CHAT CLUSTERS FOR A VIRTUAL WORLD APPLICATION

摘要

A virtual world environment is provided having chat clusters. A request to initiate a chat cluster is received from a user. Next, the other participants of the chat cluster are identified, and a conversation area within the virtual environment is defined. The conversation area is generated responsive to the number of participants in the chat cluster. Then, the avatars are oriented within the conversation toward each other. When display to the users of the virtual world, the avatars appear to be naturally displayed as groups of people having conversations with each other. Thus, new users can immediately identify which users are conversing with each other, and can tell which users are available for approach. Once initiating a chat cluster, the participants of the chat cluster broadcast their communications on a chat cluster communication channel, and the user's view of the virtual world focuses on the other participants of the chat cluster. The chat cluster communication channel conducts communications from participants only to other participants of the chat cluster and blocks communications from those not part of the chat cluster.