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Virtual worlds are any simulated environment where avatars are used to take on the role of another persona, especially when online. There are many applications such as most games and to administer training to professionals. In sandbox games, players can fabricate new identities with the freedom to choose what they want to do. They are characterised by the creativity they foster due to their lack of formal goals but instead allow players to freely explore the virtual open world. Other genres such as racing games limit player’s freedom but still allow them to look around at the environment that surrounds them.
Virtual worlds are an instance of some current and upcoming trends within multimedia systems as a whole. Multimedia systems use combinations of text, images, animation, audio, video and hypermedia along with interactivity to facilitate their indirect users to acquire knowledge from the information they are presented with.
Minecraft embodies the description of a virtual world. PCGamer describes Minecraft as a sandbox game because of how gameplay is entirely down to the player's choice. Minecraft does have a set of goals such as to increase the player’s level and the advancement system, however, users fulfil these in a non-linear order and have the opportunity to ignore them and instead focus on achieving their own objectives. For example, one YouTuber set their goal to farm 1 million melons within 100 in-game days.
Virtual reality is a major area of how multimedia is used today, particularly when exploring virtual worlds. It allows players to experience what their avatar experiences, developing their empathy, and see the world from a new set of eyes. It engrosses players and allows them to be more energetic and flex their eye muscles as they peer into the three dimensional unknown world.