What can I say? Virtual worlds give us an experience that we might not be able to experience. It helps us to fulfill ideas of travel it will never replace going to the actual location; however, it helps you to see what a culture could look like or what a place could be. Virtual worlds give the user a platform to explore and interact with their surroundings via their avatars. I know with open simulation virtual worlds (open sims) the user can walk freely in their surroundings and interact with most of the objects in the environment. For example, I’m the type of individual who always felt like I was born in the wrong era. It couldn’t be any truer as sometimes I feel lost in the world, I’m in now there is a sim in Second Life that I just adore. It’s called 1920’s Berlin. This area I came across through the destinations guide a few years ago when I wanted to join a historical roleplaying sim. The environment is specified by the detail what it looked like in Berlin during the 20s it’s spot on! I looked at photos on Google to be honest because I wanted to see how historically correct the environment was. This is an amazing example of exploration in a virtual world you’re able to live in a world that uniquely is yours. Whether you want to live in the 20s or Luxembourg in the 30s-40s or you just want to go out and enjoy the nightlife. It’s all possible, throughout my explorations throughout virtual worlds during the years I’ve come across galleries with users artwork, photography outside of the virtual world and inside, with the technological era growing tons and tons of blogs and YouTube videos that you can access straight from the virtual world platform, there is so much it’s somewhat hard to even explain it all.

Virtual worlds not only give us a place to grow, learn, and explore, but they give us the confidence to live our best life even if it’s just through a computer screen. I’m by no means promoting that you shouldn’t go out and experience the world outside your front door but for those who can’t this is an awesome alternative. There is so much to do, honestly, I could spend hours just exploring, taking in world photographs, and living life. Virtual worlds are more about the experience and the exploration than it is anything else, however, it is important to note that everyone joins a virtual world for different reasons. I didn’t know what my purpose was after schooling when it came to Second Life, but I shortly found it afterward. My high school when I first started using Second Life as a platform for teaching, creativity, and communication with classmates and teachers while providing us with hands-on experiences that were created in the world. In 9^th grade we would go on “field trips” to a virtual MOMA museum since obviously going to New York is kind of pricey. My school at the time used Second Life as an educational platform at some point it died out, but it was the only game kept on the school laptops that I could continue to play and explore at my own leisure. You know something to waste the time! That’s when I learned my soul purpose and what I wanted to use virtual worlds for I wanted to use them for exploration and interior design. Through the years I also picked up the title’s shopaholic, virtual world guru, and fashionista but that’s also just me living my best virtual life. I do consider shopping to be a source of explorations because you jump around to different places there are some places, I’ve never even known about that I’ve visited and just walked around their decorated sims without buying anything. One of my favorite shops in the world till this date is called +Half Deer+ the sim is so beautifully created, and it reminds me of a kawaii London feel with old telephone booths, pastel desks, brightly colored sidewalks, and gorgeously pink and light green colored trees. It almost looked like a fantasy-themed park and it is still one of my favorite sims to just hang out in even if I don’t buy anything. Exploration is so important in a virtual world platform even if it isn’t part of your purpose when joining a virtual world, it is an important aspect of one and you’ll most likely be finding yourself exploring different areas at some point during your virtual world experience. I know I’ve been discussing more from a Second Life and Open Sim standpoint these are just my favorite types of virtual worlds because there’s so much freedom with movement and a user’s creativity. However, I also wanted to discuss exploration from an IMVU standpoint!

IMVU is all about exploration while chatting their avatar creation and room creation system is what makes them so popular as a “chatroom” based virtual world platform. Their goal wasn’t to provide freedom of movement but to connect users from across the world pretty much forcing them to be social with others. It’s a social platform hence the reason why their exploration is through the creation of rooms like “chatrooms” instead of vast areas of land that you explore. Even though it’s more limited as to what you can do and explore there is a sense of exploration still attached to the world of IMVU. Through personal experience, there are a lot of clubs, kawaii and Japanese type rooms for my otaku’s and anime fans out there, parks, restaurants, and scenery. IMVU uses a posing system where you sit on a “pose” and it will animate your avatar in the specific area. Poses are what IMVU revolves around. Exploration is seen more for photography purposes for virtual world enthusiasts and photographers for IMVU otherwise it’s an immersive chatroom. There is nothing wrong with that I play IMVU very often especially if I’m feeling super social and creative because the interface is so simplistic. The way of doing things such as creating environments and rooms are simplistic as well. I could place furniture, poses, etc. and finish a gorgeously made room within an hour at most. It probably takes users less than that. The only reason it takes me that long is because I’m picky about how I create things in virtual worlds both avatar and room/land wise.

When you join a virtual world, you join to explore whether it be finding who you are as a person, actual places, or even exploring friendships and relationships this is a place where your imagination comes to play. Virtual worlds give us as the user an opportunity to do things we probably wouldn’t or see things we might not see in a safe environment from the comfort of our own homes whether we’re on the couch, a comfy computer chair, or in our beds ready to go to sleep for the night and just need something to waste some time. There is so much to see and explore! If you want a game where you can explore than a virtual world might just be the right choice for you.