According to K Zero, a virtual world consultancy service, there are over 1 billion (1,009,000,000) people worldwide registered in virtual worlds today.
Rita J. King, CEO of Dancing Ink Productions, a strategic creative content development and research company, believes virtual worlds will augment what she calls "the Digital Culture."
"I envision virtual worlds evolving for business and cultural development as the medium becomes more ubiquitous."
"Chatting in a two-dimensional platform can be fun, informative and valuable," argued King. "But co-creating and inhabiting a three-dimensional space that can then be collaborated upon cannot be matched. This allows people to 'be together' despite geographical location, age, gender, ethnic or sociopolitical affiliation."
"But interactions will only be as developed as the imaginations and motivations of the people involved."
Ideally, King believes we will move to a position where people can augment their physical lives with virtual realities. This may ultimately affect our perceptions of physical 'wants'.
"Things change and develop so fast," Nergiz Kern, an English language educator inside Second Life, told IOL. "But I think virtual worlds will become as normal as the internet is now. Most people who are online will have an avatar and use VW [virtual worlds] for all kinds of activities from meeting and chatting with friends to learning and doing business."
