The VW Generation (Virtual Worlds)

My sixteen year old son is an avid player of World of Warcraft. His character has reached the highest levels and he spends much of his time helping and advising others. That’s interesting. Even more interesting is the cross over between this virtual world and the real world. Tom is arguably a member of the generation after the Facebook generation, and as such he uses World of Warcraft not just as a game, but as a meeting place with his friends. It’s in the virtual world that this new generation (the Virtual World generation) make their real world social arrangements. The cross over is seamless and entirely natural. My guess is that as Second Life and other virtual worlds become more accessible, both through an improvement in the way they are coded and as a result of increased computer power and faster broadband speeds, we’ll see more of this. Now, if only I could remember where I left my avatar……..