Corporations are using virtual worlds to educate and entertain people. IBM uses a virtual world for employee orientation and mentoring. A new employee at IBM can “learn how to sign-up for benefits, work on a global team and brush up on presentation skills.” Webkinz created a virtual world that allows children to interact with their plush toys online. They can play take care of their virtual pet by feeding and playing with it.
IBM is able to reduce training costs by using virtual worlds. Once they hire an employee they give them immediate access to the virtual worlds so that they can begin to learn about the culture and environment that they are going to work for. Webkinz is breathing additional life into its plush toys. Children can go online and play with the toy that they purchased. They learn to take care of their pets by completing tasks to earning money. The money can then be used buy food or entertain their virtual pet.
The darkside to IBM virtual world was that some employees were spending to much time modifying their avatars and not enough time learning. They adjusted the avatars so that they would not be much of a distraction. With Webkinz they restrict what a person can say when communicating with others. When chatting with other friends you are limited to predefined words. Additional, no personal information is stored about the user.
I think that both IBM and Webkinz have found a great use for virtual worlds. These virtual worlds are educational and entertaining.
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