In World vs. Real World:

There are a great deal of differences between real world society and virtual society. One of the major differences is the rules that people are required to follow. In real world there are rules that need to be followed that have a social and legal impact. The rules are more uniform in the real world. With the exception of red tape and differences from one country to another the rules are generally the same everywhere. In the virtual world, the rules are vastly different from one place to another. The social norms are different, but in some areas the rules are strict enough that disobeying will cause you to be booted from the area. One of the strikingly large differences is role-play. In the real world role-play is something that isn’t really encouraged. In the virtual world role-play is encouraged and the players are expected to play by a very strict set of rules usually well explained as you enter the area. Another social norm that seems to be either a little less strict is concerning the friend request. Some people only speak for a second, and some ask before they send a friend request. When one is sent without speaking people tend to get angry as if an obvious social rule was ignored. It can be something new to get used to if you do not play a lot of online games and it’s completely foreign to the real world. Friendship is something that in the real world that happens naturally or not at all. Something about a formal version is awkward. Consequences are another thing that is absolutely confused in a virtual world. There’s a clash between the thought that behind those avatars is real people and the thought that it’s just a game.

It was more personal because we were able to get voice chat working. There’s something about actually being able to hear someone’s voice that makes meetings between people more personal. The ability to experience things together also helped us feel like we were really doing something as a group. In the chat groups work gets done, but there’s not the same sense of accomplishment that comes with seeing things done. It’s not the same as a real world meeting, but it’s a lot more interactive than a simple text based meeting in a chat room. There’s a lot more to do, a lot more to express, and more ways to do it. The avatars are nothing at all like a group experience with real people, but there’s a lot more to it than the standard text based chat.

Virtual worlds like second life enhance learning by giving a platform for people to learn, and collaborate. In Second Life, the ability to meet, talk, and do together causes a different learning experience than just talking about a subject. It lends a great deal to Internet classrooms. Instead of talking about doing something you can really do something. Second Life is not just useful for learning it also is a creative outlet. The difference between this creative outlet and most is that it has a strong push to collaborate. Work done together with others is easier when you are all together in a world where collaboration is an easy thing. When something is simple, and easy to do people tend to do it more often. It encourages not just artistic collaboration, but for everyone to attempt to create. If more people try even just a little to create than more people will be inspired to create more. It helps encourage people to try artistic things, and that causes more people to respect artistic work. The virtual art unlike real art is harder to move, but easily duplicated for sale if that’s the artist’s agenda. Second Life although it has its own economic system can also impact our real income. It’s a game with real consequences.