Comments on: what’s the future of virtual worlds

By: Mera Kranfel

Mera Kranfel — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 07:15:22 +0000

If u can make it work as Ebuddy and connect people to chat that way maybee. I use it instead of watching television. But a lot of ppl are tired (and lazy) and dont have the energy to make an effort to learn this. the learning curve is too steap. But make it a simple way to connect, as msn, and I think ppl would love it. A 3D avatar is a lot more fun to chat around with. I mean u could have it both as a download software but also as a web application for easier use and only chat.

By: Maria Korolov

Maria Korolov — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:44:50 +0000

Ener — I think one misconception people have is that virtual worlds will replace the Web — and get upset when that isn’t happening fast enough. The virtual worlds won’t replace the Web. The flat screen — or page, or cave wall, or clay tablet — is a wonderful way to convey information. It’s not going to go away.

3D, immersive experiences, will be useful when face-to-face interactions are required but not practical. Training, simulations, networking, social interactions — experiences requiring immersive environments, and simultaneous, real-time presence.

In the past, presence was a commodity — everyone was somewhere — and information was valuable and limited. Today, information has become commodified, and we’re getting to the point where everyone has all the information they could possibly want, right at their fingertips.

Instead, presence and attention are the valuable, scarce resources. And virtual worlds help us maximize the use of those resources, by eliminating travel costs and physical infrastructure costs. It will probably take at least a decade before it starts to revolutionalize how we work and interact — and twenty years before it become ubiquitous.

After all, the WWW was invented twenty years ago, and we’re still seeing new disruptive implementations arise — Facebook, Twitter, WikiLeaks. We haven’t come close to mining the Web’s potential, or seeing the full penetration of it into our lives.

– Maria

By: Echelon

Echelon — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:28:26 +0000

@BotGirl: I think you’re quite right, I think I’d label the quality we’re all groping for is “utility” We use email and IM for different modes of communcation, we use the 2D web for gathering and sharing information, whereas we use virtual worlds for ______?

Off the top of my head there’s a couple purposes where virtual worlds can offer good utility. One is social, participatory, entertainment. MMO’s can be thought as good examples of this.

Another is multi-user technical interfaces for utilities like urban planning, CAD/CAM work, architecture, etc. Essentially any task that requires having lots of eyes and hands on a large amount of 3D data.

As for socialization ala Facebook? I doubt virtual worlds will ever be the ultimate ideal for that kind of social netoworking. Different tools for different jobs.

By: Botgirl Questi

Botgirl Questi — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:17:39 +0000

I’m also very skeptical about virtual worlds becoming as commonly used as current mainstream collaboration and social networking tools. The primary benefit of virtual worlds is place-based, embodied immersion, and it is that very immersion that makes it difficult to integrate virtual worlds experience into our unembodied and pervasive net-connected life. Our attention flies seamlessly back and forth between email, multiple social networks, IM, web sites, multimedia, etc. Although it is certainly possible to have a virtual world in a window, unless we are immersed within it, the virtual world offers little benefit over other forms of communication, such as a web-based video conference.

By: Tweets that mention what’s the future of virtual worlds at i live in science land -- Topsy.com

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:10:17 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Maria Korolov and Ener Hax, PDS-Broward Schools . PDS-Broward Schools said: RT @iliveisl what’s the future of virtual worlds http://bit.ly/eKw8b6 [...]

By: Echelon

Echelon — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:48:34 +0000

As you’ve mentioned earlier Ener, Opensim is a toolset. A toolset’s purpose is to put as much raw power and flexibility in the hands of people who know how to narrow it down into something simple and effective. I think that something approaching mainstream adoption provided we begin utilizing the toolset and begin to craft simple, effective services based on the platform. You’re right, most people will gravitate toward what is simpler. There’s a great maxim in design that you know a design is good not when there is nothing more to add, but instead nothing more that needs to be taken away. Most users don’t need mesh import, scripting, or even the ability to create their own clothing.

This is not an argument against the Opensim/SL style model, or even the Hypergrid. There will always be power users who will appreciate the power and flexibility, and they will form the heart of the developer/evangelist community. In fact, creating a simplified experience will bring in passionate individuals who will eventually graduate from the simplified experience to the full one.

The two (and many more, I suspect) models can coexist peacefully, after all the beauty of Opensim/Wonderland/Cobalt/RealXtend is their decentralized nature.

By: Gridjumper

Gridjumper — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:47:07 +0000

First – I would buy that sim on a stick for $30.
Second – “until virtual worlds solve some challenge…. why have a virtual meeting … why send a quick note to a friend…. ?” We should use virtual worlds for what we cannot do as effectively in other ways. (Virtual worlds are an answer – we just may not be sure of the question yet… my hunch is that it lies in research.) How does using virtual worlds make something more effective? Some of the answer to that is in the fact that some things are much too costly and much too dangerous to do any other way. There is some evidence that using VW can be more effective than other methods in counseling, in demonstrating dangerous experiments and in gathering people from remote areas for a role playing experience as professional development… as we take advantage of the virtual environments available, more evidence will emerge and be documented so it is up to the niche demographic to move it along as you do in your blog.