Virtual heritage: Reality and criticism

Virtual environments which are culturally embedded are often categorized as ‘virtual heritage’. Emerging media and digital tools offer us the possibility to experience 3D virtually reconstructed historic sites as visitors, travelers or even as resident. Many critics have identified different issues that often inhibit widespread distribution and use of virtual heritage. However, these present criticisms are mostly focused on either the ‘process’ or the ‘product’ but do not consider ‘user’, i.e. the people using it. This paper attempts to identify and categorize various constraints through investigating present discourse of literature and presents ‘user’ as another inevitable factor to be considered for developing any virtual heritage environment.