Virtual worlds. After generating a great deal of buzz a year or two ago, interest in them seemed to fade considerably, or even turn downright negative. Work on virtual world platforms has marched steadily on, however, and the number of users has continued to rise. In a session I led with colleague Hal Richman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last week, interest was clearly high in the potential Second Life and other platforms might offer for leadership development. The discussion inspired me to start doing a bit more poking around in the universe of virtual worlds (to pick up where I left off long ago with Second Life), and one of the useful items my early searching has produced is the following video tour of a long list of virtual worlds. (Click through if you do not see the video.)
Popout |
Links for each of the sites in the video, which was produced by game developer Gary Hayes, are included below in the order in which the respective sites appear. While most of these do not represent great platforms for organizational initiatives -many are aimed at children, for instance – they do offer some good insights into how virtual worlds are being used and, to borrow the term favored by John Seely Brown, what they “afford.” Aside from Second Life, organizations that are serious about looking at virtual worlds for educational or productivity purposes might want to have closer look at Qwaq, Prototerra, or Open Croquet. (Though who am I to judge whether Barbie Online might not be the perfect platform for your purposes!)
- Kaneva
- YoVille (in Facebook)
- RocketOn
- Prototerra
- Gaia Online
- HipiHi
- Google Lively
- Habbo Hotel
- Laguna Beach (vMTV) There.com
- Whyville
- Twinity
- Cyworld
- Football Superstars
- Weblin
- IMVU
- Second Life
- Club Penguin
- Active Worlds
- vSide
- A Tale in the Desert
- Barbie Online
- Amazing Worlds
- Webkinz
- Worlds.com
- Spore
- ExitReality
- Open Croquet
- Metaplace
- Mokitown
- Moove
- The Palace
- Spine World
- Tower Chat
- The Traveller
- Virtual Ibiza
- Star Doll
- The Manor
- There
- Vastpark
- Qwaq
- Playstation 3 Home
- Go Supermodel
I’ve also mentioned John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas’ Why Virtual Worlds Can Matter before in Taking Games Seriously, and I think it is worth recommending again here as reading to accompany your exploration of these worlds.
Have fun.
Jeff Cobb
Hedgehog & Fox
P.S. – See also the virtual worlds section of the Learning 2.0 resource center on the Tagoras site.