Modeling Virtual Reality and Virtual Worlds

One way virtual worlds can be used is in the business world. They can use virtual worlds to hold meetings with people of other companies from around the world that saves a lot of travel time and money. "Parmar told CNN that he recently held a meeting with 12 technical leaders from across Europe and Asia. While that would typically involve flying everyone to a central location, he said the meeting was held using the new Sametime 3D." (Tutton, Going to the virtual office in second life). I think it's a more convenient way to interact with one another to share ideas. The virtual world also allows you to store files in them using "dropbox" and you can also work on projects together using "basecamp". It saves a lot of time having to travel to a specific location. Also, for people who are shy, perhaps using virtual world is more comfortable for them. A negative side to this is that it isn't the real world and certain expressions and conversations may be misrepresented in the real world as we aren't actually seeing the other person face to face. 


Another way it can be used is social networking. It's like a new way to socialize. People can use websites such as secondlife.com or ivmu.com. People can get away from the real world and join virtual communities and use their avatars to even buy products that they would never buy in the real world. “Ms. Rayna, an avatar on Second Life, and her free-spending cohort can quaff Champagne, teleport to private islands and splurge on luxury brands that are the cyber equivalent of Prada waders or a Rolex watch. Real-world consumers may have snapped shut their wallets.” ( Ferla, No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the real you). It's like creating your own world that you want. The bad thing about this is that people may get tool carried away with this and spend too much time and money on their avatar. 


I think virtual worlds do foster creativity. Especially in the gaming world such as role playing games where players can interact with each other online such as Warcraft, creators have to come up with new ideas to attract consumers to buy and play their games and keep them from other competitors. 


I think the future of the virtual world can be something like we see in the movie Avatar where we maybe can control it using our mind with a headset. That's a neat idea although I don't know if it's possible or if I am watching too many movies. In the social networking aspect I think these virtual world websites can possibly replace facebook or myspace and instead of having our own profile page perhaps everyone will have their avatars and socialize through these virtual worlds.