The growth in virtual worlds have stalled in recent years with the ongoing problem of needing vast amounts of PC memory to operate, and the general poor quality of social networking functionality. The opportunity for virtual world’s lies in browser based applications and the development of Face book levels of social networking.
Stephan Pater not, founder of the once successful theglobe.com, believes social networks will evolve into fully immersive 3D virtual worlds where you can practically reach out and touch someone. Looking at Second Life give us a glimpse but are really just a shadow of how things will develop over the next 10 years. Back in 1999 nobody could imagine what could come after Yahoo and Nokia phones. Stephan says 'Nothing is certain, except that continuous innovation is the only way to survive and prosper. Just ask Steve Jobs.
Total spend on gaming software this year is expected to reach $45bn according to Gartner, with 'online gaming (taking) a larger share of overall spending as social networks and new gaming models take shape. Many online games are currently provided on a subscription basis, but could be provided as free games, with developers earning money through in-game advertising and sale of value-added services or virtual goods'.
There are more than 1 billion users of virtual worlds and roughly half of these are under 15.
Learning Opportunities
Virtual worlds (VWs) are often dismissed as merely games without any educational benefits. But there are plenty of informal learning opportunities for kids in these environments, particularly as these are often children's first experiences with online communities. Participating in a virtual world can help kids learn how to communicate and behave online.
Although they may be a relatively new phenomenon, the fact that kids under 13 are embracing them suggests that we're only beginning to see the potential of these online communities.
Stirrings from the Sony camp may lead to some exciting new innovations - Sony recently announced their HMD device (head mounted display) which Mike Hocking (SCE Studios executive) sees as heading in the right direction for virtual reality 'you can see that we can now get back to where we really wanted to get with virtual reality in the '80s.... We've now got the power to do it, we've got the screen resolution to do it, we've got the processing power to update fast enough so we can have very immersive experiences on head-mounted displays in gaming in the not too distant future... Being in a virtual world where I can see my virtual hands or a virtual gun with all the things we can do in the gaming world is going to be absolutely amazing.'
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