Work Team D-29: Metaverses and 3D environments

Work Group description

This Working Group is open to contributions which provide perspectives on Virtual Worlds

The Fourth Congress of the Cybersociety 2009 is an excellent opportunity to share and exchange experiences and findings on the proposed theme, which is not only present but has excellent projection. Besides Metaverses and 3D environments, people use the terms : virtual worlds, Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) or MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games).

The 3D environments and Metaverses amplify our capabilities and capacities for the establishment of human relations and for the development of research, business, educative or artistic initiatives. Following McLuhan's approach, these tools operate as extensions of the body, removing barriers spatio-temporal. Levy (1998: 24) emphasizes the human aspect of these virtual environments when he says that when virtualization is a reinvention, a multiplication, of the human.

Betsy Book (http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/) identifies more than 20 virtual worlds currently available and identifies the key features of these environments as follows:

1. They are a shared space

2. Contain a Graphical User Interface (GUI), which enables the use of immersive 3D environments

3. The interaction takes place in real time (immediate)

4. Users can create, edit and share content (interactivity)

5. The environment continues although users may be out of it (persistence)

6. This enables social interaction and the formation of groups and communities.

Many and varied studies, from different perspectives of science and research are conducted to identify the Metaverses / 3D environments applications. Similarly, we can also find exploratory works designed to investigate the construction of social organization in these environments. Others require descriptive detail especially in seeking to learn how some institutions operate in virtual worlds.

A third group of studies focuses on the analysis of educational activities that are implemented in these environments, analysing their differentiating features, finding the tools that can assist in implementing these actions, and so on.

While training, has a growing importance in virtual worlds, the potential role of enterprises in terms of promotion of products and or services as well as in regard to testing of them is also very important.

The purpose of scientific research of virtual worlds is clear. We can count people from different places, cultures and perspectives in the same environment. This is a unique way in which to make the study of society from various perspectives and with different purposes possible.