Tutorial 8 (part 2)

I checked out ActiveWorlds, and I would say I don’t understand why people use time in these worlds. I am a computer games enthusiast but this seems like a waste of time even for me. There aren’t many people around and I’m walking around aimlessly as this visitor avatar, always uploading graphics. Compared to MSN, which I usually use, I feel this is a bit much for just chatting with friends or other people. You are probably able to meet a lot more people, but then it is more close to a dating forum or myspace sort of thing. The thing that might seem useful is the avatar changes. You can look whatever way you want, and do whatever you want, but when you see people running around as dogs, it kind of takes the seriousness out of everything. There is probably someone that would like talking to dogs, but I don’t know. It’s all weird.

Having said that, a 3D chatroom and IM can’t be compared at all because I think that IM are used more for the contact with friends, and not meeting totally strangers like 3D worlds are mainly used for.

Answering the question that Adam asked about where this sort of application might lead us, I would say: into the future. If it’s good or bad I can’t say, but its definitely an invention that will develop further and change in the years to come. Maybe one day we will have holographic messaging shown on a wrist band or on our mobile phones?

We’ll see.