Week 8

What are the qualitative differences between the regular Instant Message program and a 3D environment? Also, what is different about the kinds of socialising that happens in these spaces? Does the 3D aspect make much difference?

In a 3D program you are not just chatting with others through text. You are creating a virtual image of yourself and displaying emotions along with your words. You are able to interact with other members of the community in a virtual reality instead of just through words. It involves more creativity then just your standard IM. In the 3D world you get to create a profile and image for your own character. There is more of a sense of community in the 3D world since you all coexist in a virtual reality that you help create. In a regular IM program you will usually only talk with people you know, and maybe the occasional stranger. Even in online chat rooms you usually won't find the same people in that chat room day after day. Since the 3D environment is about both gaming and chatting you will find a larger percentage of "regulars" in the 3D worlds. Since these spaces are very social you may find that people who are loners or unhappy with their social life in the real world might escape into these virtual reality zones. There is a certain sense of anonymity on the web that allows people to feel more comfortable when talking to others. For someone who is very shy these 3D worlds give them a sense of belonging and friends who they can talk to.

I find it interesting that we are moving from a 2D chat environment to a 3D virtual world. As a child I remember reading a series of books called Diadem. In this series there is a boy named Pixel who is from a world where most of the population spends every moment in a virtual reality world. All social interaction, schooling, and everything else that takes place in the real world, only exists in virtual reality. Playing in the 3D virtual worlds reminded me suddenly of this book which I read 10 years ago. Though it's not the total immersion that is depicted in this novel its a step in that direction. Just the fact that the face of socialization over the internet is evolving makes me wonder how far off the future in that novel really was. Though we are a long way from a world like that it did play on the back of my mind.

The start of Existenz is really cool. I love Jude Law and was surprised that I had never heard of this movie. The whole concept of virtual reality is really interesting. Having a world where people have bioports put into their spine to connect to a virtual world seemed so cool. Since one of the current problems with virtual reality is that it only engages two of our five senses. The bioport seems to have fixed this problem so that you can smell, taste, and touch the virtual world. Then there is the fact that people are trying to kill the creators of these technologies for corrupting reality brings a humanistic element to the movie. I can tell there are going to be lots of twists and turns in this film.