Virtual Worlds.You've probably all seen them before in science fiction in comics.  Worlds where jacking in via VR helmet or Neuro Implant send us to some fantastical internet life separate from our real one.  It's quite a dream that's for sure, except it might not be as much of a dream as we once thought.  Though we are decades away from "The Matrix" and gladly so, virtual worlds have existed for sometime now, and are evolving day by day.

The idea of the virtual world really started in the chat room.  Basic IRC text based role-playing evolved into "Mu*s", a variety of online text interface games that ran off of their own server for nothing but 24/7 gaming.  They were called Mu*s because of the many different types of acronyms that described them.  There were Muds, multi user dungeons, which kept stats much like a game of DND, or a console role-playing game.  Then there were Mucks, or multi user chat kingdoms, which had no stats and was completely based off of text and chat based role-playing.  Of course, there was everything in between, from Muns to Mushes, to a whole bunch of other acronyms which probably mean very little to you.

The important link that tied all of these chat based games together, was the concept of virtual space.  Each Mu* was based around a "room" or "area" structure.  If you (or your character) was in an area, he could interact with others in the area.  While this started just as a string of internet chat rooms, it slowly evolved, mostly by adding a little bit of user imagination to it.  Commands to move from one area to another were "North, South, East, West" so on so forth.  To open a door, you had to actually type a command for your character to open it.  Although at its most basic levels, these Mu*s were still text based role-playing, still letters on a screen; it gave the player a feeling of existing in tangible space.

Flash forward a bit to the advent of online gaming.  Online RPG's and afterward MMO's changed the face of gaming forever.  Now not only did you have a character in a virtual world, but you had a visual representation of him and that world.  You were free to wander around, discover new things, meet new people, make new friends, party together, kill some beasties, and make your own worldly impact.  Player economy grew from scratch, items going for certain amounts of in game currency based entirely off of a need system determined by the players themselves.  Soon real money trading became a possibility.  Players would raise characters to sell them, or their items on EBay or other real money markets.  It was an entire aspect of civilization, economy, reaching a whole new area in only a few years.  In addition, regardless of people's ethical views on such subjects, people got into online romances, and even online marriages.  This was an example of one of the most interesting phenomena known to man in the modern day.  Online society, builds itself!

When it comes to MMO's and other online RPG's, they could be said to have descended from the Mud's.  At the base, there is a game, with stats, with enemies to fight, possibly with player versus player action.  So what descended from the Mucks, the games in which only chat and role-playing prevail?  The answer: what has been said to be one of the most interesting things to hit the net in some time, Second Life.

In the old text based Mucks, you were able to be essentially anything you wanted.   The world itself could have had an overarching theme but as long as you fit that theme, your character, how powerful they are, so on and so forth was completely your domain.  Extending this into a graphical world caused an interesting problem.  Games and computer programs have limited scope.  How can a player have full control over themselves when a GUI (graphical user interface) simply hasn't been created yet to be that flexible?  Many attempts were made but every one fell a little short.  One of the more notable efforts which is still around today is Furcadia.  However, this sprite based Multi User Chat Kingdom had limited options as to the players you could play and the items you could have or control.

Second life offered an interesting alternative, in a very "Less Is More" fashion.  Second life itself, is best described as a toolbox.  Players can put together polygons however they like and skin them through importing their own graphics files.  Players can then program how they interact with other items, and even how the laws of the world (game physics and whatnot) interact with them.  This goes for both the items characters can control and the characters themselves.  The resulting mishmash which has become second life, is a game, or even more so a virtual world that is completely made by its inhabitants.

Think about this for a second.  Second Life gave gamers an interesting opportunity.  They were given space.  That's it!  Land, area, and tools to do anything inside that area and what did they do... they built a society.  Even now second life has its own currency and in game trade for in game items keeps that currency flowing steadily.  However, the economics of second life don't end there.  Linden Dollars (Second Life's Currency) have a real dollar exchange rate!  The denizens and items in this virtual world now have evolved to an economic level that it is recognized by the rest of the world's economy!

It doesn't stop there. Second life has evolved its own world to such an extent that people now have "jobs" to gain these Linden Dollars!  Running shops, therapy or counseling, item building, and even… ahem… prostitution, all are possible and lucrative careers you can run in an entirely virtual world.  Entire businesses have been launched on second life, and have offices exclusively in the virtual world, rather than in reality.  The world is so complete and so blurred with actual reality, that you can use your avatar to complete real life transactions.  For example, if you wanted to buy something and have it delivered to your house, you can take your second life avatar to a department store, or if you wanted to make a deposit in a bank your avatar could wait in line (sigh… some things never change) and walk up to a teller window to do so.

One now has to ask where the game ends and reality begins.  What constitutes "reality" and what constitutes a game?   Inside the world of second life, retail games and game systems have been made.  You can now purchase a pc, to use, for pc things, on your pc.  In fact, eventually you may be able to buy a PC on second life, to play second life, on second life.  It's an interesting layer within layer feel, which blurs the line between real and virtual worlds.  In fact the line is so blurred that at last years Anime USA there was a dance event that was simulcast between the real world and the virtual world.  The real world had a window into the virtual reality of second life, and second life had a window (through a camera) to the real world, and creatures and citizens of both worlds were able to converse with each other freely.

So what does this mean for the rest of us?  Well second life isn't entirely main stream yet.  Many gamers and other people use the rationalization of "I already have one life, why pay for another" or "why would I want to work in a virtual world when I already have a job".  To some, the option of being able to live as an anthropomorphic animal, or buy a hover board just isn't appealing enough to devote time to a virtual world.  In addition, Second Life is a graphical world, which means people with older PC's are left in the dust.

But what if society does catch up?  Is it possible that we can live our entire lives over PC? That we will never really have to leave our homes again?  Well, it's a scary picture, and the probability is low, but the possibility is there, and Linden Labs, creators of second life are not the only company to take notice.

Recently, Sony debuted home, a new organization and socialization system for the PS3.  Meant in a small bit to compete with the Wii's Mii channel, in PS3 home you are able to create your own virtual avatar, and move him throughout virtual space, interacting with objects, and other avatars.  In addition, you can use this virtual space to manage memory or settings on your PS3 or to play PS3 games.  It promises to be a brand new way to find people to play with over the internet.  The modding community speculates that it's possible to rig a PS3 with an operating system, so that your avatar could use a computer in this virtual world as well.

This of course, begs the question, how many layers are there?  Can I boot up my PS3, to wander to my virtual computer, to boot up virtual second life, to go to my second virtual computer, to log on to virtual eBay, to buy a virtual memory card for my second life avatar, which buys a memory card for my home avatar, which gets a memory card sent to me in real life?  Do I even want to!?!  Do gamers want to!?!  How deep into man made worlds and user created societies are we going to delve?  How deep does the rabbit hole go Alice?  Is there a chance that some day, instead of reading this article, you will instead walk on over to the Bona Fide Reviews lecture hall to hear me rant and rave in real time.

Well we can only hope. Until then, we wait, we watch, and we look at what we have now and how it evolves.  However, if the pattern continues as it has been, future "virtual" realities may be much less "virtual" than we originally suspected.