The Circlemud Administrator's Manual
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting
THE EFFECTS OF SELF CONTROL AND SOCIAL LEARNING VARIABLES ON DEVIANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL IN A VIRTUAL WORLD By AMANDA M. ADAMS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 © 2014 Amanda M. Adams To my Mom and Dad, who knew I could do it even when I doubted ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my Chair, Dr. Richard Hollinger, for his wonderful guidance throughout this project. His time, energy and support were a tremendous help. I thank Dr. Lonn Lanza-Kaduce for his time spent proofing my paper and discussing analysis techniques and directions. I would like to thank Dr. Ken Wald for his assistance with creating my survey. I thank Dr. Kendal Broad for her help with proofing and clarifying concepts. I thank my parents for their support and understanding while I worked toward my goal and for never letting me forget why I was here. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS ....................................................................... 9 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... -
Asheron's Call
Asheron’s Call: Redefining The Role Of Player Killing Vasiliy Zhulin STS 145: History of Computer Game Design Professor Henry Lowood March 18, 2003 In the past few years, a new genre of gaming matured for the mass market – the genre of Massively-Multiplayer-Online-Games (MMOGs). Games like Ultima Online, Everquest, Asheron’s Call, and the others that followed blurred the line between gaming and reality. No longer could the player save his progress at any stage, shut down the game, and return to it later to find it in the same state. The virtual worlds of these MMOGs were persistent – life moved on even if some players were offline. Virtual societies developed, complete with their own politics and history. The designers simply provided some basic rules and framework, and the players themselves did the rest by “living” their virtual lives. One of the pieces of framework provided in MMOGs is the ability to fight other human characters, as opposed to just non-player monsters. Player vs. Player combat (hereafter referred to as PvP combat), or more commonly known as player killing, allows players to battle the toughest opponents in any game – humans themselves. Unfortunately, in the first two MMOGs, Ultima Online and Everquest, the idea of PvP combat was not balanced to satisfy the majority of the players. In Ultima Online, player killers (hereafter referred to as PKs) actually ravaged peaceful players and, after killing them, looted the players’ items from their corpses. Many customers were furious! As Al Giovetti describes, “Ultima was never about player killing, it was about good role playing. -
Cyber-Synchronicity: the Concurrence of the Virtual
Cyber-Synchronicity: The Concurrence of the Virtual and the Material via Text-Based Virtual Reality A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Jeffrey S. Smith March 2010 © 2010 Jeffrey S. Smith. All Rights Reserved. This dissertation titled Cyber-Synchronicity: The Concurrence of the Virtual and the Material Via Text-Based Virtual Reality by JEFFREY S. SMITH has been approved for the School of Media Arts and Studies and the Scripps College of Communication by Joseph W. Slade III Professor of Media Arts and Studies Gregory J. Shepherd Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii ABSTRACT SMITH, JEFFREY S., Ph.D., March 2010, Mass Communication Cyber-Synchronicity: The Concurrence of the Virtual and the Material Via Text-Based Virtual Reality (384 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Joseph W. Slade III This dissertation investigates the experiences of participants in a text-based virtual reality known as a Multi-User Domain, or MUD. Through in-depth electronic interviews, staff members and players of Aurealan Realms MUD were queried regarding the impact of their participation in the MUD on their perceived sense of self, community, and culture. Second, the interviews were subjected to a qualitative thematic analysis through which the nature of the participant’s phenomenological lived experience is explored with a specific eye toward any significant over or interconnection between each participant’s virtual and material experiences. An extended analysis of the experiences of respondents, combined with supporting material from other academic investigators, provides a map with which to chart the synchronous and synonymous relationship between a participant’s perceived sense of material identity, community, and culture, and her perceived sense of virtual identity, community, and culture. -
The Decline of Mmos
The Decline of MMOs Prof. Richard A. Bartle University of Essex United Kingdom May 2013 Abstract Ten years ago, massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMOs) had a bright and exciting future. Today, their prospects do not look so glorious. In an effort to attract ever-more players, their gameplay has gradually been diluted and their core audience has deserted them. Now that even their sources of new casual players are drying up, MMOs face a slow and steady decline. Their problems are easy to enumerate: they cost too much to make; too many of them play the exact same way; new revenue models put off key groups of players; they lack immersion; they lack wit and personality; players have been trained to want experiences that they don’t actually want; designers are forbidden from experimenting. The solutions to these problems are less easy to state. Can anything be done to prevent MMOs from fading away? Well, yes it can. The question is, will the patient take the medicine? Introduction From their lofty position as representing the future of videogames, MMOs have fallen hard. Whereas once they were innovative and compelling, now they are repetitive and take-it-or-leave-it. Although they remain profitable at the moment, we know (from the way that the casual games market fragmented when it matured) that this is not sustainable in the long term: players will either leave for other types of game or focus on particular mechanics that have limited appeal or that can be abstracted out as stand-alone games (or even apps). -
Player Traits and Gratifications of Casual and Hardcore Players of Pokémon GO, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and Ingress
Player Traits and Gratifications of Casual and Hardcore Players of Pokémon GO, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and Ingress JOHN DUNHAM, Niantic x RIT Geo Games and Media Research Lab, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA KONSTANTINOS PAPANGELIS, Niantic x RIT Geo Games and Media Research Lab, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA NICOLAS LALONE, University of Nebraska Omaha, USA YIHONG WANG, University of Liverpool, UK Location-based games (LBG) impose virtual spaces on top of physical locations. Studies have explored LBG from various perspectives. However, a comprehensive study of who these players are, their traits, their gratifications, and the links between them is conspicuously absent from the literature. In this paper, weaim to address this lacuna through a series of surveys with 2390 active LBG players utilizing Tondello’s Player Traits Model and Scale of Game playing Preferences, and Hamari’s scale of LBG gratifications. Our findings (1) illustrate an association between player satisfaction and social aspects of the studied games, (2) explicate how the core-loops of the studied games impact the expressed gratifications and the affine traits of players, and (3) indicate a strong distinction between hardcore and casual players based on both traits and gratifications. Overall our findings shed light into the players of LBG, their traits, and gratifications they derive fromplaying LBGs. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing ! Human computer interaction (HCI); Collaborative and social computing. Additional Key Words and Phrases: Location-based Games, Player Traits, Gratifications, Pokémon GO, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Ingress ACM Reference Format: John Dunham, Konstantinos Papangelis, Nicolas LaLone, and Yihong Wang. 2018. Player Traits and Gratifica- tions of Casual and Hardcore Players of Pokémon GO, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, and Ingress. -
381 Karlsen 17X24.Pdf (9.567Mb)
Emergent Perspectives on Multiplayer Online Games: A Study of Discworld and World of Warcraft Faltin Karlsen Doctoral thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo, June 2008. © Faltin Karlsen, 2009 Series of dissertations submitted to the Faculty of Humanities,University of Oslo No. 381 ISSN 0806-3222 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. Cover: Inger Sandved Anfinsen. Printed in Norway: AiT e-dit AS, Oslo, 2009. Produced in co-operation with Unipub AS. The thesis is produced by Unipub AS merely in connection with the thesis defence. Kindly direct all inquiries regarding the thesis to the copyright holder or the unit which grants the doctorate. Unipub AS is owned by The University Foundation for Student Life (SiO) Acknowledgements Thanks to my supervisor Gunnar Liestøl for constructive and enthusiastic support of my work, from our first discussions about computer games long before this project was initiated, to the final reassuring comments by phone from someplace between Las Vegas and Death Valley. Thanks to my second supervisor Jonas Linderoth for generously accepting my request and for thorough, precise and not least expeditious comments on various drafts during the last phase of my work. I would also like to thank Espen Ytreberg, Ragnhild Tronstad and Terje Rasmussen for reading and commenting on different parts of my thesis. A special thanks to Astrid Lied for introducing me to Discworld back in 1998, and for commenting on and proofreading parts of this thesis. -
Supporting Communities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games by Game Design Elina M.I
Supporting Communities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games by Game Design Elina M.I. Koivisto Nokia Research Center Visionkatu 1 33720 Tampere Finland +358 05 482 1630 [email protected] ABSTRACT Communities get formed almost automatically in multiplayer games, but in some games they seem to be stronger and more active than in others. In order to find out why it is so, We study in this paper what kind of game design makes game community formation and maintenance easier in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG). Three MMORPGs are used as examples: Ultima Online, Anarchy Online and Toontown Online. The communication methods, game mechanics and environments of the three MMORPGs are compared and their effects on the game community are analyzed. Communities do not exist without communication. Game mechanics affects how important it is for the players to co-operate and compete with others and how useful it is to form different kinds of sub-communities, such as guilds. If the game supports player created content it typically strengthens the game community. The game environment provides settings for player-to-player interaction and can encourage collaboration and inspire the players to create their own stories around the sub-communities. KEYWORDS Game, Community, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, Toontown INTRODUCTION There are many definitions for online communities. According to Preece [14] an online community consists of people who interact socially as they strive to satisfy their own needs to perform special roles. They also have a shared purpose, an interest or need, information exchange, or service that provides a reason for community. -
Austin Games Conference 2005
Why are we here? 28 th october 2005 Austin games conference profesSor Richard A. Bartle University of esSEx introduction • It is a truth universally acknowledged… • that I’ve called this talk “why are we here?” – I include as “we” those who would have been here if they hadn’t been out ”Networking” until 2:30am this morning • I do mean the question quite literally: why are any of us in this location right now ? • This is actually a meaningful question… 1 Deep and meaningful Put another way • Point of fact: you are All goinG to DIE • Given this information, why are you here ? In this converted balLroOm ? • Why aren’t you in – paris? – China? – Darfur? – Bed? – World of warcraft ? • Hmm, I guess some of you are in there… 2 Short answer • Well, you’re here because you’re mMorpg developers and this is a mmorpg developers’ conference – officially, “networked game development” conference… • [aside: I’m gonna call them virtual worlds , not mMorpgs ] – I’m not giving up on my book’s title yet , dammit! • But this leads to another question: Another question • Why are you [mmorpg] virtual world developers? • Why aren’t you – regular game developers? – Novelists? – Truck drivers? – Nuclear power station software engineers? – Lawyers? – level 80 on runescape with 2 blue masks, 2 green masks, 2 santa hats and a red party hat ? • “Because it would cost me $5,100 on ebay” (44 bids, 13 hours to go, and simbatamer realLy wants it) 3 hackers • Notice the subtitle answers • Some posSible answers: – You’re a vw developer Purely by acCident – You wanted a -
Virtual Worlds Proof 5
Position Paper November 08 Virtual Worlds, Real Money Security and Privacy in Massively-Multiplayer Online Games and Social and Corporate Virtual Worlds www.enisa.europa.eu About ENISA The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) is an EU agency created to advance the functioning of the internal market. ENISA is a centre of expertise for the European Member States and European institutions in network and information security, giving advice and recommendations and acting as a switchboard of information for good practices. Moreover, the agency facilitates contacts between the European institutions, the Member States and private business and industry actors. © ENISA – European Network and Information Security Agency Virtual Worlds, Real Money 1 Position Paper November 08 Security and Privacy in Massively-Multiplayer Online Games and Social and Corporate Virtual Worlds List of Contributors: Experts participated as individuals. This paper should therefore not be taken as representing the views of any company or other organisation, and does not in any way bind group members when dealing with the issues it covers in other contexts. • David Barroso, S21sec, Spain • Richard Bartle, University of Essex, UK • Patrice Chazerand, PEGI Online, France • Melissa de Zwart, Law Faculty, Monash University, Australia • Jeroen Doumen, University of Twente, Netherlands • Slawomir Gorniak, ENISA, Greece • Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, CCP Games • Mateusz Kaźmierczak, UPC, Poland • Markku Kaskenmaa, Sulake Corporation, Finland • Daniel Benavente López, ISDEFE, Spain • Adam Martin, NCSoft, UK • Ingo Naumann, ENISA, Greece • Ren Reynolds, Virtual Policy Network, UK • Janice Richardson, Schoolnet, Belgium • Christian Rossow, Institute for Internet-Security, Germany • Anna Rywczyńska, CERT Polska, Poland • Michael Thumann, ERNWIT Security, Germany Editor: Giles Hogben, ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency) Examples are given from a number of providers throughout the paper. -
The Sopranos Meets Everquest: Social Networking in Massively
The Sopranos Meets EverQuest : Social Networking in Massively Multiplayer Online Games Mikael Jakobsson School of Arts & Communication Malmö University [email protected] T.L. Taylor Department of Digital Aesthetics and Communication IT University of Copenhagen [email protected] Faydark or Newark? Being virtual world aficionados, although not of the game world kind, we both tried out EverQuest when it was originally released but while Mikael quickly gave away his account information to some students, T.L. stayed. When Mikael started playing again several years later on a new account, she was already a seasoned veteran. As with other players completely new to this type of game, his main reference for how to understand EverQuest was the manual that came with the software. According to this information source, the most important tasks for a beginner were to gain experience and make money through killing small animals and to do quests to get gear that slightly improves ones character statistics. Mikael thought he would spend most of the time alone, fighting low level creatures for a long time before becoming a character of interest to the other players of the game. Secretly he nursed a vision of finally revealing himself to the community once he had become truly powerful, similar to the way Gandalf returns in The Lord of The Rings (Tolkien 2002). These expectations, however, soon proved to be based on several misconceptions. Despite first impressions of the game and, indeed, despite what one might gather from the written material, there is a much more important layer of activity to consider for successful living in the world of EQ . -
Whose Game Is This Anyway?”: Negotiating Corporate Ownership in a Virtual World
“Whose Game Is This Anyway?”: Negotiating Corporate Ownership in a Virtual World T.L. Taylor Department of Communication North Carolina State University POB 8104, 201 Winston Raleigh, NC 27605 USA +1 919 515 9738 [email protected] Abstract This paper explores the ways the commercialization of multiuser environments is posing particular challenges to user autonomy and authorship. With ever broadening defi nitions of intellectual property rights the status of cultural and symbolic artifacts as products of collaborative efforts becomes increasingly problematized. In the case of virtual environments – such as massive multiplayer online role-play games – where users develop identities, bodies (avatars) and communities the stakes are quite high. This analysis draws on several case studies to raise questions about the status of culture and authorship in these games. Keywords Avatars, Internet, virtual environments, games INTRODUCTION While the history of virtual environments has so far been primarily written with an eye toward either the text-based worlds of MUDs or social graphical spaces like Active Worlds and VZones/WorldsAway, massive multiplayer online 227 Proceedings of Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference,ed. Frans Mäyrä. Tampere: Tampere University Press, 2002. Copyright: authors and Tampere University Press. role playing games (MMORPG) have dramatically popularized virtual worlds [1]. The MMORPG genre now boasts hundreds of thousands of users and accounts for millions of dollars in revenue each year [2]. While multiplayer games are at their most basic level simply that, a game, they should be more richly seen as spaces in which users come together online and invest enormous amounts of time inhabiting a virtual space, creating characters, cultures, and communities, gaming together, making dynamic economies, and exploring elaborate geographical terrain. -
GENDER SWAPPING on the INTERNET Amy S. Bruckman Presented at the Internet Society, San Fransisco, CA, August 1993
GENDER SWAPPING ON THE INTERNET Amy S. Bruckman Presented at The Internet Society, San Fransisco, CA, August 1993. ABSTRACT In text-based virtual reality environments on the Internet called MUDs, it is possible to pretend to be the opposite gender. In these virtual worlds, the way gender structures basic human interaction is often noticed and reflected upon. This paper introduces MUDs, and then presents a community discussion about gender issues that MUDs inspired. Gender swapping is one example of ways in which network technology can impact not just work practice but also culture and values. I. GENDER SWAPPING ON THE INTERNET On the television show Saturday Night Live, a series of skits concerned a character named Pat, who has no apparent gender. The audience is tempted with the promise of clues. In one episode, Pat gets his or her hair cut. A sign in the salon says that men's haircuts are $7, and women's haircuts are $9. The audience waits in suspense: when Pat goes to pay, his or her true gender will be revealed. The humor of the series lies in the fact that those hopes are constantly foiled; in this instance, Pat leaves $10 and says to keep the change. Gender is so fundamental to human interactions, that the idea of a person without gender is absurd. The audience thinks that surely some clue must reveal Pat's gender, but none ever does. Many who have never seen Saturday Night Live know about Pat.(2) The character has become a kind of cultural icon. Pat's popularity is revealing.