LifeLike - Virtual Worlds 2007 September 25, 2007

Every single month, virtual-world populations are increased by millions of new residents. Company profiles and headquarters are emerging in sheer virtual universes; more and more people lead their everyday life through an avatar – relying on this virtual alter ego to bring home their earnings; and now the authorities are also moving in. But where are these virtual worlds taking us humans? What is the future of the future?
At a first glance, it appears like a freak result from the meeting between the weird and the wonderful. But, looking at the prevailing trends and technologies, the virtual worlds seem to be a natural effect of a series of causes: the game industry is perpetually redrawing the boundaries for graphic prowess; and their turnover has long since passed that of Hollywood. Social networks are forging virtual bonds between several hundred millions of people. Today, the sharing of digital properties, such as e.g. sound and images, constitutes the majority of all internet traffic. Web 2.0 and open source are labels conveying a much more interactive exploitation of the Internet as a tool. Concepts such as CustomerMade and Crowdsourcing express a net-based and extremely active user involvement, where products or – in case of virtual worlds, entire worlds – are created by the users themselves. All this leads to an unavoidable and natural consequence: our lives are becoming virtual. LiveLike is an international stocktaking of the aspects and perspectives of the virtual worlds.

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