Metaverses or online worlds such as Second Life and Active Worlds had great potential when they first started. Indeed many had adopted them – and other emerging platforms as either classroom technology and/or for business and corporate meetings. They were precursors to virtual or augmented reality as we now know it, and had their own language – the VRML – which is a scripting language that allows for the creation of three-dimensional “worlds” that the user can explore. It was basically an internet standard for rendering 3D graphics. The problem is that this never developed into more robust platforms that catered to their target audience and users’ needs.
As Virtual Reality progressed and developed, it has become more real. The question now is, should there be limits on what can be done in a virtual reality world as Angela Buckingham suggests in her thought-provoking article Murder in Virtual Reality shoud be illegal ? How much reality is too much? Buckingham says Read More …