[MUD-Dev] NEWS: Why Virtual Worlds are Designed By Newbies -No, Really! (By R. Bartle)

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad]

"Richard A. Bartle" <richard at mud.co.uk> writes:

> There's a TV programme in the UK called "World of Sports".  They
> seem quite happy to restrict themselves to sports arenas.

The terms "world" and "universe" are used in all kinds of ways, some
more metaphorical than others.

> should being virtual make any difference to what counts as a
> "world"?

Well, by that notion anything can be a world, hence anything
computer-mediated is a virtual world...

> What would YOU use as an umbrella term?

Depends on what you want to stuff under the umbrella, obviously?

> The main threat to the term "virtual world" is that it's used
> elsewhere. For example, AI researchers use it to mean a
> computer-mediated environment they have constructed for their AI
> agents/actors. I don't see that it's going to stand the test of
> time as a permanent umbrella term for what it is we study, because
> it's too general.  That said, it's one we can all use at the
> moment (unlike the superior term MUD, which is too misunderstood
> by the majority of players if not developers).

> If you don't want to use "virtual worlds", come up with some
> alternative.

I use the term "multi-user virtual world" IF the world is a
prominent aspect of the system. I am not objecting to the term
"virtual worlds", after all I did argue for it while you still
wanted some other term. I am objecting to over-extending it. There
are other terms too, of course:

  http://www.kanga.nu/archives/MUD-Dev-L/1999Q1/msg00701.php

--
Ola - http://folk.uio.no/olag/
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