One way that virtual worlds are being used for entertainment is through the video game called "Minecraft." Minecraft is a virtual world that is built by blocks like LEGOS. This game is extremely popular with children and as described by Diane Metha in her article titled "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" children get to roam around this virtual world without boundaries. In her article she mentioned that children in the 1950's played with other children on their block but in today's world the "roaming radius" of children has shrunk to less than one block. These virtual worlds such as Minecraft give children the ability to roam free and explore.
One way virtual worlds are used in telehealthcare is by Jacki Morie. In an interview with Metha, Morie describes how he has constructed a virtual world for veterans which he calls a "psychological healing space." One example that Morie uses is an Iraqi village with artificial intelligent characters that interact with the solider's character. The environment is constructed from pictures of real life environments and the objects in the virtual world are built and scripted for interaction with the solider.
Replicating real places is also popular in virtual worlds. In the article by Saki Knafo titled " In room 100, its Sid and Nancy All Over Again" Saki talks about how Michael Brown reconstructed the Chelsea hotel on SecondLife. Brown created this virtual replica because the management for the hotel changed and some of his favorite features of the hotel were removed. He took it in his own hands to build the hotel virtually the way he remembered it and then contacted Ed Hamilton,a resident of the hotel, who put a description of the virtual hotel on his blog. Brown's replica of the hotel contains the artwork from the hotel, and even added a little twist to Room 100.
Virtual worlds comes with many pros and cons. One of the pros that can be seen is the telehealthcare benefits. Virtual worlds can help returning soldiers overcome PTSD. Virtual worlds can be used to replicate what actually happened to the soldiers in action and pinpoint exactly what is causing the PTSD. Also virtual worlds can help children build creativity and communication skills. Through games such as minecraft children can work together with other children can collaborate and learn teamwork skills. This can help children improve their leadership skills and creativity.
Some cons of virtual worlds that i can think of are that they can be used for the wrong purposes. Criminals can model structures and run training operations virtually on how to get into certain buildings. Another con of virtual worlds are that it can cause children to stay at home all the time. This can lead to a lack of exercise and increase in obesity rates.
Virtual worlds foster creativity because everything that needs to go into the virtual world must be created by the creator. The creator has to incorporate how the objects in this world will act with the user and also they must draw from their imagination and creativity how these objects will look like. Also in the game Minecraft all the resources that are available are in the form of blocks. In order to make items such as doors or torches or swords, the player must mine the proper resources and then craft these items in a crafting block. For example in order to make a torch, they must mine coal for the fire and they must harvest wood for the handle.
I think the future of virtual worlds will be very similar to what the real world looks like. With the technological breakthroughs in graphic rendering, objects in virtual worlds can be made three dimensional and also life like. Programmers will be able to create neighborhoods and even cities to replicate real neighborhoods and cities to exact detail.
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