Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are a hopeful attempt to simulate real life. These virtual worlds can be used in many ways. One use is to simulate something that can't be done in real life by certain individuals, like paraplegics. These people are bound home for most of their lives because of their physical incapabilities, so some of them become anti social. Through virtual worlds these people can communicate and converge with others who may or may not be in the same situation, regardless the point is that they communicate.

Another obvious way virtual worlds can be used is simply for entertainment, World of Warcraft is a n MMORPG, which is basically a virtual world in a video game form. The point of the game is that it never ends, you start off as weak and lonely, you can advance your stats by beating others and collecting items, you can build relationships with others.

Virtual worlds have many positive ways in which they can be used. One pro of virtual worlds is that they genuinely do help some people do things that others can in real life, but they are incapable of, like paraplegics. They can go out at night and have fun with others through this virtual reality. Another pro of virtual worlds is how they take social networking to the next level. Like Dave Itzkoff's "I've been to that club, just not in real life" states, the future of social networking is not in 2D planes like Facebook or Twitter, it's in 3D virtual worlds, where one can navigate in and converge with others. Yet another pro of virtual worlds is illustrated in Mark Tutton's "Going to the virtual office in Second Life," Mark states how virtual worlds can reduce overhead for multinational companies. Employees don't have to book flights to meet in person to develop ideas, through virtual worlds, employees from around the globe can meet up and discuss ideas through a fresh new platform. Employees can brainstorm while walking around in the park or have a beer at the bar, it is definitely a new approach to business interaction, which is a lot more engaging that video conferences, which definitely inspires creativity.

The big con of virtual worlds is that some may become too involved in them and detach themselves from the real world. The idea of being all you can be is a lot easier to implement in a virtual world than in the real world, because there are a lot less obstacles. Thus some may prefer to constantly "live" in the virtual world rather than in the real world, which may lead so serious psychological problems.

In virtual worlds there are no physical boundaries, anybody can be or do anything, there is a certain incentive to be creative with that. The lack of regulations and governmental laws give a new approach to how people view things, which in my opinion, fosters creativity.

In the future, through technological advancements, virtual worlds will look a lot better. With a lot less lag and more realistic graphics, people will become even more engaged. Virtual worlds are definitely one of the future medias that will take social networking to the next level.