Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

What are different ways these virtual worlds can be used?
The virtual worlds are built for gaming. In a gaming world, there's a fictional theme and different role play. You can build your own avatar there. Most of gaming are commercial gaming. In the article of "No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You," people in the commercial gaming can buy luxury clothes that they cannot afford in the reality. They can be invited to a party at the embassy which is impossible in the real world. People are attracted by the miracle/fantasy the gaming world has brought and they indulge in this. More and more commercial gaming are developed for this purpose. Virtual worlds are also used for socializing, i.e., online community based on different chat rooms. The online community is open-ended and allow you to speak out freely. In order to show yourself (to socialize with others), you can even  create and decorate a personal space such as a home or room. You can also host an activity and event. As described in "iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction," with such a socializing function, the virtual world can enable people with autism to "practice social interaction" to improve their treatment. Virtual worlds can also serve as forums for political expression and debate. I watched some TV play and understand that virtual worlds can be used to develop military training simulations. Some virtual worlds have been created for educational purposes. They include online university courses, computer programming tutorials, virtual libraries and so on.

What are the pros and cons?
Pros: It's a global world and people are linked together by similar interest without geographic border. There's also no border of age, culture and even linguistic form. People speak out freely online at any time and communication becomes more challenging, which may be more effective and productive. In addition, the virtual world is personal. You can do what you like there and speak what you want to and it encourages creativity.
Cons: People indulge in this virtual world, escaping from social life in reality, which may not be good to maintain an healthy interpersonal relationship in real world. People immersive in the fantasy world may lead to a feeling of worthless and low self-esteem. They won't pay attentions to their online behaviors since nobody can see them as in reality. Some people may extend their roles in the virtual world to the reality, which will bring destructive behaviors to society. Some people with ulterior motives may also use virtual worlds to commit crimes.

How do virtual worlds foster creativity?
The immersive virtual environment allows users to create the objects that fill the world. You can build the world so long as you can imagine it. Those fantasy you cannot build in reality can be built in the virtual worlds. In the virtual world, you can create and decorate a home, room or an apartment. The higher visiting rate to your decorated home may foster you to have more creative ideas/designs in order to attract more visitors. You may also try different role play in the virtual world, where you'll explore the role's characteristics and storylines. In education, some teachers extend the simulations into their classrooms, creating a virtual environment, engaging in open-ended activities in class. Some programs are developed to assist the development of creativity when students are encouraged to go beyond the program exercises to develop their own problems and situations that are based on the simulations. Providing students with a choice of activities to complete allows them to become more motivated and therefore creative in completing the tasks.

What do you think the future of virtual worlds will look like?
As described in the article of "I’ve Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life," the author says, "It’s a bet that the future of online interaction won’t be built on flat, static Web pages but rather in traversable 3-D spaces." In the future, all those in reality will be built in the computer world too. People don't need to go to a club to see a live performance, which can be viewed online at the same time. Furthermore, I think virtual world may be merged with the real world, which may become a totally seamless experience, but it all depends on technology development. It requires mature input and output technologies. Computers can simulate the imaginary world and those input/output technology can link the imaginary world with reality. So long as the science and technology are developed to a certain level, what we see in the science fictions/movies are possible.