We Have Been Living In Virtual Worlds For A Long Time, Don’t Kid Yourself
I have been doing a lot of talking about Virtual Worlds lately. Most recently I gave a talk at the iMedia Entertainment Summit in Beverly Hills. You can download my presentation here and you can see the write up by Adam Shahbaz (a super cool young writer and musician) on my presentation here.
To Live In 3D or Not To Live In 3D
While I think my presentation was largely well taken, I think there were some skeptics in the audience, and to be honest I partly take the blame for not fully convincing them . I was reviewing my presentation and what I failed to mention about virtual worlds is, it is an irrefutable fact that the hyper mediated world we currently live in is, in fact, already largely virtual. Furthermore, I did not point out the fact that when referring to virtual worlds I am not only referring to 3D environments. While the third dimension adds a more human element to the web, it is not essential in creating a virtual environment. I would go as far as to say that Facebook is a virtual world in many ways (and with all of the new functionalities it is becoming increasingly so). While my focus tends to be on 3D virtual worlds, I want to make sure that I am clear about how I define what I feel a virtual world is in the current era.
In my estimation the core principles that make up the modern virtual world are as follows:
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Persistence
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Virtual Worlds create perpetual identities and communities that exist outside of the physical world
- Sometimes these identities are fictional, sometimes they are extensions of real life. I am largely concerned with those that act as an extension of real life.
- This is where lifelogging comes in. If you are not familiar with this concept, I would ready what Jerry Paffendorf has to say about the topic. He is a long time champion of this notion, and while I am not sure where this concept originated, it was he who familiarized me with the concept.
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Virtual Worlds create perpetual identities and communities that exist outside of the physical world
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Immersion
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Virtual worlds are becoming increasingly human. Those of us who grew up with AIM know that after a while an IM conversation feels almost every bit as human as a face to face conversation.
- When performing the many layers of communication that we perform online today, one can get the sense that we are in fact immersed in a more human web than ever before
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Virtual worlds are becoming increasingly human. Those of us who grew up with AIM know that after a while an IM conversation feels almost every bit as human as a face to face conversation.
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Real Time Interaction
- This concept is very close to the above statements about IM, however online chat has matured significantly. We are now able to chat in groups (in real time) using any number of various digital media (audio, video, self mirrors/avatars, text). The online forum is much more human than ever before.
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Experience
- When all the components are online virtual world are tied together, we get a virtual experience not unlike the type of experience that occurs in real life.
- I will never stop going out with friends, going to conferences and hanging out in public places, however The Experience Web provides me with far greater opportunity to to be social, with a far greater amount of people in places all over the world than ever before and I love it!
There Are Many Flavors Of The Metaverse
As outlined in The Metaverse Roadmap (which is a must read), there are elements that make up what is being referred to as the metaverse. The metaverse not only encompasses online virtual worlds such as Second Life, it encompasses Mirror Worlds such as Google Earth, Augmented realities which include technologies that add information elements to, and enhance our experience in the the physical world and lifelogging.
Perhaps A Virtual World Map Looks Something Like This
I think there are elements of the world pictured above that most of us can relate to. Before you rule out Virtual Worlds or the Metaverse as a significant part of the way we communicate, I urge you to do some research on what these concepts really are and what technologies they employ.
In the future marketers will not be able to simply ignore these matters. The ubiquitous nature of computing will, to a large degree, dictate the way in which we live, as humans and as consumers. The marketer who is not taking this fact seriously will be the marketer who will not be taken seriously for very long. I am not saying you have to agree with my opinions, however it is tough to debate the importance for marketers to be well versed in the subject of virtual worlds.
Tags: imedia entertainment summit, beverly hills, Adam Shahbaz, Virtual Worlds, 3d web, Jerry Paffendorf, AIM, The Metaverse, The Metaverse Roadmap, Facebook, Lifelogging, Mirror Worlds, marketers, marketing, technology, imediaconnection
Jun 30, 2007
I may be one of the skeptics. I’m not sure that I agree that an ‘extension of a real life’ online can be classified as a ‘virtual’ existence. Before the web, was talking on the phone an extension of a real life?
There’s a difference between a new method of communication and a virtual world. Many of the online social networks that you describe above are merely methods to communicate, not ‘virtual communication’.
Virtual is defined as ’simulated’. I’m not simulating myself when I write a blog post, enter an IM or write to a friend via Facebook. However, if I join Second Life and create a ’simulation’ of myself that’s fictional in appearance and action – that’s a virtual extension of me.
Dungeons and Dragons is a great example of a virtual world that existed far before the web. Facebook and Myspace may hold some ‘virtual’ characters in them, but for most people they are largely reality.
Respectfully,
Doug
Jun 30, 2007
Doug
First off, thank you for you comment and challenge
I think that the issue we are dealing with is a semantic one. Reid Hoffman, founder and CEO of LinkedIn is quoted as saying,
“I have news. You have been living in virtual communities for years. Telephones, fax machines, postal mail and other media have created a living breathing, virtual community around us as we slept. A telephone number is an address in a virtual space. A voice is an avatar, the electronic representation of a person”
While this definition of virtual world is a very literal one, I do agree with Reid. After all, when we speak on the telephone, what the recipient hears is a simulation of our voice and not our actual, physical voice. It is an electronic transmission of the energy moving force that is “voice”. Again, this is all very literal, but I do think it is relevant.
So in response to your question, “was talking on the phone an extension of real life?”, I would have to say, yes. Is writing a blog post a simulation, well, to be very literal, blogging is a simulation of conversation. And I think that the crossroads we are at now in the world of communications may very well be on par with the invention of the telephone.
I do agree with your analysis that there is a large difference between the type of virtual world that Dungeons and Dragons represents and the world of MySpace and Facebook represent. I do not feel that Dungeons and Dragons is as much an example of a Virtual World (as defined in the metaverse roadmap) as it is a role playing game. Online D and D would be synonymous with World Of Warcraft or other MMORPG’s. These games were crossover platforms insofar as, there was an element of fantasy, coupled with realtime human interaction that often times manifested itself into relationships closer to real human relationships.
My goal however is not to debate semantics. My real objective is to prove that we are entering a new phase in the progression of the web. One that is more capable of providing real time, immersive experiences than ever before. Perhaps sometimes I use the term “virtual worlds” to stir the pot a bit and start conversations such as these, and while I would not say that I think Second Life is the future of the web (per se), I think it’s importance lies in the type of social, human an experiential elements that it represents.
Adam
Jul 01, 2007
Thanks Adam. It’s a conversation (albeit virtual), worth happening. Thanks for adding some color and I’ll keep an open mind.
Regards,
Doug
Jul 04, 2007
Adam and Doug,
I came to this discussion a little late and I admit not having read all of Adam’s article.
Adam, did it strike you that if you abide by Reid’s definition that in fact (for many people) the virtual world is the normality and the face to face world is the exception? It turns the concept of virtual world being groundbreaking on it’s head!
Now, that challenge aside I agree with Doug’s point with the caveat that, from my research into social spaces online, it’s largely mindset that suggests whether the individual is in a virtual world or not.
I’d like to give an example here and I am not aiming to be crass however the example has potency (no pun intended) and thus I’d like to use it.
When I was working on a long term research project on social spaces online I communicated with a woman who was involved in cyber sex. She insisted that the anal sex she was experiencing online *was* anal sex. She admitted she had not had anal sex offline so I asked her how she could *know* her experience was true to the actual physical experience. I won’t bore you with her response but suffice to say she clearly believed what she was asserting and she did appear to have material physical reactions.
Now, her experiences were occurring in a chat area. No bells and whistles, no digital figures, no sounds, no scenery. Mind. To me the mind decides whether virtual or not.
I DO agree with Adam that we are entering a new phase in virtual reality however I still believe that many are not yet understanding what it is people are seeking.
Susan holds up a key….