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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007) |
A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical) representations, although other forms are possibleBiocca 1995, p. 40-44 (auditoryBegault 1994 and touch sensations for example). Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users.
The computer accesses a computer-simulated world and presents perceptual stimuli to the user, who in turn can manipulate elements of the modeled world and thus experiences telepresence to a certain degree.Biocca 1995, p. 41,47 Such modeled worlds may appear similar to the real world or instead depict fantasy worlds. The model world may simulate rules based on the real world or some hybrid fantasy world. Example rules are gravity, topography, locomotion, real-time actions, and communication. Communication between users has ranged from text, graphical icons, visual gesture, sound, and rarely, forms using touch and balance senses.
Massively multiplayer online games commonly depict a world similar to the real world, with real world rules and real-time actions, and communication. Communication is usually textual, with real-time voice communication using VOIP also possible.[clarify]
Virtual worlds are not limited to games but, depending on the degree of immediacy presented, can encompass computer conferencing and text based chatrooms.Biocca 1995, p. 47
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The concept of virtual worlds predates computers and could be traced in some sense to Pliny.Biocca 1995, p. 6-8 The mechanical-based 1962 Sensorama machine used the senses of vision, sound, balance, smells and touch (via wind) to simulate its world. Among the earliest virtual worlds to be implemented by computers were not games but generic virtual reality simulators, such as Ivan Sutherland\'s 1968 virtual reality device. This form of virtual reality is characterized by bulky headsets and other types of sensory input simulation. Contemporary virtual worlds, multi-user online virtual environments, emerged mostly independently of this virtual reality technology research, fueled instead by the gaming industry but drawing on similar inspiration.Castronova 2005 While classic sensory-imitating virtual reality relies on tricking the perceptual system into experiencing an imersive environment, virtual worlds typically rely on mentally and emotionally engaging content which gives rise to an immersive experience.
The first virtual worlds presented on the Internet were communities and chat rooms, some of which evolved into MUDs and MUSHes. MUDs, short for “Multi User Dungeons,” are examples of virtual worlds that consist of virtual space inhabited by representations of data and other users Mitchell, Don. “From MUDs To Virtual Worlds”, Microsoft Research, March 23, 1995. Accessed February 28, 2008. . Early virtual worlds were text-based, offering limited graphical representation, and often using a Command Line Interface.
Some early prototyptes were WorldsAway, a prototype interactive communities featuring a virtual world by CompuServe called Dreamscape, Cityspace, an educational networking and 3D computer graphics project for children, and The Palace, a 2-dimensional community driven virtual world. However, credit for the first online virtual world usually goes to Habitat, developed in 1987 by LucasFilm Games for the Commodore 64 computer, and running on the Quantum Link service (the precursor to America Online).[citation needed]
In 1996, the city of Helsinki, Finland with Helsinki Telephone Company (since Elisa Group) launched what was called the first online virtual 3D depiction intended to map an entire city. The Virtual Helsinki project was eventually renamed Helsinki Arena 2000 project and parts of the city in modern and historical context were rendered in 3D.[citation needed]
One perception of virtual worlds requires an online persistent world, active and available 24 hours a day and seven days a week, to qualify as a true virtual world.[citation needed] Although this is possible with smaller virtual worlds, especially those that are not actually online, no massively multiplayer game runs all day, every day. All the online games listed above[clarify] include downtime for maintenance that is not included as time passing in the virtual world. While the interaction with other participants is done in real-time, time consistency is not always maintained in online virtual worlds. For example, EverQuest time passes faster than real-time despite using the same calendar and time units to present game time.
As virtual world is a fairly vague and inclusive term, the above can generally be divided along a spectrum ranging from:
Some would argue the the MMO versions of RTS and FPS games are also virtual worlds if the world editors, such as GtkRadiant allow for open editing of the terrains if the "source file" for the terrain is shared. Emerging concepts include basing the terrain of such games on real satellite photos, such as those available through the Google Maps API or through a simple virtual geocaching of "easter eggs" on WikiMapia or similar mashups, where permitted.
Virtual worlds are well-known as being fantasy spaces sealed off from the real world, but more careful analysis reveals that the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds is quite porous. Participants constantly arrive and depart from the world, carrying with them their unique set of behavioral assumptions and attitudes that cannot be disentangled from their interactions in the virtual world.Castronova 2005[clarify] For example, in virtual worlds which bring together players from multiple cultural backgrounds, a participant in a virtual world brings their own cultural preconceptions about those other cultures across the boundary into the world while playing. The term magic circle has been used to describe the imaginary barrier between the virtual world and the real world. The fantasy environment of the virtual world is protected from the intrusion of real life by this magic circle, but practices such as the sale of virtual items and virtual currency for real life currency challenges this separation while reinforcing the notion that objects in the virtual world have real life value. In a 2001 study by Edward Castronova, the value of the currency in the MMORPG Everquest was evaluated based on its exchange rate at USD 0.0107, making this unit of virtual currency of higher value than the Yen or the Lira.Castronova 2001
A virtual economy is the emergent property of the interaction between participants in a virtual world. 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.Castronova 2005[clarify] Participants have a limited time in the virtual world, as in the real world, which they must divide between task such as collecting resources, practicing trade skills, or engaging in less productive fun play. 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. The economy in virtual worlds is typically driven by in-game needs such as equipment, food, or trade goods. Virtual economies like that of Secondlife, however, are almost entirely player-produced with very little link to in-game needs.
The value of objects in a virtual economy is usually linked to their usefulness and the difficulty of obtaining them. The investment of real world resources (time, membership fees, etc) in acquisition of wealth in a virtual economy may contribute to the real world value of virtual objects.Castronova 2005[clarify] This real world value is made obvious by the trade of virtual items on online market sites like eBay. Recent legal disputes also acknowledge the value of virtual property, even overriding the mandatory EULA which many software companies use to establish that virtual property has no value and/or that users of the virtual world have no legal claim to property thereinSinrod, Eric J. “Virtual world litigation for real”, “Cnet News”, June 13, 2007. Accessed March 6, 2008..
Some single-player games contain virtual worlds populated by non-player characters. Many of these allow you to save the current state of this world instance to allow stopping and restarting the virtual world at a later date. (This can be done with some multiplayer environments as well.)
The virtual worlds found in video games are often split into discrete levels.
In principle, virtual worlds represent a powerful new media for instruction and education. Persistence allows for continuing and growing social interactions, which themselves can serve as a basis for collaborative education. Virtual world platforms can also provide a foundation for serious games, intended to instruct and illuminate. Some virtual world platforms also provide support for simulation based instruction, increasingly recognized as a powerful new computer enabled approach to learning. Finally, virtual worlds can provide new methods for learning evaluation and teacher professional development, including embedded assessment and teacher training linked directly to student performance.
A growing number of educational institutions are exploring existing general purpose virtual world platforms as a means to extend and enhance their offerings to students. Typically, educators create an online presence where students can interact, using their avatars to learn about new assignments or create projects that are viewable within the virtual world. For example, students taking a computer manufacturing class can log into a virtual world in which they are the inhabitants of a burgeoning village that needs their expertise for the construction of houses, furniture, machines, and other goods. An example of such a program is AWEDU, a project started by Active Worlds, Inc. A number of educational institutions are now running virtual classrooms and discussion sections in worlds like Second LifeSussman, Beth. “Teachers, college students lead a Second Life”, USA TODAY, August 1, 2007. Accessed February 28, 2008..
The concept of a virtual world has become a popular fictional motif and setting in recent years, although science-fiction writers have been portraying similar ideas (for example, cyberspace) for decades. Among the most prominent virtual worlds in the literature is the ones written about by William Gibson. Virtual worlds were prominent in such movies and books as TRON, Neuromancer, The Lawnmower Man, The Lawnmower Man 2, Epic, Snow Crash, and Ghost in the Shell. There are many other examples of the virtual world; for example Lyoko in the French animated television series Code Lyoko.
A popular example of a virtual world in fiction is from the movie series The Matrix, a virtual reality so realistic that the great majority of those humans plugged in think they are living in the real world and do not know that they are living in a virtual world.
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