Science in Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds Defined

Modern virtual worlds are massive, simulated environments that can be accessed via the World Wide Web. Generally speaking, virtual worlds can be categorized into two distinct groups: “gaming” virtual worlds and “social” virtual worlds. As their names imply, these two categories of virtual worlds are distinguished by their overall purposes. The first type is designed primarily for game play, and the second type almost exclusively for communications.

Gaming virtual worlds—also abbreviated as MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) and MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games)—have included well-known titles such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest Online Adventures, and The Sims Online. Vast and complex online environments, gaming virtual worlds have been the focus of much social science research in their own right. However, because their primary purpose is for gaming, not communications, gaming worlds are not typically used for extensive scientific discourse. To see how virtual worlds are used to communicate science, we must turn to an entirely different category of virtual worlds, called social virtual worlds.

Social virtual worlds developed to date have included the online environments of There, Cyworld, and Second Life. As their name implies, social virtual worlds lack the basic attributes of traditional games or video games: There are no points to score, no objectives or tasks to complete, no rules to follow, and no overarching game narratives. Rather, the true “purpose” of a social virtual world such as Second Life is for users to exist inside it as they exist in real life. That is to say, users “enter” a social virtual world by downloading a software program from a virtual world's Web site. Then, each user creates a small, 3-D character, or “avatar,” which represents his or her “physical” presence in the virtual environment.

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