Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

When people get struggle with their real world, they need to get some rest for next day. Some of them take a vacation, go to place where they relax. And some of them escape to Virtual Worlds. The biggest advantage Virtual Worlds have is that it gives you an opportunity to become someone else who is ideal person of your dream. While they are in Virtual World, they become their ideal persons, by clicking icons, and typing what they want to say. The biggest disadvantage of Virtual Worlds could be that when people addicted too much to Virtual World, they are unable to figure out who they are in the real world any more.

In my country Japan, Virtual Worlds get closer and closer to the real world. For example, there is a NINTENDO DS game called "love pulse". In this game, players pick a girl who they wants go on a date. They have to make some approaches in order to have dinner, go to see movie, and so. After a player and the girl in the Virtual World become a couple, the player is entitle to enjoy spending time together with his "girl friend". There are already similar video games existed in Japan. The reason why "love pulse" became so famous is that even users are out of game, the virtual world continues. Which means even you are doing something else, the clock in the virtual world keeps ticking. Players celebrate the birthday of those girls from the virtual world, spend holidays together, and so. This sounds super crazy to me, but players turns on their DS regarding to what girls from the virtual world doing at certain point of a day. Those users will be unable to make a distinguish between real and virtual world.

Now, video games have such a high quality visual, therefore, it has a huge effect of education. Toys comes with a code which links to online version where toys look like really alive (Hindo). When I was a kid, I used to play outside a lot, fight with friends sometimes, and play with video games only a couple hours a day. In that way, kids can learn how to socialize with others, communicate with others, and what others react by certain attitude. Spend too much time with virtual world could have a huge affect on kids' personalities.

Source
Toy with a Second Life. Brian Hindo
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_53/b4065091329372.htm