Virtual worlds have been utilized much more over the past years, and will continue to thrive as a prospering technology and media. Virtual worlds have been created to practically model reality, or come as close to it. They have helped with training programs, such as in the military or hospitals, arouse gaming experiences, such as racing, and many other useful applications. In Stephanie Simon's article, Avatar II: The Hospital, we see that virtual world benefits many students pursing a field in nursing. Not only do medical schools save some money by incorporating virtual things rather than physical, it also serves as learning experiences. Virtual worlds are indeed fostering creativity, programmers are challenged everyday to try and model reality to give the best experiences to users, and that itself is a incredibly difficult task, given internal and external forces that are always changing the environment.
On the other hand, Virtual worlds may not seem all beneficial. In the article, Virtual world may impact real world behaviour, we see the negative complications it brings. The article explains how many users, essentially pretend to be someone who they are not, to test out different experiences and outcomes. Using the virtual world as a proxy for what can be done in reality, is a dangerous thought. In the article, people played either a superman or villain character, and were then after, asked to taste either chocolate or chili sauce and pour one of them for the next participant to taste. The participants who played villain, indeed poured more chili sauce for the next person to try. This here, given more extreme actions and thoughts, could be a very lethal weapon on a mass scale.
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