Imagine a world shaped by the evolution of online gaming, where people leave their homes only in emergencies and conduct the majority of their business and social interactions using digital representations of themselves, or avatars, in massively multi-player, online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and virtual worlds.
Science fiction author Neal Stephenson brought to life a fully immersive online world such as this in his 1992 novel, Snow Crash, and dubbed it the Metaverse. In Stephenson's vision of the digital evolution of humanity, an all-encompassing virtual world a lot like today's MMORPGs ceased to be a game at all, becoming the only reality worth living.
As businessmen who grew up on Pacman and Mario introduce millions of online gamers to the immersive worlds of Orcs and Night Elves, they also are making decisions that will help shape the future of the online media.
Though it was by no means the first commercially successful online role-playing game, Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft" has broken the MMORPG genre wide open, currently drawing more than 10 million players each month, most of whom pay a monthly fee of about $15.
Web entrepreneurs have set up sites where in-game currency from "World of Warcraft" and other MMORPG titles can be bought and sold, leading to a subculture of gamers who literally play games online for a living.
Online virtual worlds are now evolving past the stage of just-for-fun MMORPGs into tools to test new products, concepts and business models on the millions of individuals who spend huge portions of their days "jacked in."
Leading the charge of such online alternate realities is Linden Lab's "Second Life." Different than other online worlds, "Second Life" has no set objectives. Instead, the free-form virtual world emphasizes creativity, technical innovation and social interaction.
"Second Life" citizens use Linden Lab's tool kit to create digital representations of everything from luxury condos and functioning universities to strip clubs and brothels.
Science fiction author Neal Stephenson brought to life a fully immersive online world such as this in his 1992 novel, Snow Crash, and dubbed it the Metaverse. In Stephenson's vision of the digital evolution of humanity, an all-encompassing virtual world a lot like today's MMORPGs ceased to be a game at all, becoming the only reality worth living.
As businessmen who grew up on Pacman and Mario introduce millions of online gamers to the immersive worlds of Orcs and Night Elves, they also are making decisions that will help shape the future of the online media.
Though it was by no means the first commercially successful online role-playing game, Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft" has broken the MMORPG genre wide open, currently drawing more than 10 million players each month, most of whom pay a monthly fee of about $15.
Web entrepreneurs have set up sites where in-game currency from "World of Warcraft" and other MMORPG titles can be bought and sold, leading to a subculture of gamers who literally play games online for a living.
Online virtual worlds are now evolving past the stage of just-for-fun MMORPGs into tools to test new products, concepts and business models on the millions of individuals who spend huge portions of their days "jacked in."
Leading the charge of such online alternate realities is Linden Lab's "Second Life." Different than other online worlds, "Second Life" has no set objectives. Instead, the free-form virtual world emphasizes creativity, technical innovation and social interaction.
"Second Life" citizens use Linden Lab's tool kit to create digital representations of everything from luxury condos and functioning universities to strip clubs and brothels.
- "World of Warcraft" has spearheaded a billion-dollar industry of online role-playing games.
- Linden Lab's "Second Life" allows digital residents to own property as well as open businesses.
- Online virtual worlds, as they become more familiar, are changing the face of social interaction.
Comments
ashely
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/09/2010
why dont they say club penguin.
Great article. I play There and see a lot of people getting addicted and spending WAY too much money on a game!
I have still not felt the need to participate in online games. Guess I really am old.
I think the games are a lot of fun, but it is too easy to get lost in them and spend all your time doing that. You have to have a balance.
The developers are clever though. They stand to make a bundle from these ventures. You know it they are good people WILL play them.
Nice piece Jesse!
Great info! A world like this will be quite interesting. I would LOVE to do everything from home! It will sure save my household on gas. If I put my SUV in the garage for a month, I might be able to eat more than noodles.
It will be very interesting to where the role playing games will take us in the next few years. I don't know too much about these games, but I know it will be a hot topic in our house when the kids get a bit older.
For anyone interested, the Law & Order SVU episode aired on Oct. 07 and was called "Avatar." Overall, the episode was far from impressive but how they combined virtual reality with an actual crime was enough to make a person really wonder about some things...
Enjoyed your article!
Mr. Saul directed me to your article, saying it was a good one and I have to 100% agree. Awesome job!
Reminds me of the Matrix movie trilogy. When we all agree that the virtual reality is what is real, only the brave few will challenge that social agreement. Thankfully there are still things one cannot do online -- such as eat, breath, and eliminate. Once gaming consoles take care of all those for us, the end of society may be near.
A very clear and informative piece here. I definitely know a good bit more about the subject (a subject somewhat outside my own reality) than I did before reading your article, which is the whole point of writing new stories, something I really haven't got the hang of doing yet.
Great Work!
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