They can be used to creatively express yourself. It can be an escape from real life, and allow you to experience things you maybe cant experience in real life through avatars. Virtual worlds allow you to create a fantasy world and express your desires. For example in the article "In Room 100, It’s Sid and Nancy All Over Again" by Saki Knafo they used second life to keep the spirit of their beloved hotel alive after it underwent massive changes thanks to new management. People had the desire to have the hotel live on and they were able to achieve this through a virtual world. People were able to visit and do all sorts of hotel like activities on the net. Thats what makes this type of technology so appealing becuase people can create a world they want, or keep an old reality alive online.
What are the pros and cons?
Pros: There are many positives about virtual worlds like the freedom to express yourself. You can be anyone you want to be, and create a whole new second life the way you want. Some people are unhappy with their reality and a virtual world can serve as an escape for some people.
Cons: Unfortunately there are some sick people in the world and things that are meant for good clean fun turn into something ugly and dangerous. These virtual worlds are what you make of them, and people can sometimes make them into something horrible. Like for example in the movie Gamer that was recently released, it was all about the virtual world. Some people used these games to hurt others, or express sick fantasies. People use these virtual worlds for different reasons and the reasons are not always positive.
How do virtual worlds foster creativity?
These virtual worlds allow you to pick your own avatar, create the world you want to live in...it allows you to fully express yourself. The world and the character you create is all your own which fosters creativity in and of itself. If you really want to enjoy the virtual world experience you have to be creative to make this world all your own.
What do you think the future of virtual worlds will look like?
I think just like all other types of new media it will continue to grow in popularity and improve. People are always looking for the latest and greatest and if this is a new trend people are going to want the technology to constantly be upgraded. Maybe in the future there will be a way to actually feel what the avatar is feeling or find a way to make the experience more real than just controlling an avatar on the screen. There are already movies about future virtual world technologies, i'm sure safety would be an issue, but i'm sure soon enough virtual worlds will continue to be upgraded and constantly improved.
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