Animation Blog

When commercial and free virtual worlds are mentioned in passing, some people may initially think of interactive 3D animated environments with moving avatars with the appearance of people moving around. However, virtual worlds are not restricted to such definition. The important qualifier for a virtual world is a sense of community without requiring physical or geographical presence. If a group of people shares a certain ideal, topic of discussion, and set of rules, then it is already a virtual world by itself. For this matter, World Wide Web forums are an interesting case study.

Forums may have a software interface but at its core they are usually governed by a set of people referred to as the staff. These people in authority are composed of administrators and moderators which are in charge of maintaining the smooth technical operation of the forums and the strict implementation of rules. In the real world, they are the government.

As with any government trying to inculcate a sense of peace and order within the forums, a set of rules is usually followed. To aid the newcomers to integrate smoothly with these rules and regulations, a FAQ or a frequently asked questions section is put in place.

So if we have a semblance of government in Internet forums, then further solidifying the claim that virtual worlds and communities are a reflection of the real world, then there should be a citizenry. By default, everyone is welcome to join a forum (except in certain cases wherein an entire country is banned to enter a server, but that is mostly for political reasons.) However, participating in discussions may be a bit difficult especially if you have no familiarity with the subject at hand. Internet etiquette or more popularly known as netiquette is an important value practiced by most forum users. With politeness as a virtue, some users may find it easier to be integrated in the flow of the discussion.

Similar to real societies, there are also offenders in Internet communities. There are users described as trolls – people with nothing better to do but post information which are of no value than to stir controversy, heated exchanges and the likes. It can result to flame wars – which is nothing more than an online version of a pointless and childlike argument.

Words are the most powerful element in Internet forums and they serve as the life line of these virtual communities. However, it can be open to abuse especially those who put the freedom of speech in the twisted context. Much of the knock against the Internet is its ability to keep users anonymous – and therefore giving the protection to stay accountable to the comments they make. There are ways to counter this, for example, detecting and banning the IPs of that particular user which acts as the DNA of the computer the user is in. But there are more and more ways in which the rules of forums are infringed such as double posting, sock puppet registration and even spamming.

During the advent of virtual worlds, it was touted as a radically different social experience from real life because it is isolated and can create its own set of worlds. But word-powered virtual worlds such as Internet forums are proof that these communities at best are only a complement to real life. The parallelisms with the real world are too numerous to ignore; these virtual communities have their own government, citizenry, law enforcement and law breaking. This only goes to show that the all users share a certain part of their real world upbringing in these virtual communities – and how they interact with each other is the interesting part to take note of here.