Serious Virtual Worlds

Second Life has taken our head space. We think of virtual worlds in terms of the wall of press, blog, pod, and enthusiastic dork coverage that washes, Linden spun, every day into that personal space.
I have news for you – it is nowhere near the only game in town.
There is NO way that Linden are going to be allowed to own this new frontier. The big boys are now quietly putting down their glasses in the saloon, getting calmly out of their chairs and walking into Main Street eyes narrowed and hands on their……wallets.
You want proof? Shade your eyes. MTV, just a fantastically popular and profitable global music channel, is into virtual worlds. Not once, but twice.
Where? It links its virtual worlds to its existing hyper successful programme properties. You have never heard of Laguna Beach? Virtual Laguna Beach with 300,000 users in almost 10 weeks as a professional perhaps you do need to pay attention. And not only are they doing it with Laguna Beach they are doing it again with Virtual The Hills. Not heard of that property. Oh dear. And much more Compared to unfettered, user-generated worlds like Second Life, There.com gives users much less leeway to create their own objects, but it runs more smoothly, looks prettier, and gives developers tighter control over the economy and behavior of visitors - it was a perfect fit for MTV.
So what is the play here. What we are seeing here is the sharding of the monolithic myth promoted by Second Life. That is that everything is available in one virtual place.
Well as in the RW (Real World) you know and I know that it isn’t. The world is not monolithic socially. We choose and have chosen for us our social environments. I have nothing in common with France’s extreme right Jean Marie La Pen and the idea that my kids would be in the same Second Life space as this guy is extraordinary. But he is there now. What next Kim Jong-il from North Korea?
My prediction. As in the RW we will join virtual social worlds that are custom built to mesh with our own social preferences. We do this now anyway in the RW by choosing where we live, where we socialize, where we send our kids to school, so we should not be surprised.
The VW(Virtual World) is here to stay and we will choose custom built worlds that fit our social needs. So just relax.
[Disclosure: Ambient is the partner in Europe of Forterra the original developer of There.com and the only supplier of virtual world platforms that you can customize.]

dick(dot)davies(at)ambientperformance.com

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One of my big problems in starting off this blog in this emerging Serious Virtual Worlds space was how to ground it in something that was happening now that would illustrate the reality of virtuality.

VATSIM ,Virtual Air Traffic Simulation, operates 24/7. It running now as you read this piece with real pilots flying virtual planes on virtual routes between real destinations being managed by real air traffic controllers.

Surf over to VATSIM and load the Visual Display (you will need Java installed) from under NETWORK. The map is crowded with planes: move your cursor over the map and you will see their routes displayed.

And who is in this world? Travis Faudree, a professional charter pilot, considers himself to be pretty safe behind the controls. But every now and then he likes the challenge of flying into nasty weather--and when he gets that itch, he turns to one place. …Lousy weather, such as low ceilings or visibility--fog, snow, rain--seems to attract virtual pilots, said Faudree, who is from Hilton Head, S.C. For instance, the last noreaster that moved up the East Coast of the U.S...pilots on VatSim pretty much followed its path from night to night. One night, Miami was very busy. The next, Jacksonville, all the way up to Boston a few days later.via CNETNEWS .

The answer is both professionals and hobbyists. VATSIM is a global volunteer organization of flight simulation hobbyists who use donated network resources to create a virtual on-line ATC environment. All members are volunteers and there are no fees or membership dues. Although some of the controllers are real world professionals, amateur hobbyist controllers who enjoy giving their time to provide ATC services to the pilots of the VATSIM community provide the vast majority of ATC services. Most VATSIM members are dedicated to participating in an as real as it gets online ATC environment using real world procedures and practices to the greatest extent possible. via VATSIM.

What we have here in VATSIM a real working example of a Serious Virtual World that fits in with the definition of a virtual world: 1. Shared Space: the world allows many users to participate at once. 2. Graphical User Interface: the world depicts space visually, ranging in style from 2D "cartoon" imagery to more immersive 3D environments. 3. Immediacy: interaction takes place in real time. 4. Interactivity: the world allows users to alter, develop, build, or submit customized content. 5. Persistence: the world's existence continues regardless of whether individual users are logged in. 6. Socialization/Community: the world allows and encourages the formation of in-world social groups like teams, guilds, clubs, cliques, housemates, neighborhoods, etc. Via Virtual Worlds Review

In VATSIM the uniqueness of the real world of flying and air traffic control : communication via radio, sensing the external environment by instruments and radar representations enables the replication of enough elements of the real world using PC based flight simulators and communication to make it both a serious virtual world and a space for serious play.

Serious Virtual Worlds by definition can be used for both work and for play. This blog will major on the serious real work world uses of virtual worlds. So, watch this space as Serious Virtual Worlds takes you on a journey into the hard reality of virtuality.

Dick Davies. Ambient Performance
dick(dot)davies(at)Ambientperformance(dot)com

Get a First Life - 'a 3D analog world where server lag does not exist'. Pay a visit. Have a laugh.

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