A new dimension to online chatting

They reasoned that the chatting experience was massively hindered by the slow internet connections, minimal response from other chatters and limited options of interacting in most cases.

But unknown to these chatters are the current existence of 3D virtual chatrooms. Individuals have the freedom to do so much and even more at most of these 2D (2 dimensional) and 3D (three dimensional) chatrooms.

Inside 2D chat-rooms, Users can characterise themselves through 'avatars' (virtual character) that can be moved about a graphic background of a 'room'.

These environments are capable of incorporating elements such as games and educational material most often developed by individual site owners or the administrators. Some visual chat rooms also incorporate audio and video communications, so that users may actually see and hear each other.

Then there are the 3D chat rooms. These are similar to the 2D variety but they are superior through 3D graphics. These allow users to have more realistic interaction with the environment and other users.

For example, in IMVU (www.imvu.com) a user can create his or her unique avatar. Later the user can use his avatar to chat and interact (dance, serenade, flirt, hug, greet) etc. with other users.

The environments are always 3D and two environments are given to a single user for free after signing up. Interested users have the chance to buy their avatar names, virtual goodies, environments etc.

Besides these, unlike MSN and Yahoo, the chatter does not need to scroll all the way up the dialog box to read a message. The 3d environment uses 'chat bubbles', instead of the dialog boxes. These bubbles are similar to talk bubbles in comic books. The bubbles can be stretched down with the mouse to read previous messages.

Some popular sites and chatrooms also allow users to create or 'build' their own spaces.

Besides these, there are e-communities, which are currently using the 3D concept to generate better and more enthusiastic response from their community members.

Most of these communities even have their own 3D virtual dance clubs, bars, lounge etc. Here the users can easily interact and chat with other users through their avatar.

Three such chatrooms are There (www.there.com), Second Life (www.secondlife.com), and Activeworlds (www.active-worlds.com).

Moove.com is another site, which enables users to build fantastic 3D avatars. Users can interact in a number of different environments and even meet new people.

But despite, the trend's increasing popularity in the West, chatters of the South East Asian region are mostly ignorant of it. Others, who have used them, have expressed mixed reactions.

"There are too many instructions and the processes are quite complicated, at times," said Jyoti, a regular user of imvu.

Imran, a teenager, on the other hand, loved moove.com.

"I can actually slap and attack other users and watch their virtual reaction," he explained gleefully.

He, however, informed StarTech that 3D chatrooms eat up a lot of memory.

"This slowed down my internet and computer speed. I had to uninstall it later," he said.

As most of these rooms are using 3D graphics for interaction, the system requirements of a computer need to be quite high. Furthermore, a reliable internet connectivity as per speed is also required.

But despite all these, there is no guarantee that most users will be loyal to these 3D chat environments as much as they were with the text or Internet Relay chats (IRC).

The lack of ample friends inside these rooms may cause boredom for some chatters, again.