Virtual Worlds Online

1021 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: effect of virtual society

With the advancement of science and technology, the virtual world is gradually seeping into media, marketing, entertainment, and our daily lives. With wide reaching effects on gaming, socializing, education, and military of other things, virtual worlds have exploded in number and presence over the past few years. A virtual world is an interactive simulated environment that can be accessed by multiple users through an online interface (“Virtual World”, 2006). The computer in question accesses a computer-simulated world, presenting various stimuli to the user, who in turn can manipulate the world and experience an 'electronic presence'. Despite the vast differences between virtual worlds and their applications, a few features are shared; these include the shared space, the graphical user interface, immediacy, interactivity, persistence, and socialization (“Virtual World”, 2006). Examples of these virtual worlds include online games, chat rooms, and virtual classrooms. Virtual worlds are used in a variety of ways. Two currently popular virtual worlds include the game World of Warcraft and an online simulation of life called Second Life. World of Warcraft is a fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) made by Blizzard Entertainment. In this game, people control characters within the games world, where they interact with other players, fight, perform certain missions, explore the virtual world, and gain points for their activities. Unlike World of Warcraft, Second Life is a simulation of real life. It cannot be clearly classified as a game as there are no points awarded and hence no winners. In this virtual world, people form a character or avatar and essentially live life in this new world, carrying out the v... ... middle of paper ... ....” Business Week. Available from: www.businessweek.com. Accessed: February 26, 2008. Mihaly, Matt. 2006. “Virtual World Business Models Part 2.” The Forge. Available from: http://forge.ironrealms.com. Accessed: March 1, 2008. Second Life. 2008. “What is Second Life.” Linden Research Inc. Available from: www.secondlife.com. Accesed: March 1, 2008. Virtual Worlds Management. 2007. “$425 Million Invested in 15 Virtual World Companies in 4th Quarter 2007. Show Initiative. Available from: www.virtualworldsmanagement.com. Accessed: March 1, 2008. Virtual Worlds Review. 2006. “What is a Virtual World.” Creative Commons. Available from: www.virtualworldsreview.com. Accessed: March 1, 2008. Wiley, James. 2008. “WoW Surpasses 10 million Subscribers, Now Half the Size of Australia.” Joystiq. Available From: www.joystiq.com. Accessed: February 26, 2008.

Show More
Related

  • The Reality Of Virtual Reality

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    The term Virtual Reality is a very unique way of bringing life to a world which doesn't even exist. There are many ways by which people have been trying to bring in the consent of the audience and to grab their interest. The history of virtual reality is marvelous in terms of what it was and what it is now. When before 1960s virtual reality existed, it was popular with the term "Pygmalion's Spectacles". Then there was "View-Master" a device in which there was a circular disc having small pictures in it and to view these pictures a person has to use a viewer where he places the disc inside of the designated place and then view in the direction of light. Then from the year 2000 onwards there were many platforms

    Read More

  • People's Obsession With MUDs

    2059 Words  | 5 Pages

    In addition to creating an identity, your virtual character can converse with others, exchange gestures, express emotions and rise and fall in popularity. You can even die in a MUD (Turkle 183). Essentially, you can be who or whatever you want, and you can say anything because your character exists only in cyberspace, as does everyone else who you encounter.

    Read More

  • The Benefits Of Virtual Reality

    1814 Words  | 4 Pages

    The purpose of this paper is to explain how virtual reality is used in everyday life. It is used in many ways in today's society. Several people immediately think of video games or entertainment when they hear virtual reality. Virtual reality is not only used for entertainment purposes but it is also used for medical and educational purposes. It can help people overcome their fears, deal with and treat social anxiety, and it can also be a helpful teaching tool to connect students and teachers in long-distance learning.

    Read More

  • Robert Nozick's Experiment, The Experience Machine and the Inclusion of Meta-Pleasure

    712 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...xperience machine, it would still seem that people should not want to log on to second life when they could be experiencing things in reality. However, Second Life boasts that millions of accounts have been created (Second Life Official Site). It remains to be said just why they are doing this, but it appears that the conclusion one could draw from this is that virtual experiences do have meaning to us, insofar as people will choose them over certain real life experiences.

    Read More

  • The Matrix

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Works Cited The Matrix. Larry Wachowski, DVD, Warner Brothers, 1999; Bruskman, Amy. "Finding One's Own in Cyberspace" Composing Cyberspace Edited by Rich Holeton, San Fransisco: McGraw Hill, 1998, 171-180 Rheingold, Howard. " The Heart of the Well" " Composing Cyberspace Edited by Rich Holeton, San Fransisco: McGraw Hill, 1998, 151-163

    Read More

  • Do Video Games Promote Social Interactions?

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    The traditional way of socializing limits our ability to meet other people around the world. Virtual interactions offers a more possible means to communicate in today's society. Furthermore, the growth of the video game community such as in the genre of MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) allows for a high level medium that enable individuals to create small factions and perform social interactions. According to Bishop, "The existence of such communities is often brought about by people who share similar goals, beliefs or values, with such commonality forming the basis of an agreement to form and sustain a virtual existence" (1). Having shared similar goals...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Virtual Reality

    4240 Words  | 9 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Growing Popularity of Role-playing Games

    1601 Words  | 4 Pages

    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:

    Read More

  • The Dangers of Online Dating

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    Individuals may feel isolated from society wether it be due to their sexuality, likes, or dislikes, and the virtual world is an area they do not feel like they have to conform to certain ...

    Read More

  • Virtual Reality In The Classroom Essay

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    Teachers report how their role in the classroom is getting different with each year, instead of being a teacher who gives the answers, teachers have found themselves as a support for students which help them build ideas and how to get information from various sources (Youngbut, 1998). The advantages of virtual reality in educational system is that it enables large groups of students to interact with each other as well as within the virtual environment. It is able to present complicated subjects in an accessible way to students which is rewarding, fun and easy to access.

    Read More

  • Virtual Reality and the Gaming Industry

    1378 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Virtual Reality Becomes Reality in Today’s Generation

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    For today’s generation, virtual reality has become all too real in our everyday lives. Modern technology has almost replaced our generation’s physical social lives, is has left many basic skills unlearned, and has ultimately become a physical part of us. We rely on text messaging and email to keep in touch. We almost always have a device with us or near us at all times, and the simple tasks that require basic skills to complete cannot be completed without using a device, because most of the knowledge needed to complete them is left unlearned. Everywhere we go, and everything we do seems to involve technology, and the effects technology has on this generation, are all but small.

    Read More

  • Essay on Benefits and Dangers of Virtual Reality

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although still in its, infancy, virtual reality will have a substantial effect on our future way of life. Virtual reality already has made astounding progress in the world of commercial design, and it is predicted to have a tremendous impact on everyday life as well. Virtual reality, when more available, will have various uses ranging from recreation to basic communication. The applications of virtual reality into different fields of occupations and research will have both positive and negative effects on our society.

    Read More

  • Internet - Virtual Education is the Future of Learning

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    All of our lives, we have gone through school learning with many other students in a classroom, and using books. But what if things were to change? What if instead of getting up to go to school, we simply had to just turn our computers on. Virtual Education is becoming a new way to teach and learn. Using computers, students can interact with other students and instructors, go to a history lecture with people all across the world, and even dissect frogs.

    Read More

  • Essay About Virtual Reality

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Virtual Worlds Online

Open Document