Jeff Jonas, self-proclaimed IT pundit, weighs in on virtual worlds, and seems to hit the right notes in spite not spending a ton of time (or at least admitting it) in virtual worlds. His main points:
- More people will spend more time in virtual worlds (Castranova’s exodus theory)
- Cross-reality synchronization will open the floodgates of potential for virtual worlds (I really need to stop calling them worlds, because one of my main points is that 3D spaces aren’t separate places from real world applications and business, they’re simply a different, enabling, and supplementing technology to the real and the 2D)
- There is real ecomomic value, already, in virtual spaces
- Physics re-engineering of virtual spaces offers tremendous potential (he isn’t quite clear what potential, but potential)
But it’s his concluding paragraph that to me strikes the right note when thinking about future potential:
And finally, how will you know virtual worlds are starting to collide with your own real world? Watch for this sign: someone wants to chat with you while showing you something and they explain the best way to do this efficiently is for you to “step in” [to the virtual world that is].
« I really need to stop calling them worlds, because one of my main points is that 3D spaces aren’t separate places from real world applications and business, they’re simply a different, enabling, and supplementing technology to the real and the 2D ».
This might be true for applications and business, but saying this is all there is amounts to cutting out a large chunk out of the virtual space. To many of their residents they are indeed worlds ; linked and interpenetrating to the atomic (to a degree), but still worlds. I’m no business consultant, but I daresay application developers and business execs will fare better keeping that in mind than trying to see them as a kind of pervasive interactive 3D video conferencing system.
[...] 23, 2008 Commented on http://dusanwriter.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/virtual-worlds-and-business/ « Virtual Worlds and Business « Dusan Writer’s Metaverse ». I need a term for that : VW [...]
I don’t disagree with you Rheta. I think a new terminology is needed. There are virtual worlds, which I see as immersive environments with their own cultures and artefacts; there are 3D spaces, such as Qwak, which is technically a virtual world platform but is really just ‘rooms’; and then there’s what I’ll call the Meshverse, the interlinking of 3D and 2D spaces which will be the next major wave of development; oh, and finally augmented worlds – virtual world overlays of the real.
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