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Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Moving toward a virtual world
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Years ago there was a lot of talk, a lot of predictions, about the virtual world that computers would some day create.
The notion was that there was finally enough computer power to create worlds so realistic that people could move about in them, virtually live in them.
The most optimistic stories made it sound like a paradise where anything would be possible. The most pessimistic stories made it sound like a hell where anything would be possible.
So far it’s been neither a heaven or a hell. But there are signs that more and more people are using their computers to live in a world that only exists on the computer screen.
Reuters, the news agency, is taking it so seriously that it has assigned a reporter to cover the happenings inside the online video game Second Life.
If you read that story you’ll see that even the virtual money used by the online players has real world value. Some people make big bucks trading game money for real money. The game money is purchased by players who want to live the life of the very rich within the online world.
That sort of weird urge has spawned new businesses, especially in China, where people are paid to play games full time just to get game money that can be sold. You can read about that trend here.
Even in the online game that I play, Guild Wars, there are Web sites that sell the gold players earn. Here’s an example
All this interests me and makes me wonder - as computer simulations get more realistic - how far it will go. What do you think?
OK. I’ll get back to the real world of the newsroom now since I’m not sure that Publix will accept the gold I have earned in my Guild Wars game.
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