Just read a post on Design Observer by Dmitri Siegel about online gaming that caught my attention ( World 6.0: Same as the Old World?). He is talking about on-line games that hundreds or thousands of people can play at once. These are truly virtual reality worlds where you create your own character, called an avatar, who lives, works, plays, and earns money in the world. I pulled a short quote:
"Game designers have identified the primary motivations for these massive multi-player online role-playing game users:
exploring: seeing what is there and mapping it for others;
socializing: forming groups and having shared experiences;
achieving: building things and accumulating social respect; and
controlling: directing and dominating others..."
Those of you who work in the museum community should be familiar with these types of motivations, as they are the very same motivations that museum visitors have in exhibitions. Visitors want to be able to explore and lead their social group, be able to socialize with their friends or family, be able to engage in fun activities like building things or using interactive elements, and feel that they are in control of their visit.
If you don't think that we need to pay attention to these virtual worlds, here is a statistic from Dmitri's article: "Over 10 million people currently spend over 25 hours a week in a synthetic world; the number of synthetic worlds is doubling every two years; and by 2030 the population of synthetic worlds will reach 100 million."
Twenty-five hours a week. How much time are they spending at your museum, store, restaurant, or other leisure destination?
Dmitri's article is based on Edward Castronova’s recent book Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games.
