[MUD-Dev] Online Migration and population mobility in a virtual gaming setting - Ultima Online

[J C Lawrence]

I ran across this in some archive searches.  Good stuff:

  http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/1999Q3/msg00524.html

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The origins of this essay arose from my masterate thesis '
Cyberspace - another geography - Territories, Boundaries, and Space
' (http://cybergeography.hypermart.net, Carazo-Chandler, 1999). It
dealt with the function and form of territories and boundaries in an
online environment. Online information ecologies contain a
comprehensive system of forms and functions of territory and
boundary - from collectivism to netiquette. The territories that are
being developed in cyberspace are creating their own territorial
rights and this is in one way an indicator for differentiating
online spaces. This essay is an extension of the thesis but is
focused on a particular online ecology (Ultima Online). Instead of a
broad geographic examination, the focus has turned from territories
and boundaries to population mobility. This research essay is about
finding truth. We know that there are these spaces online, but why
and how do people move in them? Do the same geographical principles
of population mobility in realspace operate in the setting of an
online gaming environment - Ultima Online? Are there multiple
processes of population mobility operating in the same environment?
If they are, what are the differences between each other and how
different are they to those in realspace? Do flows of migration
exist and are new types of flow developing in the Ultima Online
shards?  Essentially, geographers believe in the importance of place
and how particular places with their characteristics ' reflect
broader demographic trends to produce particular and locally
distinctive permutations ' (Robinson, 1996, pg xiv). What do
particular places within the shards contain that draws people to
them or away from them?
--<cut>--

The author's page:

  http://cybergeography.hypermart.net/

Also has some interesting links and references.

--
J C Lawrence                              Internet: claw at kanga.nu
----------(*)                            Internet: coder at kanga.nu
...Honorary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...


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