Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual Reality is a new landscape that allows people to enter new worlds through an outside virtual world. One such site is Second Life, which gained a lot of attention allowing the customization and personalization that was not there before. Once you create your own profile, you can move in the world allowing people to interact in ways people haven't done before.

Avatars are created on the site allowing residents to communicate, with other avatars, places or objects. One of the biggest things with Second life is the ability to contribute content on the site. Each avatar allows residents to create the world around them. This includes virtual buildings, objects or animations.

In the documentary, people can build content and sell it in a virtual economy. This documentary shows how people are working full time on the site earning an income. Sellers are able to sell houses, land, clothes to the mass users of the site providing their talents. People are able to earn an actual income by transferring the currency from the site to their own pockets.

With all the virtual benefits, this comes with its own downfall in the virtual world. People can have their products on Second life be stolen, hacked and cause people to create a new level of hacking. The communities are at risk of people hacking their objects, intensifying comparisons online based on the online.

The virtual world comes with an untapped market for people who want to create their own versions of themselves and design their life in a new atmosphere. This gives users a new way to look at the world, providing content creation and creativity for the mass users.

Sites:

THCBMedia. “A Second Life on Second Life.” YouTube, 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV52WRXm1Cg.

https://www.howstuffworks.com/jonathan-strickland-author.htm, and https://www.howstuffworks.com/about-dave-roos.htm. “How Second Life Works.” HowStuffWorks, 8 Nov. 2007, computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/second-life.htm.

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