Introduction to Virtual Worlds

What are virtual worlds? In this context, a world is an environment that its inhabitants regard as being self-contained. It doesn’t have to mean an entire planet: It’s used in the same sense as “the Roman world” or “the world of high finance.”

So what about the virtual part? Not to get too philosophical about it:

• Real: That which is.

• Imaginary: That which isn’t.

• Virtual: That which isn’t, having the form or effect of that which is.

Virtual worlds are places where the imaginary meets the real.