Flight Simulator cockpit
Virtual worlds and simulated environments provide a valuable way of offering an experience without the risk of doing the same in the real world. Simulators have been used for many years and obvious examples are flight simulators to familiarise pilots with elements of the flight experience without the risk of flying an actual plane.
It can be used to assess aptitude prior to full training being provided and allow the potential pilots to learn and ‘crash’ which you clearly wouldn’t want to do in real life.
Virtual environments have advanced a long way and for corporate / military environments they provide very useful training grounds or areas to support strategic development as the computer generates scenarios for the virtual world. Virtual war games like Call of Duty or fantasy war games like World of Warcraft have dedicated gaming communities of players who can play online with other gamers in the shared virtual world of the game scenario. As the games progress, as in real life, you gain experience which tends to be associated with points or skill levels.
Your online persona builds a ‘life’ and becomes part of the virtual world and you get to know other gamers through their involvement in the same game. You would recognise familiar avatars and get to know gaming styles over time and online time is increasing at a phenomenal rate. With a minor worry that there is a risk of becoming addicted to playing the virtual game many people find themselves ‘lost’ in the virtual world to the detriment of their real lives including school, work and relationships.
Computer games generally offer some kind of simulated reality which gives the player an opportunity to achieve things they never could in the real world. Recent additions to the Guinness Book of Records are some Wii records in their special Gamers edition with records like highest score by a female gamer on Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock (789,349 points playing ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ on the expert setting) or The youngest person to reach a perfect ‘AAA’ rating on a Dance Dance Revolution game on the expert difficulty setting is Ryota Wada (Japan) who mastered the song ‘Hyper Eurobeat’ aged 9 years 288 days at his home in Tokyo, Japan, on 29 August 2010.