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

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad]

Wayne Witzke <wayne.witzke at gmail.com> writes:

> You can choose your own goals in *anything*.

I suppose you can choose to close your eyes when you are watching a
movie, yes. But that is not how it was designed to be experienced,
nor is it how most people approach and experience it.

A movie is on the opposite scale of a virtual world even though it
shares many traits. Consider watching a pixar movie in a theatre:

  - multi user
  - spatial
  - realtime
  - computer rendered
  - immersive
  - co-presence

Let's extend the movie:

  - interaction: Imagine a computer-based movie where the audience
  can vote on what the characters should do, measured by bio-sensors
  to make it less disruptive

  - avatars: tie each character to a specific person in the
  audience.

  - persistence: Let the previous actions in the world show as
  tear-and-wear.

Would that make it a multi-user virtual world? I claim it would pass
most definitions.

I don't think it should because it doesn't allow you to form your
own goals in any meaningful intuitive way. You are locked into what
has been provided.

> It might help if we were able to come up with a list of defining
> characteristics for those systems that are part of this
> industry. Then maybe a definitive solution might present itself.

That pretty much defines the problem I am pointing at, the desire to
find a term which can be an umbrella for the output of a culture
rather than by the qualities of the system or the experienced system
(which I prefer).

--
Ola - http://folk.uio.no/olag/
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev