An essential premise of those who pitch real work in virtual worlds is that there's something about virtual worlds that makes the users "feel" as if they're together, even though they're obviously not. That there's something more "real" about sharing a virtual space with someone than looking at their face on a webcam.
Now, I'm not talking about the more obvious utility of virtual worlds when you'd like to view an object in 3D, say a 3D replica of an artifact. Strip that out of the analysis.
Why do two people sitting at their computers moving around avatars on their screens "feel" like they're spending time together? How is it that NASA can say that virtual worlds experiences "encode in our memories" as real life?
Is it that somehow our brains, given a new environment, suspend reality in favor of it? Is it that we are unable to process two realities at once and as we shift our focus, we lose sight of reality in favor of virtuality?
Does any of this make sense to anyone but me? :-) |
