What is a “virtual world”?
A. A virtual world is an environment that “lives” on a web site. When girls enter the LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs virtual world, they’ll be able to explore an online pet community, name and outfit their online pets, customize their pet’s home, earn Kibble points to keep their pets healthy and happy, play games and interact with other VIPs through community features and activities.
• A virtual world is a computer-simulated environment which users inhabit and with which they interact via their on-screen representatives known as avatars. An avatar is a person in a virtual world. • In a virtual world, life and its social relationships are represented by three-dimensional graphical characterizations of multiple users appearing together. • The world being simulated has real world rules such as physics, gravity, topography, locomotion, real-time actions, and communication. • Second Life is the best known virtual world at this time with more than 14 million residents. • Second Life is a social environment where people learn, explore, work, shop and play. Learn More… More details at the Center for the Study of Virtual Worlds » About Second Life: • What is Second Life? STO • Great Places in Second Life UNCP • A small photo gallery of Second Life STO • Second Life Photostream Flickr • Second Life on YouTube YouTube • Getting Started in Second Life UNCP • How to travel in
A virtual world is an animated three-dimensional world created with computer graphics imagining (CGI) and other rendering software. One of the hallmarks of a virtual world is that a user can interact within the environment by virtue of an avatar, or a computerized character that represents the user. The avatar manipulates and interacts with objects in the virtual world by mouse movements and keystrokes issued by the user. In simple terms, the avatar is a remote controlled character or proxy. In addition to graphics, a virtual world also provides sound effects and may offer streaming sound for listing to music, radio or scripts issuing from within the virtual environment. In multiplayer games and environments, chat and instant messaging allow avatars to communicate with each other in the virtual world. There are two basic genres of virtual worlds: those created for gaming, and those created for their own sake as virtual communities. Though they share many similarities in terms of render
What a virtual world actually is, has been explained in several places throughout this site. However, this is still one of the most common questions asked by non-industry visitors to the site. This FAQ entry has therefore been created to give a single, focused definition to answer this question. Virtual worlds exist on the internet; within individual PCs, or on large machines. They are virtual because you cannot touch them – they are entirely made of software which runs inside a computer. At the same time, they are miniature worlds, places where the mind can wander, free of the limitations of whatever physical body it was saddled with. For those who choose to spend time within them, virtual worlds offer deep, and meaningful experiences, to the point where they may even preserve sanity that would otherwise have been lost. Different worlds are used for different purposes. Some are purely research-based, examining simulated ecosystems, or advancing the field of AI. Others are used to recr
