Virtual Reality Essay Example for free
Thesis statement
The paper will be elaborating on the advantages and the disadvantages of virtual world.
Virtual World
A virtual world can be defined as an online community that entails people interacting with each other and in most cases it takes the form of a simulated environment that is computer based. The main intention in a virtual world is to make users interact with each other and in it functions in a way that the users are made to be seen visible as avatars so that they are seen graphically. In most Virtual worlds allows there to be multiple users since it almost has every objects that are required for its function ability.
In most cases worlds that are modeled in this way tend to appear more real making the users to create their own worlds hence depicting fantasy worlds. Most times the users of virtual worlds tend to assume that everything that happens in a fantasy worlds is real and they are mostly of good experiences. Elements of virtual worlds are usually those that already exist in a real world but are just made to look better in that world. Communication that exists between the users of virtual worlds can be ranged from visual gestures, texts, sound and graphical icons among other commands of communication and the balancing of senses. The use of the commands of communication such as voice and visual gestures are very important in virtual worlds because this is what makes it possible for someone in a real world to communicate effectively with one in the virtual and that it makes the communication more realistic by showing how the users feel .
Virtual worlds have very many ways of making their elements to look more realistic and make them more desired by people in the real world because it uses objects in the real world to be used effectively by a user in the real world. Online games is one of the examples of how the use of virtual world objects has been used effectively while trying to depict actions that occur in a real world (Charles, 2009). A person in a real world playing an online game feels as though he is doing the real action because whatever is done in the game is similar to the real world happenings. This becomes more realistic than even the real thing because maybe someone in the real world might never have a chance to participate in motorcycle competition for example but in an online game, his craving becomes easily fulfilled. Players of an online game tend to imagine that they are in a real world because of the buildings and towns that are found in the environments of the games. The games even depict leisure activities and other activities that do take part in a real world thus making the message being passed across in a virtual world look very similar to that which happens in a modeled world. Virtual worlds make it very possible for users to understand the message that is being passed across because it they almost have every object that can be considered real in a modeled world
If they want to create a house then it is possible for a user who wants activities related to a house being portrayed out to them with every detail they want stairs and every other little details. When a user wants to have conversations using the elements that are functional in a virtual world then it becomes easy for them to have it through using emoticons like the smiles that show the emotions of the user. They also have chat rooms that can be used to have people communicate with each other from different parts of the real world. In the chat rooms the users use texts or the head-on for communication and this is possible through a user sending a message to another user through the computer which is the medium and they keep replying each other. The use of ‘smilies’ is to make one user to understand the facial expression of the other as the communication is still in progress and this is very nice because it makes it possible for people who are very far from each to know how to reply to each other’s feelings.
The Concept of Virtual Worlds
The idea of coming up with virtual worlds started in the mid-nineties when great IT or computer gurus decided to come up with a more sensible form of communication besides the typing of information form one person to another. These scientists decided to come up with mechanical-based machines that would make it possible for people all over the world to communicate with each other no matter how long the distance would be. They came up with machines that could depict the senses of sound, touch, balance and vision through the wind and pass it throughout the world so as to simulate the world.
The invention of computers came along with more projects related to improving the level of communication across the world and among the very first projects was such as simulators that brought devices of virtual reality (Benjamin, 1999).This virtual reality included the use of virtual headsets that were bulky and other many types of inputs of simulation that were more related to the sensory organs of the human beings. With the introduction of the gaming systems in the computers, improved versions of the same gave the creators more ideas on how to advance them for more effective forms of communication because the success of the gaming systems made the industry to believe that they could do versions that are more advanced.
All these steps were taken so as to improve the level of communication in the world but the inventions still continues being upgraded in very many different ways. Experiences that are required to be used in the virtual world improvements rely mainly on the contents that can be found in the activities taking place in modern world (Jean-Claude, 2000).These contents should be more engaging both emotionally and mentally since this is what can give rise to experiences that are more immersive. The difference existing between classical sensory that seemed to be imitating virtual reality and the virtual worlds sensory is that virtual worlds depicts experiences that entail emotional and mental feelings being portrayed just the way they are.
This is one of the developments that were made in the process of improving virtual worlds. The virtual worlds became more improved through the inspirations that the fuelled research got from the gaming industry and how they implemented it effectively. The initial forms of gaming involved more of graphical objects thus this was not very convincing to the users because their knowledge was way beyond the graphical sense but also the physical sensory that would them more engaged.
Advantages of Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds are very important because they have contributed a lot to the development of the modern world. Through virtual worlds people are able to advance their education, their business, their social, economical and also spiritual environment (Jack, 2007).Virtual worlds have been very effective in educating people in the modern world because it has brought about a combination of information that is able to be transferred from one user to another. Children are able to attain their education online through the use of virtual world’s information that entails involvement of both mental and mental engagement of the students.
As much as the virtual worlds are seen as mere fantasies, they are very useful because they make people to utilize their imaginations more effectively than their physical participation towards development thus making it very easy to learn and to be taught. Virtual worlds have made it possible for researchers to improve their research work because the level of doing research keeps being improved with time. It also helps in improving the economic levels of many countries in the modern through the interaction of different virtual economists all over the world. Virtual worlds are very useful because they tend to make people of different careers to improve their areas of profession. On a general approach virtual worlds contribute a lot to development in the modern world and this is very important
Disadvantages
As much as virtual worlds are advantageous to the society, they also have drawbacks because they tend to make people to forget about the activities taking part in their real lives. Activities in the real world tend to be more tiresome as compared to those in the virtual worlds and this is what brings about the disadvantages of virtual worlds because it retards realistic activities sometimes (Bell, 2008).When children become engaged with activities taking place in the virtual world they tend to assume their expected engagement in the real world as less important like doing their school assignment becomes less important as compared to chatting with friends on Face-book.
Virtual worlds make people to become lazy because it makes them want to be more reluctant on issues related to real world activities and this makes virtual worlds disadvantageous because it makes people prefer doing things that are not tiresome in the modern world. People tend to be more concerned with virtual world’s activities which are very limited in terms of physical participation. It also retards personal development since people become more advanced with other people’s ideas and creativity.
Conclusion
In conclusion the avatars that are portrayed by in virtual worlds can take very many different forms because there are those that appear in the 3D environments while others just appear in the form of avatars themselves. The representations that the avatars in a virtual world are given are either have a textual or three-dimensional representations and they are in possible forms that entail touch sensations and auditory. Virtual worlds depict objects that can be found in a real world because they have a way of bringing out experiences that are only there in a real world. The improved level of technology in the modern world has made the virtual to even seem more real than the way it used to be sometime back because the level of Tele presence keeps on improving day in and out making the elements existing in a modeled world and virtual world almost equal to each other.