Virtual Worlds and Those That Use Them
The purpose of this weekly blog post is to introduce the concepts of virtual worlds to those that have never used them, or perhaps even really heard of them. It isn’t intended to get more people to join those worlds or even to provide, necessarily, the latest and great news in the virtual world universe. It is just meant to be informative and hopefully entertaining.
I have explained before why people use virtual worlds. Yet, even still people will look at me wide-eyed (yes,I can see you when you read these posts) and wonder how people can involve themselves in worlds like this. I mean, isn’t the real world enough? What do people get out of these worlds? So let me profile another type of user of virtual worlds. One that you might be able to better relate to.
Ask yourself this question: Have you ever belonged to an organization of like-minded people? Be it the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts when you were younger (or even now) or a professional organization. If you have been (and odds are excellent you have been or are at one point in your life) ask yourself why. The answer is going to be comradeship, networking, to learn new skills – or a combination of all of them.
Virtual Worlds are much the same way. In Second Life, like-minded people from around the world – not just your local area – meet and talk about a variety of topics. Anything from architecture to last night’s math homework, people get together and share ideas, learn new things and even make friends. Just as you would at any other group meeting that was face-to-face.
Oh sure, meeting people face-to-face creates a deeper connection with that other person. There is no doubt. But that isn’t always possible – and the trade-off is that, on a regular basis, you can meet with people from around the world. Typically in an organization – even one with a world-wide reach – this only happens once a year at some big conference. Even then it is only the membership with the time and money to make such an event. Second Life and other such virtual worlds eliminate the money aspect and help mitigate the time part by making meetings faster and allowing them to happen more often.
Still not convinced? You might point out that Second Life isn’t exactly known for being the place where “business gets done” - it is perhaps more known as an … adult emporium let’s say. That is true. That certainly exists there. I am not claiming that any virtual world is perfectly mature (both in terms of platform and its users), however Second Life is being used by companies like IBM and Cisco to do business.
Even World of Warcraft could be considered the new golf. Well, ok, maybe not. However, just talk to the folks in the IT department where you work. Ask them all to honestly tell you if they play WoW or Halo on-line. The one that doesn’t raise his hand is a liar. You shouldn’t trust that person . I am kidding of course, but you will find a huge percentage do. What might surprise you even more is to ask this same question of the people in your marketing department or accounting and see all of the hands that go up.
Sure ideas are not being traded off while playing that game, but there is still a sense of friendship being formed and it gives people something to relate too, much as golf did and still does.
Virtual worlds remain alien to a lot of people. Hopefully this and other postings will continue to give you insight into why people use them and how they are being used. Perhaps you might even take a look yourself – just to check it out.
Note: This post was written by me and originally posted at the Rising Tide blog.
