Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Wow! Have I been living under a rock? I had no idea the extent or existence of Virtual Worlds until now. Virtual Worlds are being used for various reasons and various ways, and it is so interesting. In the article, “In Room 100, its Sid and Nancy All Over Again” they explain how they are using virtual worlds to recreate the Hotel Chelsea. The hotel was remodeled and lost a lot of its history. As a result, someone re-created exactly the old hotel and people can go there to interact as their virtual character. There are even poetry readings that are held in this “hotel”. This is great way for people sharing in the same interest to interact and be able to hold on to something that no longer exists. In the article “Toys with a Second Life” we see that of course this idea is being used to make money.  Many toy companies, such as Mattel are creating a life for the toys that they create. Children are able to not only play with their toys and buy them things in real life, but now they can also do this via a virtual world – and it is very successful.

            As far as I can see the virtual world creates a lot of positive things. After watching the YouTube video that the professor posted, it really means a lot to some people. People who have disabilities physical or emotional use virtual worlds to interact with people and they get to do things they could never do. This is amazing. One could argue that a con of a virtual world would be that you do not get to have contact with real a person which is critical to your social skills. However, for some people who cannot leave the house because of a physical disability, that is not the case. This is their only opportunity to interact with people and do things that they could never do otherwise.  The possibility of creativity is endless. You can create a virtual world for anything and create the characters using many different features. As far as the future of virtual worlds, I think we are going to see a huge boom of them. The graphics and technology are definitely going to get much more sophisticated with time. I also think many professions and companies as well as government will be using these worlds to better perform their jobs and train people for these jobs.