The Visual City - Geographic Visualization: Concepts, Tools and Applications - page 192

9.4 The development of virtual social space

Terms and phases come into and out of fashion. Cyberspace, a once common term for
describing the Internet, is now passe, as is the term Metaverse for the description of multi-
user worlds. Yet it is Stephenson's (1992) textual definition of the Metaverse which is closest
to today's visual virtual cities. Stephenson's novel Snowcrash depicts life in the Metaverse:

As Hiro approaches the Street, he sees two young couples, probably using their
parents' computer for a double date in the Metaverse, climbing down out of Port
Zero, which is the local port of entry and monorail stop. He is not seeing real
people of course. This is all part of the moving illustration drawn by his computer
according to the specifications coming down the fiber-optic cable. The people are
pieces of software called avatars. (Stephenson, 1992, p. 35)

Avatars are an individual's embodiment in the Visual City, providing the all-important visual
and social presence in the digital environment. They are the citizens, the occupants and the
commuters of the digital realm; indeed they are the inhabitants of the Visual City in all
but a real physical presence. The term avatar - for use in terms of digital environments -
was first used by Chip Morningstar, the creator of Habitat, the first networked graphical
virtual environment, developed on the Internet in 1985. The term 'avatar' originates from
the Hindu religion as an incarnation of a deity, hence an embodiment or manifestation of
an idea or greater reality. Figure 9.8 illustrates typical designs for avatars in a virtual world,
in this case in Second Life.
Second Life, launched in 2003, currently represents the most successful social/visual space
on the Internet. It differs from other more game-based systems such as the popular World
of Warcraft as it does not have any quests or goals. The system is purely a social geographic

Figure 9.8 Avatars in Second Life