Where has all the Virtual World Buzz Gone?
Sure there are a number of stories that hit the media sphere each week regarding virtual worlds, but admittedly some of the buzz around virtual worlds has faded into the background lately. While more virtual world development is being created, the most noise around the virtual worlds sector lately seems to be Metaplace shutting down, real identity names being utilized in Second Life and all of the market predictions for the new year. Many virtual world evangelists are venturing down a new path in naming conventions for virtual worlds such as: immersive 3D, 3D virtual worlds, virtual immersive environments (VIEs), virtual learning/ training environment, enterprise immersive software, collaborative environments, and the list goes on… Could this perhaps be a sign of where the virtual world buzz has gone? More specifically more press is given to virtual worlds targeted at kids/ teens/ tweens rather than the enterprise targeted vw’s. The virtual world universe is quite diverse and I see many more virtual world applications to come in the near future all targeting a variety of user demographics. Although the barriers continue to fall…the broad picture of virtual worlds remain while within this structure change is taking place. Should we still call virtual worlds an emerging technology, or rather switch it to a technology that is here to stay?
