Essays

Recently, Indian batsmen@yuvsingh09, Yuvraj Singh and England batsman @kevinpp24, Kevin Pietersen were in news for engaging in a battle in virtual world. While Pietersen tried to take a dig at Yuvraj, who was ruled out for the final two Tests of the four-match series due to finger injury, through a social networking site, Yuvraj replied in good humour by writing "hahaha... dont worry ill be back with a new Indian veg pie for you very soon !!"

The fever of virtual world is catching everyone. These days, Virtual World or Virtual Club is becoming synonymous with pop-culture and is fast becoming a rage in today's generation. Many believe this popular culture is in fact an expression of human nature.

A virtual world is an online community that often takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of avatars visible to others. These avatars usually appear as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional representations, and moreover, other forms like auditory and touch sensations are also possible. Generally, virtual worlds allow for multiple users.

3D Virtual worlds also" feature customizable 3D homes, user-created clothing, user-created scriptable objects, text, speech, gesture communication and multiplayer game launching capabilities. Virtual world, with its new culture and captivating interactivity, has captured the curiosity and attention of children, largely due to games. Massively multiplayer online games depict a wide range of worlds, including those based on fantasy, science fiction, the real world, super heroes, sports, horror, and historical milieus. In games, characters are created who travel between buildings, towns, and worlds to carry out business or leisure activities^ to substantially affect the experience of players in the game. Earlier it was believed that virtual worlds are based on fantasy and are heavily delineated from real life. However, such is not the case, as virtual worlds are also involved with the real world - social circles, commerce, research and business meetings.

Virtual worlds are not only limited to games but, depending on the degree of immediacy presented, can encompass computer conferencing and text based chat rooms. Sometimes, emoticons or 'smileys' can also be used, to show feeling or facial expression.

In a nutshell, virtual worlds are simulated communities for the interaction of online users. The computer accesses a computer-simulated world and presents perceptual stimuli to the user and provides the power to the user to manipulate elements of the world for an interactive experience.