The online virtual world is a new entrant into the sim developer’s toolset. Virtual worlds come in many shapes and forms but share some recognisable properties:
¨ Multiplayer – virtual worlds can be populated by tens or many thousands of other human representations, simultaneously, in a shared 3D environment
¨ Synchronous communication – if one player changes something then other players will recognise this
¨ Egocentric perspective – most virtual worlds will be offer the player a third person perspective with a personal avatar
¨ High degree of player control – players can navigate their avatar with relative freedom around a virtual world and is able to interact with objects and characters (chat, manipulate objects, etc).
For training and educational purposes, virtual worlds differ in the degree to which rules and/or structure are embedded into the world:
¨ Open ended – these worlds have relatively few embedded rules and structure. Players have the ability to communicate and interact with other users of the world. There are no, or very few, preordained objectives or a purpose. Behaviour is free form and any patterns emerge from social interaction. Second Life is the stand out example of this type
¨ Structured – contain rules and or structures that can provide focus, objectives and direction to user’s behaviour. Examples of this genre would be World of Warcraft as a fantasy game and the Olive virtual world platform that is used for sophisticated first responder and military multiplayer training scenarios.
