Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be identical to reality or built for fantasy reasons. Virtual worlds can be used in a variety of ways. A virtual world allows users or players to do things that they normally can't do or prepare for something they don't have experience with. For instance, there are people who work from home because of devastating injuries and the virtual world allows them to do things that they can't do in reality because of those injuries. The ability to walk, fly, socialize with others, and create a platform for people of similar situations.

Ways that virtual worlds can be used are for people to potentially "practice their real life". It may sound bizarre, but people inventing worlds where users can practice/simulate real life situations that may occur. one example would be practicing a profession. The virtual world has garnered interest in professional studies, that colleges like the University of Michigan and Stanford are using it in their medical schools. They put students in a hospital environment and basically allow students to make decisions on the fly within a certain time frame. This helps students practice their future profession in a simulation to help benefit their decision making in the future.

Another way that virtual worlds can be used are for health issues. Jacki Morie speaks about recreating a war zone/towns where soldiers have fought and enabling them to enter these virtual worlds as a for, of therapy. By adding friendly foreign civilians and people, it helps soldiers overcome post-war phsychological issues.

The pros of virtual worlds are the creation of healing spaces and people coming together with similar backgrounds. It brings similar minds together and when people who have similar goals and views, things tend to get done. It allows people to do things that otherwise couldn't do in reality. I think the cons of the virtual world are that some people get too caught up in the virtual world and maybe start to depend on it. When people are on virtual worlds for too long it often causes problem in their health in terms of their physical beings. Another con I think that virtual worlds come with is their social skills may deteriorate. It may be acceptable to speak or act a certain way in the virtual world, but not necessarily in reality. I think the future of virtual worlds will continue to grow as institutions find more ways to integrate this technology in to their organizations like colleges and fast paced organizations.


Simon, Stephanie. "Avatar II: The Hospital." WSJ. The Wall Street Journal, 13 Apr. 2010. Web. 20
Mar. 2015.

Mehta, Diane. "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.