Cyber Tourism.
Created | Updated Sep 18, 2003
There are many forms of tourism: cultural/sustainable/adventure/heritage/eco-/agri-/.
The cyber tourist differs from all other tourists by keeping his corporeal form safely at home :)
The cyber-tourist sits at the computer and views new landscapes.
He may inhabit an avatar, a "cyber-body" and wonder around a landscape at will, his visit being motivated by curiosity either about the world he is visiting or about the other humans, plus Artificial intelligence's he may encounter.
The difference between the tourist and a games player is that the cyber-tourist is there to admire the view whilst a player is there to play, and playing requires a different mental attitude.
The tourist takes the cyber-world seriously, but is free to remain somewhat aloof. A tourist is free to interact with the cyber world using his own rules, rather than to abide by the rules of any game.
At present most cyber-tourism cannot be a 'virtual reality' experience as defined by Jaron Lanie,founder of VPL Research (1989).
Originally, the term referred to 'Immersive Virtual Reality.' In immersive VR, the user becomes fully immersed in an artificial, three-dimensional world that is completely generated by a computer, for this the user needs something close to a replicated version of the 'virtual reality' environment he is using. For example a car sim' game would require the driver to be sitting inside a [non-functional!] car, wearing a headset that allowed the virtual world and physical world to seem one. In other words, the headset provides totally false information about where the driver is going, whilst rumble pads in the seat and the feel of the steering wheel convince him that the illusion is real.
VRML is Virtual reality modelling language. VRML provides three-dimensional worlds with integrated hyperlinks on the Web. Home pages become home spaces. The viewing of VRML models via a VRML plug-in for Web browsers is usually done on a graphics monitor under mouse-control and, therefore, not regarded as fully immersive.
Now to be honest the only VRML web-site I visited seemed to be about advertising with the option of chatting with your fellow 'consumers'. I would liken it to visiting a shopping mall, so I mention VRML sites only for the sake of providing you with as much information as I can. There is nothing inherently wrong about visiting shopping-malls, and it's a legitimate tourist activity, so please don't be put off by my negativity! http://www.worlds.net/news/PressReleases/prn051.html
Warning, upon entering this world you will find yourself in the virtual form of a penguin!
To use a computer to visit other-worlds is simplicity itself. Most commonly, a cyber tour is a set of photos of a real or cyber place uploaded to the web and viewed as a web page with helpful text and further links to provide the viewer with background information. Some sites use Java coding to enable you to 'look around' a single photo.........this web format can be likened to reading a book. When you read "Alice in wonderland" you entered wonderland and 'watched' the virtual images produced within your mind as Alice's story unfolded. A web-site may be as interactive as a pop-up-book.
Less commonly a cyber-tourist may use a computer to explore places that are nothing more than collections of 1's and 0's, in short are just 'software' requiring the hardware of a computer plus graphics monitor under mouse-control to become tangible.
To take a tour of some really spectacular worlds you will need to use a computer that has at least one of these games installed: Riven, Quake Arena or Unreal Tournament. Most cyber-cafe's will have Quake and Unreal installed.
You can take a virtual tour of Riven on the web, go to http://hometown.aol.com/Chisealpin/riven.html
Riven is an extremely beautiful place and very safe on all levels. There are no malicious enemies waiting to ambush you, you can explore at your own pace and the only skill required is to be able to point and click with a mouse.
Quake Arena and Unreal tournament are dedicated to a type of on-line game known as DeathMatch, so there will be 'malicious beings' there to attack the tourist unless the tourist plays OFF-LINE and uses the menu to remove any AI's [artificial intelligence's] from the 'maps'. You are free to explore the cathedrals and dungeons once you have chosen a virtual body and familiarised yourself with the movement controls.
Quake and Unreal both utilise 'Mouse-Look', this means that your left hand controls the amount of movement [stop, jump, crouch and go] whilst the mouse allows you to look around 360 degrees and determines direction of movement.
Quake Arena could be described by the epitome of a Gothic game......The term Gothic was first used during the later Renaissance, [and as a term of contempt].
"Then arose new architects who after the manner of their barbarous nations erected buildings in that style which we call Gothic (dei Gotthi)." Florentine historiographer Giorgio Vasari was the first to label the architecture of preceding centuries "Gothic," in reference to the tribes that overran the Roman empire in the sixth century. Vasari implied that this architecture was debased, especially compared to that of his own time, which had revived the forms of classical antiquity.
The Arena Eternal is, in effect a Valhalla where heroes enjoy fighting for many hours. The combatants are intent upon battle and will get you 'kicked' from the game should you fail to join in so it is essential for any tourist to make sure the Arena is empty before starting to explore the cathedrals and dungeons. This link will take you to the Cathdral area of Brimstone Abbey.
http://www.btinternet.com/~rideflame/brimstone.html
Unreal Tournament has many places that induce vertigo. I can't imagine how terrifying some of it's environments would be if the player wore a headset....but I look forwards to finding out. It is not a Gothic 'world,' more a science fiction realm, deserted factories, landscapes floating in the immense void of space or finding yourself on board an alien space craft or an ancient galleon at sea.
Unlike the VRML world I visited, you can push and use things in Quake and Unreal, this makes the places 'feel' more real along side the fact that you can get your avatar-self hurt or killed by falling or stepping into lava!
One final form of cyber-tourism would be analogous to adventure-tourism. This would be to enter an on-line game with fellow tourists and led by an experienced guide who would show you around or lead you through a game. This would be ideal for people who were interested in the experience of gaming but didn't feel inclined to invest any time or money into acquiring skills or hardware.
Finally my term cyber-tourist exists as a different spelling. Hackers use the word turist. Turist, is defined by the free on-line dictionary' as " A guest on the system, especially one who generally logs in over a network from a remote location for comm mode, electronic mail, games and other trivial purposes".
As with most hacker stuff, the word turist is slightly derogatory, so I shall finish this with a quote from Bertrand Russell!
"The time you enjoy wasting is not time wasted." And to say that should you want any help regarding taking tours of cyber-places, please get in touch. Meanwhile, here is a tour of Brimstone Abbey:
http://www.btinternet.com/~rideflame/Arena/BrimStoneTour.html
The cyber tourist differs from all other tourists by keeping his corporeal form safely at home :)
The cyber-tourist sits at the computer and views new landscapes.
He may inhabit an avatar, a "cyber-body" and wonder around a landscape at will, his visit being motivated by curiosity either about the world he is visiting or about the other humans, plus Artificial intelligence's he may encounter.
The difference between the tourist and a games player is that the cyber-tourist is there to admire the view whilst a player is there to play, and playing requires a different mental attitude.
The tourist takes the cyber-world seriously, but is free to remain somewhat aloof. A tourist is free to interact with the cyber world using his own rules, rather than to abide by the rules of any game.
At present most cyber-tourism cannot be a 'virtual reality' experience as defined by Jaron Lanie,founder of VPL Research (1989).
Originally, the term referred to 'Immersive Virtual Reality.' In immersive VR, the user becomes fully immersed in an artificial, three-dimensional world that is completely generated by a computer, for this the user needs something close to a replicated version of the 'virtual reality' environment he is using. For example a car sim' game would require the driver to be sitting inside a [non-functional!] car, wearing a headset that allowed the virtual world and physical world to seem one. In other words, the headset provides totally false information about where the driver is going, whilst rumble pads in the seat and the feel of the steering wheel convince him that the illusion is real.
VRML is Virtual reality modelling language. VRML provides three-dimensional worlds with integrated hyperlinks on the Web. Home pages become home spaces. The viewing of VRML models via a VRML plug-in for Web browsers is usually done on a graphics monitor under mouse-control and, therefore, not regarded as fully immersive.
Now to be honest the only VRML web-site I visited seemed to be about advertising with the option of chatting with your fellow 'consumers'. I would liken it to visiting a shopping mall, so I mention VRML sites only for the sake of providing you with as much information as I can. There is nothing inherently wrong about visiting shopping-malls, and it's a legitimate tourist activity, so please don't be put off by my negativity! http://www.worlds.net/news/PressReleases/prn051.html
Warning, upon entering this world you will find yourself in the virtual form of a penguin!
To use a computer to visit other-worlds is simplicity itself. Most commonly, a cyber tour is a set of photos of a real or cyber place uploaded to the web and viewed as a web page with helpful text and further links to provide the viewer with background information. Some sites use Java coding to enable you to 'look around' a single photo.........this web format can be likened to reading a book. When you read "Alice in wonderland" you entered wonderland and 'watched' the virtual images produced within your mind as Alice's story unfolded. A web-site may be as interactive as a pop-up-book.
Less commonly a cyber-tourist may use a computer to explore places that are nothing more than collections of 1's and 0's, in short are just 'software' requiring the hardware of a computer plus graphics monitor under mouse-control to become tangible.
To take a tour of some really spectacular worlds you will need to use a computer that has at least one of these games installed: Riven, Quake Arena or Unreal Tournament. Most cyber-cafe's will have Quake and Unreal installed.
You can take a virtual tour of Riven on the web, go to http://hometown.aol.com/Chisealpin/riven.html
Riven is an extremely beautiful place and very safe on all levels. There are no malicious enemies waiting to ambush you, you can explore at your own pace and the only skill required is to be able to point and click with a mouse.
Quake Arena and Unreal tournament are dedicated to a type of on-line game known as DeathMatch, so there will be 'malicious beings' there to attack the tourist unless the tourist plays OFF-LINE and uses the menu to remove any AI's [artificial intelligence's] from the 'maps'. You are free to explore the cathedrals and dungeons once you have chosen a virtual body and familiarised yourself with the movement controls.
Quake and Unreal both utilise 'Mouse-Look', this means that your left hand controls the amount of movement [stop, jump, crouch and go] whilst the mouse allows you to look around 360 degrees and determines direction of movement.
Quake Arena could be described by the epitome of a Gothic game......The term Gothic was first used during the later Renaissance, [and as a term of contempt].
"Then arose new architects who after the manner of their barbarous nations erected buildings in that style which we call Gothic (dei Gotthi)." Florentine historiographer Giorgio Vasari was the first to label the architecture of preceding centuries "Gothic," in reference to the tribes that overran the Roman empire in the sixth century. Vasari implied that this architecture was debased, especially compared to that of his own time, which had revived the forms of classical antiquity.
The Arena Eternal is, in effect a Valhalla where heroes enjoy fighting for many hours. The combatants are intent upon battle and will get you 'kicked' from the game should you fail to join in so it is essential for any tourist to make sure the Arena is empty before starting to explore the cathedrals and dungeons. This link will take you to the Cathdral area of Brimstone Abbey.
http://www.btinternet.com/~rideflame/brimstone.html
Unreal Tournament has many places that induce vertigo. I can't imagine how terrifying some of it's environments would be if the player wore a headset....but I look forwards to finding out. It is not a Gothic 'world,' more a science fiction realm, deserted factories, landscapes floating in the immense void of space or finding yourself on board an alien space craft or an ancient galleon at sea.
Unlike the VRML world I visited, you can push and use things in Quake and Unreal, this makes the places 'feel' more real along side the fact that you can get your avatar-self hurt or killed by falling or stepping into lava!
One final form of cyber-tourism would be analogous to adventure-tourism. This would be to enter an on-line game with fellow tourists and led by an experienced guide who would show you around or lead you through a game. This would be ideal for people who were interested in the experience of gaming but didn't feel inclined to invest any time or money into acquiring skills or hardware.
Finally my term cyber-tourist exists as a different spelling. Hackers use the word turist. Turist, is defined by the free on-line dictionary' as " A guest on the system, especially one who generally logs in over a network from a remote location for comm mode, electronic mail, games and other trivial purposes".
As with most hacker stuff, the word turist is slightly derogatory, so I shall finish this with a quote from Bertrand Russell!
"The time you enjoy wasting is not time wasted." And to say that should you want any help regarding taking tours of cyber-places, please get in touch. Meanwhile, here is a tour of Brimstone Abbey:
http://www.btinternet.com/~rideflame/Arena/BrimStoneTour.html
