The Virtual Whirl: Immersion, virtual environments, Facebook, and the conceptual hump

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Filed under: Opinion, Second Life, Virtual worlds, The Virtual Whirl



Second Life is an immersive virtual environment. That is, it fosters attention and a quality of focus. You might subscribe to alternative definitions of the word "immersion", but focus and attention are the sense being used when developer/operators talk about an "immersive environment". They might intend one of the other meanings at other times - the word is a pretty slippery one.

The problem is that for most general-purpose virtual environments (eg: Second Life), that immersivity - that quality of attention and focus - kicks in pretty late. Only after you understand the basics of the context in which your actions, activities and experiences are taking place, do you have the satisfying sort of immersion that comes so easily to flat spaces like the Web and Facebook.

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The Virtual Whirl: Immersion, virtual environments, Facebook, and the conceptual hump originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 15 May 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.




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