One of the other key problems with the discourse coming out of the VRML community is that it assumes that the rest of world is where they are, or that we are not far behind. VRML developers preach VRML as if it were a new religion, and that one day we will all "see the light." This contributes to the ongoing sweeping generalizations that at times leaves others wondering how often they themselves dabble in a little RL. Witness, as one example, a statement by Carl Francis DiSalvo, in his ON VRML essay published in the November 17 1997 issue of Rhizome: "By the (obviously inherent [sic]) virtual nature of VRML, our construction of space is limited only by our imagination. The VRML environment is only like architecture or theater as long as it functions as if it were actual, rather than virtual."
	Anyone who has ever tried to create anything artistic on a computer knows that we are bound by much more than our imaginations, and that overcoming those challenges is an inherent part of the creative process; tell a VRML designer that he is only bound by his imagination, and he will laugh as he tells you how each browser reads his code in different and peculiar ways. Likewise, the notion that theatre hasn't been experimenting with the integration of so-called "virtual spaces" shows a lack understanding of what much of theatre has been about since the early 1960s; theatre has been experimenting with temporal and cognitive spaces long before any of us donned HMDs (head-mounted displays).
	Likewise, VRML co-creator Mark Pesce himself has made several statements about VRML's role in the new unification of the human race that appears to come more out of Californian-esque perceptions of living than a recognition of the political and cultural realities of the world. One example: "It's necessary for the Web to grow well beyond even its current boundaries; I insist that it is the initial instance of a new form of communication, probably as important as the birth of human language a million years ago."
From Riven: The Sequel to Myst Copyright Cyan, Inc.	Perhaps still in the comfort of 2D HTML, our text-based culture isn't quite ready for VR on demand, at least not until a viable "killer app" appears on the market that shows both its usefulness and its uniqueness to a wide variety of people. Computer games is of course the exception, and many successful games such as Doom and Riven mimic VR-like sensibilities via its first-person point of view and simulation of 3D space, but even they aren't marketed as virtual reality, perhaps out of recognition of the perception of relative obscurity that the general public still has with VR.
	VRML may be the first elitist platform on the net, not necessarily because of access issues, but out of choice.