Virtual worlds can be used to create a virtual reality that mimics real life places. People can log into virtual worlds to attend shows and concerts that they prefer not to attend in real life. For example, Dave from the article I’ve Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life,mentions that he was attending a concert at the Cake Shop in Lower East Side but decided to leave early because of the annoying crowd and smell of stale beer. He then left the Cake Shop and went home to log onto a virtual reality representation of the Cake Shop and continued watch the concert as an online avatar. MTV has also used this idea of virtual world to create other areas where music shows are popular. They even created areas based around tv shows like Laguna Beach in connection with The Hills. Virtual reality is not only tied to music experiences and real life representations of well-known spots. In the article In Room 100, It’s Sid and Nancy All Over Again, a replica of a hotel names The Chelsea was created with it’s original features that music lovers wanted to experience. When management of the hotel was replaced they made major changes such as redirecting the hotel and renovating the room Bob Dylan used to stay. The virtual version of the hotel was centered around the old building. They even added a feature of a room where there were blood stains and a career to serve as a replication of a hotel room where a famous artist Sid killed his wife Nancy.
The pros of the a virtual world is that people can experience places that they never would be able to experience in real life. It is also very convenient. Let’s say you don’t feel like spending money on a show or dealing with crowds, you can just watch the concert via your virtual avatar. The negative aspect is that it eliminates human interaction. It can become so easy for people to attend real life events without leaving their homes.
Virtual worlds foster creativity because it can create a replica of a real place, a version of a real place that users would prefer, or create a whole new world. People can dig into their creative side by creating new places that don’t actually exist- doing this through their own imagination. They can go back and create a replica of a well-known place and create interesting features such as the Sid and Nancy room. It adds an interesting twist the replica.
Personally, I think the future of virtual worlds will either grow only a little or stay stagnant. I think it can be overlooked that people enjoy the real life experience. People want to experience it in real life and actually interact with people. Yeah some anti-social folks might hop on the virtual world train but I don’t see it becoming more popular than it already is.
In your negatives you've mention less human interaction. While I agree that in-person interaction is incredibly important and is becoming more rare nowadays, I feel that virtual reality can provide changes for human interaction more so than any other media we have. I'd argue that with virtual reality you can take up another form or "avatar" that gives you an opportunity to get over real life fears. I believe that the problem of anonymity online is actually a solution in VR, where you can interact in a very similar way to real life, but start off with a blank slate. This might encourage more people with social problems to actually interact without any of the usual "hold-backs" of real life.
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