There are many pros and cons to the use of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are used to bring together corporations, educational institutions, and in general people from all over the world without actually having to bring them together physically. It is an online world where people create avatars to represent themselves and go to these meetings, etc. This is very helpful because people don't have to take off and fly to the other side of the world to have a meeting. Virtual worlds are also useful in recreating things that no longer exist, such as Hotel Chelsea. Michael Brown created virtual Chelsea exactly the way it was when he stayed there and people loved it so much that they joined the virtual world. Another amazing virtual world is Naughty Auties. This site was created by David Savill who suffers from Asperger's syndrome. In this virtual tour people with autism and their families create avatars and come together to work on social skills without having to face people in real world. They are also capable to help each other out and find out more information about the condition.
These virtual worlds foster creativity because people can live lives that they only imagined in their heads. They make their avatar be whoever they want it to be and do things that they always wanted to do but never had a chance to do, such as travel the world. However, people need to be careful while living in this virtual world because some of them allow people to buy things within the world with real money and if you get sucked into this you may spend much more than expected. I honestly cannot imagine how they will be used in the future considering they are already being used in meetings, to help others, etc.
Yeah I definitely agree that virtual worlds have a lot of good to them, and at the same time if overused they can have their negatives. I think the virtual world economy will continue to really grow because as the distinction between the virtual world and reality continues to blur, people will want to make their reality more virtual. These people will spend huge amounts of money on their avatar because they feel the price for products for their avatars are of more value than price of products for themselves.
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