Patent ID: 7840668

Claim:
A method for managing communication between at least two participants in a virtual environment, the method comprising the steps of: displaying a visible representation of a first Avatar representing a first of the at least two participants in the virtual environment to a second of the at least two participants in the virtual environment; displaying a visible representation of a second Avatar representing the second of the at least two participants in the virtual environment to the first of the at least two participants in the virtual environment; while continuing to display the first Avatar, allowing the first of the at least two participants to visually indicate, via an indicator visible to the second of the at least two participants and associated with the first avatar, whether the first of the at least two participants is available to participate in audio communication sessions or not available to participate in audio communication sessions; while continuing to display the second Avatar, allowing the second of the at least two participants to visually indicate, via an indicator visible to the first of the at least two participants and associated with the second avatar, whether the second of the at least two participants is available to participate in audio communication sessions or not available to participate in audio communication sessions; determining a proximate distance between the first and second Avatars representing the at least two participants in the virtual environment; enabling an audio communication session to be established between the at least two participants when the proximate distance between the first and second Avatars representing the at least two participants is less than or equal to a connect distance and both the first and second of the at least two participants have visually indicated via the indicators associated with the Avatars that they are available to participate in audio communication sessions.