Virtual Worlds

If you're new to virtual worlds, it's not a great leap from the world you already live in.

A sim (short for simulated world) has three dimensions just like a block of land.

It has hills, cities, beaches, rivers, even oceans - The only difference is you can make them exactly how you want them to be.

In Second Life for example, a sim is 65,536 square metres, which is a square block of land 256 m by 256 m.  That's roughly 6.5 hectares or a little over 16 acres.

You develop the land and build on it just like you would a real piece of land (but without all the back-breaking toil :)

The term used for changing the contour of your land, eg to make rivers or hills etc, is called 'terraforming', while the term for making things to put on your land, eg trees, houses, animals, is called 'content creation'.

So why do it?  Well, that answer is different for everyone.  Personally, I use it mainly as an artistic medium - to make things.  Sometimes I also use it for escapism and I know a lot of executive types who do that too.

A producer from Disney who rents a block on one of my sims once said to me "It's cheaper and healthier than booze and drugs, and here the outside world can't touch me."

Whatever people's reasons, virtual worlds are a great social tool - Like Facebook but in a 3D walk-through environment.  Unlike Facebook though, you have an actual interactive presence in that social space.  You are an avatar and you control its movement, its appearance, everything.  You can be whatever you want to be and talk to whoever you want.

A lot of people use virtual worlds already without realising it.  Gaming environments like World of Warcraft etc are obvious examples.

At the core of that gaming environment, someone like me created that world and all the content inside it, such as buildings, weapons, avatars, and so on.

And that's how I derive my pleasure from virtual worlds.

I like building worlds that other people can use and enjoy, and in the case of Old Irukandji, places that people build their own lives and come to call home.

Virtual Worlds is a big topic, so I've split things up on this website for easy perusing.  In the tabs up top you'll see there are two tabs, "Virtual Worlds" and "3D Content".

The links under the Virtual Worlds tabs pertain to the sims themselves and the worlds I created on those sims, and in some cases, its history and the people who lived there.

The links under the 3D Content tab covers all the other stuff - The animals, trees, clothings, avatars, buildings - everything that is not the sim itself.

Have a look around.  There's tons of stuff to look at in the Virtual Worlds and 3D Content sections of the website.

If you want to try out virtual worlds for yourself, you can download a 3D viewer and set up your login for free on the Second Life website.

Once you've done that, click on my Second Life link at the top of any of my web pages and it will take you through to my main sim, Tamita Island.

Have fun, Xay Tomsen/Xavier T