Out to Pasture -- Blog Archive -- What is a virtual world?

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I've been following the things Giff is writing at the ESC blogs the last few days, mostly because I'm fascinated by the turn from Second Life to a focus on lighter, Web-based virtual world experiences. I get where he's coming from now, at least in terms of wanting to do what's possible with technology now, wanting simpler user experiences, etc. Nothing wrong with that. I am, however, still skeptical that virtual worlds via the web browser will take hold in any interesting way without something like Second Life driving it. His question on this post gets to the heart of why I feel this. He asks "what is a virtual world?" Or when he rephrases it "what does 'Metaverse' mean to you?" To me the metaverse is not just a style of interaction with information -- information is secondary to persona. The metaverse is about my digital self. On the Web we only describe ourselves -- Genesis fan, avid reader, lover of comic books -- in the metaverse we can actually *be* this, actually show off who we are, real or imagined. I'm sure my love of comics plays into my avatar's winged look. And beyond my persona, the metaverse means location to me, i.e. my persona doing something, moving through some where. That's the "world" part of virtual worlds to me, a person in context, a person interacting, living, and working with innumerable other personas. So for me, a virtual world is not about communication or interaction at all (though these can happen there). I think the Web gets communication and interaction really well, but I don't think the Web can do persona and place very well. At least not in the way a fully realized, 3D virtual world can. I do think one can exist quite happily with the other, one enhancing the other. But they really are two very different things, IMHO.