Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used in various ways. People use virtual worlds as an escape from real life, a way to connect to others, an educational tool, a creative outlet, etc. In The Virtual World Moves into the Classroom, we can see a real life example of VR being used as an educational tool. Students are physically in class but virtually, they're in places like New York, London, and Paris. VR allows them to visit places that they might not have visited otherwise. Instead of having to wait to travel in the future, they can get a glimpse of real world places. They are also able to take virtual field trips that allow them to learn about the lives of refugee families or visit a volcano. There are so many other benefits of VR as well. VR can be used for medical training, virtual prototypes, training programs for the military and other professions. The cons of VR would be how time consuming it can be to create these virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are very realistic and have to be extremely detailed and specific. It doesn't come easy and virtual worlds have to be accurate especially when mimicking a geographical location like New York City. There is also the issue of lagging and finding ways to minimize it. In Naughty Auties, we see another example of how virtual worlds can positively affect your life. Autistic individuals use Second Life to connect with others other the internet. Autistic people are using this resource as a place to practice social interaction and experience social situations while staying in the comfort of their own home. This can be an incredible tool for those who have social, emotional and communicational problems to try out situations before having to experience them. Virtual worlds is also a home for creative minds to come together and share their creativity with the world. You can create any type of world your mind can think of. Designers can show off their designs by creating virtual worlds and making them unique. With VR technology, you can take any aspect of real life and create your own world out of it. Anything is possible. I think the future of virtual worlds will be intensely more realistic. As technology keeps evolving, virtual worlds will too! At some point, we might not even be able to decipher what is real and what's a virtual world because it will be so realistic. I've tried a VR game before and it certainly felt real even though I was completely aware it wasn't real. I'm truly excited to see how much better virtual worlds and VR get.