Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

There are virtual worlds at almost every corner of the internet, yet many people do not know much about them. They are, however, catching on with astonishing speed. We often hear about Second Life, which is a virtual world where people try to recreate real life, make friends, and build communities. This is only one way these worlds can be used. There is another side to these virtual worlds called MMOs or Massive Multiplayer Online Games. In these games there is a huge world, custome avatares, and tons and things to do, from minning for ore to battling dragons. These are almost all based in fatasy and offer an extra-realaity exerience for the user. Other virtual worlds exist but in almost every case the main focus is virtual colaboration. These people are still communicating with other humans, just virually.

The benefits of these world are almost endless. People can make friends, have fun, learn, and even find a mate or spouse. They help those with disablities fitin and feel accepted. In the article "Naughty Auties battle autism with virtual interactions", Nicole Saidi explains how people with autism use Second Life (a virutal world) to overcome communication problems and make friends. Also, in the article "I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life", Dave Itzkoff relates the story of young people hanging out in virtual representation of real bars in the lower east side of New York City because the real club was crowded. This is just two examples of how these worlds can be beneficial. There is however a good and bad in all things and virutal worlds are no different. People get addicted to these online worlds and slowly loose touch with reality. They replace good human friendships with virtual ones and become hermits, living in there rooms while ording in food all the time. It is also a huge waste of time if you weight that time and realize what you coul dhave accomplished if you have used that time more effectivly.

These worlds help us analyize our world and find what is bad and good about it. It also helps people think outside the box and find new ways to collaberate. In the future I think that these virtual worlds will be used for everything from sex, to military training, to cooking classes. There really is not limit to wat they can be used for.

ArcPolitic