Virtual Worlds have been around for sometime now and one of the interesting features of these worlds are the ability to redefine who you are. We go about our daily lives going to work or school and then spending the rest of our time with friends and family who know who we are and how we act. Virtual worlds allow us the opportunity to create a persona and have them meet with other people around the world and communicate or play together most of the time in a carefree environment. Some of the biggest virtual worlds people could name are Second Life, Minecraft, and World of Warcraft.
These virtual worlds are helpful to some people with social anxiety because it allows them to interact with people in a stress free environment. If anything should go wrong for example in a virtual world the person could just log out or change servers. If something goes wrong in real life however the consequences are very real and could last a lifetime. It allows people to relieve stress and it helps them be more creative in some cases such as minecraft.
A good amount of users of these virtual worlds are children who like to explore and be creative without limitations. In many cases these kids can create almost anything if they can imagine it. These virtual worlds can also help a company hold meetings and get creative ideas out. These worlds allow the employees to save travel time and money and in addition these meetings can be held anywhere in the online world. Places such as a bar or ski resort can be used as a conference room where the employees feel more relaxed and they are more likely to engage more with their co-workers.
These virtual worlds can also be used for team building exercises. If we take a group of employees and divided them up, put them in teams and have them play against each other they have to learn how to work together. It allows people to build trust and companionship by pitting them against a common foe which in this case is the opposite team. These virtual worlds can be addicting in some cases where people get so involved in their online persona or their online game that it starts to take over their real life responsibilities.
With new technology coming out such as virtual reality glasses and things like that the most likely step forward would be plugging ourselves into the internet itself. In the future we might be able to actually become our online personas and live for a while online. It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel but the truth is that soon fiction might become reality
Sources:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/#57945f3f143b
http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html
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