interested in developing an Internet presence, there is still a great deal of uncertainty about it and the potential ethical issues associated with its use as a marketing medium. Although many businesses are acknowledging the importance of a Web site, but the potential ethical issues related to marketing on the Internet still having an uncertainty in this situation. Much less attention has been given to the business community's perceptions of the ethicalness of this new medium. The unique interactivity of the Internet has captured the marketing community's interest as a way to develop and enhance customer relationships and establish greater brand identity. Thus, many commercial services have become available on the Internet that allow consumers and organizations to interact electronically. These services include booking airline tickets online, buying books and compact discs, and receiving stock market information. Although the number of consumer users and commercial organizations navigating on this "information superhighway" is growing almost exponentially, the benefits of the Internet are not without drawbacks.