Blogroll

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used for many different things, ranging from a tool for collaboration and communication with the aim of completing a task, a means of training, or merely for engaging socially with others.  The article "VLES" touches on the social interactions virtual words can provide.  VLES is a virtual recreation of the lower eat side; its developers believe that the future of interaction won't be built on static and flat web pages but rather in traversable 3D spaces.  In worlds such as this one and Naughty Auties, people engage with other users through conversations that, despite being virtual "you've in fact experienced it as if it were real because in fact it is real."  Thus, an avatar can come across a the avatar of someone in the other side of the world, or even the president of Harvard and have the opportunity to interact with them- something very unlikely in the real world.  Moreover, according to the article "Naughty Auties: Battle Austism with Virtual Interaction" virtual worlds can truly be beneficial to people who need practice with social interaction.  For instance, Naughty Auties was created for those who have autism, and their family and friends, so that they could get out of their shells and interact with others.  Given that virtual worlds bring together people because they "excel at minimizing geographical separations", people are more willing to  leave their comfort zones.  For people with autism engaging with others in this manner can help prepare them to do the same in the real world, thus, fostering social skills.  Despite these advantages, one particular downside to second worlds such as VLES, as claimed by the author, is that the accessibility made possible through virtual worlds detracts its uniqueness.  
Virtual worlds such as VLES and Naughty Auties serve as a platform for socializing and visiting remote places.  Presently virtual worlds are also being used by corporations and for training.  As the article "Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life" mentions one driving force toward this trend is the need to cut costs.  Thus, conferences, meetings and collaboration is being employed through virtual worlds.  There is no longer a need to travel, employees merely create avatars and world directly from their computers with absolutely anyone in there network no matter where they are.  This very idea fosters great creativity because the engaging environments in which they are situated creates a dynamic in which collaboration and exchange os fostered.  
Virtual worlds are also being used by health care facilities for training and simulation.  Once again this is driven by the dramatically lower costs of maintaining virtual worlds versus real simulations.  Nurses can learn much more because anything can happen in these virtual worlds where their responses and treatments are monitored.  Because of this, virtual worlds become more of an "immersive experience" where learning is much richer.  However, despite all the benefits of virtual worlds for health care facilities there are impediments that hinder its success.  It is important for users to have good connections via compatible computers so as to reap the benefits of virtual worlds to its fullest.  This problem can be extended to any type of virtual world, just as the issue that it is a bit difficult to master moving around in them.  Moreover, the fact that these worlds are completely virtual can lead to users feeling isolated.  This is made even more difficult when corporations use virtual worlds because employees need to keep in mind the various organizational and national cultures of other users.  Indeed collaboration and exchange is facilitated, yet, if one is not mindful of these differences collaboration may be hindered.      
Given the increasing popularity and benefits of virtual worlds I think that the issues it faces now will be addressed so as to make them better.  I think the future of virtual worlds will be very profitable.  IBM already sells its virtual world platform, Sametime 3D.  In my opinion virtual interaction will become more personal through actual conversations and not chats.  Maybe there will even be in incorporation of video conferencing to some degree via the use of avatars so that users become more comfortable; this may help users from feeling a lack of human contact.

No comments:

Post a Comment