The New York Times

LAS VEGAS -- RUNNING at remarkably steep angles up a grassy hill, Melinda Gann glanced over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of the beach falling far away from her as she recently made her way to the summit. She was alone and exhilarated. The view, she recalled, was almost as stunning as her achievement: leaving behind her body -- disabled with lupus and arthritis that has confined her to a wheelchair -- to enter a newly created, computer-generated world called There.

It is a meticulously designed, three-dimensional virtual reality, or metaverse. In it people are represented by avatars, cartoonlike figures that move about like marionettes speaking through great bubbles of text appearing over their heads. Consumers using high-speed broadband connections can chat -- not just in text, but by voice as well -- and even share streaming music with one another as they talk and play.

The creator of this virtual world, There Inc., is calling it ''the first online getaway,'' a sort of digital Club Med where the guests -- for a fee yet to be determined -- will be able to connect with other people, shop, or simply explore the exotic surroundings.

And while chat is a major feature of There, the company's chief executive, Tom Melcher, said it offers much more, including avatars enlivened with artificial intelligence that look and act more realistically than typical game characters. They appear to breathe. Their eyes blink, and their body language -- controlled by the user or left to software to animate -- is meant to make conversations feel more natural.

''There is not just a new way to communicate,' he said. ''It's an online place with real- world physics, natural scenery and sounds, and the ability to interact freely with people and objects."

Of course, computer-generated environments in which users can interact through digital alter egos have been around for years. Almost any computer game that lets a player wield a weapon or throw a punch is, by definition, a virtual world. ''The big idea here is not new,'' acknowledged Mr. Melcher, whose company is unveiling There at the Consumer Electronics Show here. Yet now, powered by a new generation of computer graphics, such worlds are not only proliferating but are increasingly aimed at a mainstream audience.

From the Internet's earliest days, the capacity to communicate electronically without a face or voice was almost instantly compelling. As digital technology improved, creating alternate personas, even digital masks from which people could speak as themselves or as fantasy personalities, became increasingly possible, popular and sometimes problematic.

Today, new online services and games like The Sims Online, which was introduced last month, appear to be tapping into the growing niche of online role-playing.

But executives of There Inc. draw a distinction between their creation and The Sims Online. For instance, Mr. Melcher notes that at its core The Sims Online is strictly a game, one in which players have to be ever mindful of their avatars' health, hygiene, comfort and energy. In There, members' avatars can do practically anything or nothing: make friends, play games, explore the virtual world or sit alone on a mountaintop for hours.

Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, which publishes The Sims Online, noted that the goal of the Sims is to acquire a kind of material and spiritual wealth by ''being social and developing as part of a community.'' For There, he said, the objective is less defined.

In both The Sims and There, part of the appeal is escapism and engaging people in situations with few real social risks or consequences. On New Year's Eve, Electronic Arts reported, some half-million kisses were exchanged by Sims during 5,000 online parties. It is unlikely that any of the virtual smooches led to heartache or break-ups in real life.

The appeal of spending time in such a place is fairly understandable, said Esther Dyson, an influential industry analyst and chairwoman of EDventure Holdings, who has seen There.

''It's geared for people who want to spend time wanting to interact with other people beyond their family,'' she said. ''They are the same sort of people who go and hang out in the afternoon in various places or get together after work.'

On the Internet, Ms. Dyson noted, the social interaction in chat rooms often disintegrates into 'trivial, useless, sex-oriented'' babble. And game-based virtual worlds are usually filled with people who want to play games or talk about them.

A virtual destination like There, she said, is more akin to going to a cooking class or an art museum to meet people. ''It's for people who want to be doing something while they meet people,'' she said. What is striking about There is the lengths to which it goes to mimic the mundane detail of everyday life. Members can guide their avatars by basically using the directional keys on a standard computer keyboard not only to meet friends and make new ones but also to explore There's worlds. That can mean anything from spending a day in a spa, where avatars can receive makeovers and haircuts, to surfing in a virtual ocean or joining in a spontaneous game of paintball.

In a recent demonstration, an online member in California invited a New York-based member to meet her on the beach. She drove up in a dune buggy with her dog in the back, picked up her guest and drove off chatting as they headed toward the digital horizon in a world that behaved, thanks to proprietary ''distributed physics,'' like an earthly one with gravity and mass.

Other pursuits seem similarly gratifying. Creating a discussion group can be as simple as planting a flag saying ''Movies'' in the ground, beckoning to anyone who is interested to gather and talk.

In contrast to long-established game worlds like Ultima Online and EverQuest, with their overwhelmingly male audiences, there are no dragons and dungeons in There. But it is hardly devoid of fanciful landscapes, including Tiki, a tropical island, and Saja, a cloud city, both of which have proved to appeal to women.

''I got in there and had a ball running around,'' the disabled player, Ms. Gann, 38, of Oakdale, Tenn., said of the scores of hours she spent as an early tester in Tiki, where sounds of surf and birdsong are ever present. 'It's so realistic that I felt like I was back running cross country for the track team.''

She added: "No one has ever been terribly successful when they have gone out deliberately to appeal to women."

What many players say they have liked most is the sense of freedom. Members can rent houses, give parties, join clubs and, using standard software like Adobe Photoshop or C++ programs, create new objects, animals and environments, There officials said.

There are some controls, Mr. Melcher added. For instance, no avatars can touch, unless they mutually agree to do so. Even then, touches are limited to a kiss. And no avatar can lie down or remove all of its clothing, for fairly obvious reasons.

An unanswered question is whether people will be willing to pay -- and if so, how much - - for this particular variety of ersatz reality. Mr. Melcher suggested that the service may require a monthly fee of perhaps $10. Amy Jo Kim, a There Inc. vice president, said the currency within the game might be purchased for an extra fee or earned -- by working, for instance, as an activity leader.

As is the case in The Sims Online, product placement is intended to pay part of the freight. Nike and Levi Strauss have already signed on to offer online versions of their wares and services in There to which avatars can avail themselves.

Mr. Melcher said a great deal of research was done to create environments friendly to women, a group underrepresented in online virtual worlds. The philosophy, he said, was that if women came to There, men would follow. ''The inverse is not necessarily true,' he added.

A number of features are built into There to prevent the sort of harsh treatment and harassment that women often receive in chat rooms and online virtual worlds. One such control permits members to ignore an irritating avatar while replacing their own avatar with a computer-controlled fake.

Mr. Melcher also acknowledges that he is not certain what most members will want to do in There. During the next phase of its testing he said that There Inc. will closely watch what people want to do and try to help them further develop the virtual world and its tools.

There Inc., a four-year-old company based in Menlo Park, Calif., is now inviting consumers to register for a public test of the product by going to www.there.com. Mr. Melcher said he anticipated officially introducing the game in the third quarter of this year.

While There works well using a 56K dial-up connection to any Internet service provider, it requires computers equipped with no less than an 800-megahertz microprocessor, a high-performance graphics card and a Microsoft DirectX-compatible sound card.

But even with the hardware requirements, which are mostly met with modestly priced new computers, many experts say they believe a world like There will find an audience.

''People spend hours with their e-mail alone for entertainment, and people are getting familiar with big games in which thousands are participating,'' said Herbert Schorr, executive director of the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California. ''Something like this should be a greatly enriching experience for people. I think this will be the next step.'