A virtual world is a 3D environment provided by software that can be static or dynamic. In a dynamic world, users can create and own property, making it always fresh and constantly expanding. This concept is seen in SecondLife.com, where residents can purchase land and build homes. The popularity of virtual worlds is enormous and may lead to real-world commerce and education within them.
A virtual world is an interactive, computer-generated, three-dimensional (3D) environment. It is provided by a client or a software program and can be a static or dynamic virtual world.
In a static virtual world, the environment is pre-created and limited to the author’s original code. While an avatar can be used to navigate a static virtual world and interact with monsters, other objects, and other characters, with enough experience, a static world can become predictable. This distinguishes it from a dynamic virtual world, which is always changing. In a dynamic virtual world, the environment is subject to continuous development and expansion by user intervention through built-in authoring tools. The dynamic virtual world, used for virtual communities rather than play, is an ever-changing world that can never be fully known, because at any given moment, participants are forging new objects or landmasses within it.
An example of a dynamic virtual world experience is offered by SecondLife.com. In the Second Life environment, residents can purchase a “lot of land,” build a house, and thus create a permanent feature in the landscape. As other residents purchase nearby plots of land to build their own homes, the landscape expands. There are also business districts, islands and other interactive environments. Residents “own what they buy” in the dynamic virtual world, so private landscapes cannot be changed by another user.
It is this concept of private property in a dynamic virtual world that gives it a central structure or coherent foundation, constantly expanding outward. Users are free to dynamically change aspects of the virtual world they own, while they can travel through parts of the landscape they don’t own. The dynamic virtual world thus mimics a real-world city or developing country.
The advantage of a dynamic virtual world is that it is always fresh. Game companies using static virtual worlds have found a way to deliver a dynamic experience through expansion packs. These packs provide additional landscapes and challenges that you can download to augment your existing games.
The appeal and success of virtual worlds, as measured by the popularity of games in recent decades and by membership in more recently dynamic virtual communities, is enormous. Whether it is a static or dynamic virtual world, computer technology has created a mind-boggling experience for gamers and VR enthusiasts alike. Trends suggest that this popularity will lead to the incorporation of real-world commerce, business education, and banking within dynamic virtual communities. From there, it seems anything is possible.
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