A Progression of Virtual Worlds
Rob Resma -- December 2014
As virtual worlds developed, they became more and more like real worlds. One of the similarities between virtual worlds and the real world are the activities in which you can partake. In a tour of the Virtual World Second Life, Karyne Levy, a writer for Business Insider was led by Judy around the world while interviewing her about the evolution of the world. Judy had been an active Second Life User since 2004 and spent an enormous amount of time on the game since it first came out. Judy addresses a plethora of points about virtual worlds like Second Life.
One of the main desires from users when Second Life came out was meeting people. Second Life provides a medium in which people can interact with other. The Internet today connects this world together, and meeting someone thousands of miles away in another corner of the world provides an appeal to the people who use these virtual worlds.
As virtual worlds increasingly developed to simulate actual life in the real world, the creators’ focuses diverged. In Second Life, a lot of the events are related to nightclubs and escorts. In other games, social interaction extended its original chat room capabilities to a virtual entertainment industry. As shown below, virtual worlds such as Sim City or Second Life offer features besides a simple method to chat with others. People can partake in activities such as sports, sky diving, swimming, and clubbing.
Because all these applications have a demand, the creators thought it brilliant to add currency to these virtual worlds. In Second Life, people who have premium accounts can buy land and then rent it, just like you can in the real world. In other games, what you can buy is not just limited to land. Players can buy accessories for their avatar, upgrades to weapons, or services not offered to regular players.
Some services offered in the virtual world include activities to do that you would not do in the real world. In Second Life, you can go skydiving, pole dancing, dance like a star, climb mountains, and other activities that could be dangerous, frowned upon, adrenaline rushing, or even impossible in the real world. This is another appeal for people who work in these worlds.
In the early days of virtual worlds, these features were only visibly tangible. As technology developed, new devices were created that allowed for interaction with senses besides sight alone. The Oculus Rift is a device created in 2012 that allowed for users to experience a virtual world both visually and audibly. The device works by putting on a helmet. On the front of the helmet a user can view 180 degrees of the world. When a user turns his head, the screen copies the user’s movements and adjusts the view accordingly. This brings another dimension to a virtual world that makes it seem even more real than it is. In 2014, the company Virtuix created Omni, a virtual treadmill that copies a user’s movements in such a way that allows a user to walk or run in a virtual world. Combined with the Oculus Rift, a user can now walk around and experience the world as if he were actually immersed in it.
Looking back at the progress virtual worlds has gone through, we notice that the focus of the creators was to bring numerous users across the world together. As time progressed, the capabilities of technology gave the creators more power to create worlds with features from the real world. Because creators increasingly made virtual worlds resemble the real world, people were drawn to these worlds, taking advantage of the fact that they could do things in these worlds that they would not regularly be able to do. Virtual reality gave people an escape where they could be whomever they want to be. The question creators wrestle with now is: what’s next? It’s both scary and exciting to imagine the possibilities of the future. In a decade, the virtual world community moved from interacting on a chat messaging system to virtually walking up to them and talking to them via an Oculus Rift / Omnia combo.
One of the main desires from users when Second Life came out was meeting people. Second Life provides a medium in which people can interact with other. The Internet today connects this world together, and meeting someone thousands of miles away in another corner of the world provides an appeal to the people who use these virtual worlds.
As virtual worlds increasingly developed to simulate actual life in the real world, the creators’ focuses diverged. In Second Life, a lot of the events are related to nightclubs and escorts. In other games, social interaction extended its original chat room capabilities to a virtual entertainment industry. As shown below, virtual worlds such as Sim City or Second Life offer features besides a simple method to chat with others. People can partake in activities such as sports, sky diving, swimming, and clubbing.
Because all these applications have a demand, the creators thought it brilliant to add currency to these virtual worlds. In Second Life, people who have premium accounts can buy land and then rent it, just like you can in the real world. In other games, what you can buy is not just limited to land. Players can buy accessories for their avatar, upgrades to weapons, or services not offered to regular players.
Some services offered in the virtual world include activities to do that you would not do in the real world. In Second Life, you can go skydiving, pole dancing, dance like a star, climb mountains, and other activities that could be dangerous, frowned upon, adrenaline rushing, or even impossible in the real world. This is another appeal for people who work in these worlds.
In the early days of virtual worlds, these features were only visibly tangible. As technology developed, new devices were created that allowed for interaction with senses besides sight alone. The Oculus Rift is a device created in 2012 that allowed for users to experience a virtual world both visually and audibly. The device works by putting on a helmet. On the front of the helmet a user can view 180 degrees of the world. When a user turns his head, the screen copies the user’s movements and adjusts the view accordingly. This brings another dimension to a virtual world that makes it seem even more real than it is. In 2014, the company Virtuix created Omni, a virtual treadmill that copies a user’s movements in such a way that allows a user to walk or run in a virtual world. Combined with the Oculus Rift, a user can now walk around and experience the world as if he were actually immersed in it.
Looking back at the progress virtual worlds has gone through, we notice that the focus of the creators was to bring numerous users across the world together. As time progressed, the capabilities of technology gave the creators more power to create worlds with features from the real world. Because creators increasingly made virtual worlds resemble the real world, people were drawn to these worlds, taking advantage of the fact that they could do things in these worlds that they would not regularly be able to do. Virtual reality gave people an escape where they could be whomever they want to be. The question creators wrestle with now is: what’s next? It’s both scary and exciting to imagine the possibilities of the future. In a decade, the virtual world community moved from interacting on a chat messaging system to virtually walking up to them and talking to them via an Oculus Rift / Omnia combo.
Milestones in Virtual World Development (SLIDESHOW):
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