|
|
Article: VIRTUAL WORLDS RESEARCH: A CONCEPTUAL PRIMER
- Article from:
- Journal of Electronic Commerce Research
- Article date:
- August 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Journal of Electronic Commerce Research 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
The development of Virtual Worlds is not really new and probably began with the first Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) in the late 1970s. The early text-based or simply animated Virtual Worlds were the spark, lightning a rapid development of increasing technologically sophisticated artifacts. Famous examples in the 1990s, which were already relatively close to today?s graphics engines, include Alphaworld and Blaxxun. In the last few years, improvements in technology infrastructure, hardware and software fostered the emergence of highly sophisticated Virtual Worlds such as Active Worlds, There or Second Life (SL) among others. Since the early 21st century, millions of users have signed up for ...