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Tuesday 19th June 2007 3:14 pm

Doing the Impossible in Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds allow us to do what is not possible in the physical world.  How can we use this?  Doug Thomas from the USC Center on Public Diplomacy explores…

When we enter a virtual world, we are making an agreement to play by a new set of rules.  Those rules emerge from a mixture of elements.  The “rules of the world” (everything from its physics to its user interface) provide a structure for participants, while the emergent culture defines a set of cultural norms or mores which provide the community with another set of rules, values, and meanings.  What makes virtual worlds special is that both of these elements depart from the conventions of the physical world.

Virtual worlds put the participant in the middle, inviting them to continually negotiate the rules of the world with the player generated culture in which they participate.  And the way we do this is with our imagination.  The virtual demands that we do the impossible: from flying to teleportation, from becoming a 50-foot dragon to exploring identities not available to us in the physical world.  In virtual worlds, we are constantly asked to create, inhabit, and embrace the impossible and we do it with surprisingly little difficulty.

So what happens when we starting thinking about real social problems in virtual worlds?  What happens when children from all over the world are able to see each other and engage with a real sense of co-presence in a virtual world?  What happens when people who have no voice in their physical space are allowed to speak freely in a virtual one?  What will it mean to have a listening party composed of people from dozens of different nations, where people listen together, share their thoughts, and interact around something as universal as music?  What if we could have a worldwide discussion about the meaning of justice?

While these things would be expensive, difficult or even impossible to do in the physical world, they are exactly the kinds of things that virtual worlds were made to do.  It is time for us to take a look at what virtual worlds offer and start doing the impossible.

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