I think one of the biggest strengths of VR is the fact that the player feels immersed in an alternative environment and feel an intimate connection to that world and objects within it.
Given this feature, I think this medium is fitting to represent building of relationships between people – a simulation of how people interact, connect, and bond.
I first thought about this idea because of the environment we’re in at NYU Abu Dhabi, where we have students and faculty coming from literally everywhere around the world. I was just serving as a Peer Ambassador in the last Candidate Weekend where I talked to prospective students and realized how it is sometimes overwhelming for people who have never travelled abroad before. I think simulating human interactions through VR could help people like these students to know how to situate their thoughts and conversations in a global context.
In this sense, VR could be used as an educational tool for people wanting to learn about people hailing from all over the world. For this specific representation, it could incorporate intricate details specific to different cultures and societies by simulating the different reactions and responses from characters within the VR world coming from different countries. The player can meet and converse with these characters and be informed about the nuances of different cultures.
Such representation in VR provides an interface for interaction where people learn to approach people of different backgrounds, ask informed questions, and know what factors to keep in mind when conversing.
But this leads to questions such as
- Why not just interact with real people?
I think such representation of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic in VR is definitely in no may suggesting that this is the only and most accurate manifestation of what these interactions would look like, but rather is a way for people to get started thinking about how to act, approach and behave when they are in such situations. There are benefits to meeting people like these characters in person, but for those who fear making mistake and want to avoid being overwhelmed, this is a good option to try out.
- What does VR bring to this specific form of representation?
I think having realistic characters to guide you through human interactions can prove to be very important for people not just wanting to “practice” and get to know other cultures before meeting people in person, but also for those who actually struggle to socialize and are introverted – VR can strive to provide an experience as similar to reality as possible.