Virtual world
Communication between users can range from text, graphical icons, visual gesture, sound, and rarely, forms using touch, voice command, and balance senses.
[12] Virtual worlds are not limited to games but, depending on the degree of immediacy presented, can encompass computer conferencing and text-based chatrooms.
[14][15] In the twentieth century, the cinematographer Morton Heilig explored the creation of the Sensorama, a theatre experience designed to stimulate the senses of the audience—vision, sound, balance, smell, even touch (via wind)—and so draw them more effectively into the productions.
Contemporary virtual worlds, in particular the multi-user online environments, emerged mostly independently of this research, fueled instead by the gaming industry but drawing on similar inspiration.
While the designers have a great deal of control over the economy by the encoded mechanics of trade, it is nonetheless the actions of players that define the economic conditions of a virtual world.
The economy arises as a result of the choices that players make under the scarcity of real and virtual resources such as time or currency.
The choices they make in their interaction with the virtual world, along with the mechanics of trade and wealth acquisition, dictate the relative values of items in the economy.
It gives the individual the ability to be free from social norms, family pressures or expectations they may face in their personal real world lives.
While greatly facilitating ease of interaction across time and geographic boundaries, the virtual world presents an unreal environment with instant connection and gratification.
While in real life individuals hesitate to communicate their true opinions, it is easier to do so online because they do not ever have to meet the people they are talking with (Toronto, 2009).
The test subjects, though, were generally unfamiliar with the virtual world interface, likely leading to some impaired navigation, and thus bias in the yielded analysis of the experiments.
The study concluded that the interface objects made natural navigation movements impossible, and perhaps less intrusive controls for the virtual environment would reduce the effect of the impairment.
Even those users who do make use of HIDs which provide such features as six degrees of freedom often have to switch between separate 3D and 2D devices in order to navigate their respectively designed interfaces.
However, in part for this reason, a growing number of virtual world engines, especially serving children, are entirely browser-based requiring no software down loads or specialized computer hardware.
This can be much more constructive, emotionally satisfying and mentally fulfilling than passive pastimes such as television watching, playing computer games, reading or more conventional types of internet use.
[53] The Starlight Children's Foundation helps hospitalized children (suffering from painful diseases or autism for example) to create a comfortable and safe environment which can expand their situation, experience interactions (when the involvement of a multiple cultures and players from around the world is factored in) they may not have been able to experience without a virtual world, healthy or sick.
As there has been an increase in the buying and selling of products online (e-commerce) this twinned with the rise in the popularity of the internet, has forced businesses to adjust to accommodate the new market.
With the introduction of the prospect of commercial success within a Virtual World, companies can reduce cost and time constraints by keeping this "in-house".
However, if needed to, rule breakers can be punished with fines being payable through their virtual bank account, alternatively a players suspension may be put into effect.
At one level, a more or less realistic rendered 3D space like the game world of Halo 3 or Grand Theft Auto V is just as much a big database as Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia.
It allows users to be able to carry out tasks that could be difficult in the real world due to constraints and restrictions, such as cost, scheduling or location.
[66][67] Virtual worlds allow users with specific needs and requirements to access and use the same learning materials from home as they would receive if they were physically present.
Some virtual worlds also offer an environment where simulation-based activities and games allow users to experiment various phenomenon and learn the underlying physics and principles.
Examples have included the use of Second Life for teaching English as a foreign languages (EFL)[68] Many specialist types of MUVLE have particular pedagogies associated with them.
For instance, George Siemens, Stephen Downes continue to promote the use of a type of MUVLE Dave Cormier coined[69] called a 'MOOC'.
[citation needed] Some companies and public places allow free virtual access to their facilities as an alternative to a video or picture.
Dewdney's novel, the Planiverse (1984), college students create a virtual world called 2DWorld, leading to contact with Arde, a two-dimensional parallel universe.
The main focus of the Japanese cyberpunk, psychological, 13-episode anime titled Serial Experiments Lain (1998) is the Wired, a virtual reality world that governs the sum of all electronic communication and machines; outer receptors are used to mentally transport a person into the Wired itself as a uniquely different virtual avatar.
Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel, Gaspard in the Morning (1992), is the story of an individual immersed in the virtual world of a massively multiplayer online game.
A South Korean sci-fi fantasy film Wonderland, is about a virtual simulated place for people to reunite with a person they may not meet again, by using artificial intelligence.
