Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds became very popular in a last couple years. They can be used for different purposes. To my opinion the most useful one is to use them in education. For example, Stephanie Simon in her article “Avatar II: The Hospital” talks about “online simulation designed to help nurses make quick, sure decisions in emergencies”. The positive side of it is that nurses can practice in a virtual world, so they will make no mistakes during emergency in a real world. This particular program doesn’t contain only preprogrammed code, it is also controlled by instructors, so they can “throw a wrench into the system” at any time. Which is also good because you never know what can happened in next minute in real life.

The other main purpose of virtual worlds is just to play in it as it is a game. You can build houses, you can have a car, you can talk to the other players. All attributes of a real life, but you have them on the screen of your laptop. I don’t think it is very useful. I would say this kind of games moving us away from real social life. Dave Itzkoff described this situation in his article “I’ve been in that club, just not in a real life”. He descried his experience going to the club online: “Despite knowing that its real-life inspiration exists right outside my door, I have spent the last few months making such visits to the Virtual Lower East Side”.  Also, he is saying that he met a girl and she said: “You’ve experienced it as if it were real life, because in fact, it is real”. Personally, I don’t agree. Nothing can substitute life conversation.

My opinion virtual worlds should be used for educational purposes only. It gives positive experience in certain fields: military, aviation, medicine, emergency situations, business training. All the other uses is just a waste of time.