Intro to Virtual Worlds

Page 1 of 52 [ Team LiB ] Chapter 1. Introduction to Virtual Worlds KEY TOPICS Some Definitions What They Are and Whence They Came The Past Affects the Future The Basics Influences on Virtual Worlds The Desi ner What are virtual worlds? In this context, a world is an environment that its inhabitants re ard as bein self-contained. It doesn)t have to mean an entire planet: It)s used in the same sense as ,the Roman world, or ,the world of hi h finance., So what about the virtual part? .ot to et too philosophical about it: Real. That which is. Imaginary. That which isn)t. Virtual. That which isn)t, havin the form or effect of that which is. Virtual worlds are places where the ima inary meets the real. [ Team LiB ] [ Team LiB ] Some Definitions Virtual worlds are implemented by a computer /or networ0 of computers1 that simulates an environment. Some2but not all2the entities in this environment act under the direct control of individual people. Because several such people can affect the same environment simultaneously, the world is said to be shared or multi-user. The environment continues to exist and develop internally /at least to some de ree1 even when there are no people interactin with it3 this means it is persistent. Althou h virtual worlds now have many applications beyond that of bein mere entertainment products, they be an as computer ames3 furthermore2perhaps because of the lar e sums of money involved in their creation and the uaranteed hu e monthly incomes they can enerate2computer ames remain at the cuttin ed e of virtual world development. For these reasons, much of the vocabulary commonly used to describe virtual worlds is ames-based. Thus, the human bein s who interact with the simulated environment are 0nown as players rather file://C:\Users\golddragon\AppData\Local\Temp\ !hA241.htm 2/3/2011 Page 2 of 52 than users3 the means by which the environment introduces oals for the players is called gameplay3 the activity of interactin with the environment is referred to as playing. Specialists may adopt a different vocabulary that is formal for their particular area of expertise, for example a cultural anthropolo ist mi ht prefer to tal0 of ,individuals, exhibitin ,behaviors, in response to ,pressures3, however, for any broader discussion of the sub4ect the dominance of ame- oriented terminolo y is impossible to resist, and it is therefore the one that shall be used here. The exception is the very term ,virtual world, itself. Over the years, a number of words, phrases, and contrived acronyms have been used to describe these pro4ected milieux, none of which have been entirely successful. For reasons that will be explained shortly, virtual worlds were ori inally 0nown as MUDs /6ulti-7ser Dun eons1. Althou h this term is still in common currency to the extent that it has made it into several re ular dictionaries, it is not universally accepted. In particular, many players of certain of its subcate ories see it as implyin some 0ind of combat-oriented world view, and prefer the term MU* instead /67 for 6ulti-7ser and 8 for anythin that could conceivably follow1. This would be analo ous to callin dinosaurs 8saurs on the rounds that ,dinosaurs, va uely implies[1] that they were all pea-brained carnivorous monsters, whereas in fact many were pea-brained herbivorous monsters2and hey, there are pterosaurs and plesiosaurs, too. [1] ,Dino, comes via .ew Latin from the :ree0 deinos, meanin ,fearful., Saurus merely means ,lizard., The first virtual worlds were text-based, in that their environments and the events occurrin within them were described usin words rather than ima es. Confusin ly, althou h the term 67D applies to virtual worlds in eneral, the term 678 does not2it)s used strictly for text-based worlds. The introduction of computer raphics into the mix therefore caused a second spate of namin , in order to ma0e a distinction between graphical MUDs and text MUDs. At first the new ames were called persistent worlds, but when the enormous numbers of simultaneous players they were attractin became their definin feature this chan ed to MMOR Gs /6assively-6ultiplayer Online Role-Playin :ames1. Said acronym dominates at present, but it is rarely used with enthusiasm /not least because it)s unpronounceable1 and it is therefore li0ely to be abandoned the instant some viable alternative emer es. Althou h, properly, all these persistent, shared, computer-moderated environments can and should be referred to as 67Ds, the term is sufficiently loaded that outside the co noscenti it is unli0ely to be universally interpreted this way. Enou h people thin0 that 67Ds are a mere cate ory of 678s /rather than the reverse1 for it to be confusin . Therefore, this boo0 prefers the more descriptive and less emotive ,virtual worlds, as an alternative. It is important to note that virtual worlds are not the same as virtual reality /VR1, which has a much more specific meanin . Virtual reality is primarily concerned with the mechanisms by which human bein s can interact with computer simulations3 it is not especially bothered by the nature of the simulations themselves. People who visit virtual worlds may some day benefit from research into visors, data loves, and beyond, but the fundamental attraction for them is what awaits when they enter a virtual world, not the means by which they do so. [ Team LiB ] [ Team LiB ] What They Are and Whence They Came Althou h more abstract versions can, and do, exist, most virtual worlds adhere to certain conventions that distin uish them from related non-real spaces. The most important of these are file://C:\Users\golddragon\AppData\Local\Temp\ !hA241.htm 2/3/2011 Page 3 of 52 The world has underlyin , automated rules that enable players to effect chan es to it /althou h not to the rules that rant them this ability1. This is the world)s physics. Players represent individuals ,in, the world. They may wield partial or total influence over an army, crew or party, but there is only one ame entity that represents them in the world and with which they stron ly identify. This is their character. All interaction with the world and other players is channeled throu h characters. Interaction with the world ta0es place in real time. When you do somethin in the world, you can expect feedbac0 almost immediately. The world is shared. The world is /at least to some de ree1 persistent. A chat room would not be a virtual world because it has no physics3 a strate ic war ame doesn)t map the player onto a sin le character throu h which that player acts3 a play-by-email ame doesn)t run in real time3 a sin le-player ame is not shared3 a first-person shooter isn)t persistent. For some examples, the case is not so clear-cut. Are tabletop role-playin ames virtual worlds, for example? .o, because they)re not automated, but it)s a close call. Would a two-player educational 67D be a virtual world? Probably. Would a 500-player ame with a world so vast that the players could never find each other? Yes, but under protest. In practice, it)s fairly easy to determine what is or isn)t a virtual world simply by loo0in at its herita e. If its desi n draws heavily from the desi n of an existin virtual world, it almost certainly is one3 if it doesn)t, it almost certainly isn)t. The First Age: 1 78#1 85 Virtual worlds are often called 67Ds because MUD was the name of the first one to prosper. Althou h earlier ames had been written that mi ht today be described as virtual worlds, they were seeds that fell on stony round. MUD, by contrast, rew to produce seeds of its own. MUD was pro rammed in 6ACRO-10 assembler on a DecSystem-10 mainframe at Essex 7niversity, En land, in the fall of 19A8. Its author was a talented Computer Science under raduate, Roy Trubshaw. Version I was a simple test pro ram to establish the basic principles by which a shared world could be maintained. When it wor0ed, Roy immediately started on version II, a text-based virtual world that would be instantly reco nizable as such even today. It was also written in 6ACRO- 10, a decision that led to its becomin increasin ly unwieldy as more and more features were added. Because of this, in the fall of 19A9 Roy made the decision to be in wor0 on version III of the ame. Ce split it in two: The ame en ine was written in BCPL /the fore-runner of C13 the ame world was written in a lan ua e of his own devisin , 67DDL /6ulti-7ser Dun eon Definition Lan ua e1. The idea was that multiple worlds could be constructed in 67DDL but would run on the same, unmodified en ine /which was effectively an interpreter1. Roy had a basic wor0in pro ram by Easter 1980, but it only amounted to a fraction of what he envisa ed. This bein the final year of his de ree, he realized that he did not have time to complete the pro4ect. Someone else would have to do it. From the be innin , Roy had been open to su estions from his friends as to how MUD could be extended and improved. 6ost of these ideas came from fellow under raduates Richard Bartle /that)s me1 and .i el Roberts.

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