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

[Mike Rozak]

Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote:

> 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:

You can think of a movie as a 0-player game, which is why it's the
opposite of a "virtual world" (as you seem to be defining it), which
is a 100+ player "game".

I understand what you're getting at, but just to play devil's
advocate...

You could ask: Is a 100-player virtual world the same as a 1,000,000
player virtual world? I suspect they end up being very different
experiences. If they're not the same experience, should they have a
different name?

If only 1 player is logged into a virtual world, is it a 1 player
game or a virtual world? Morrowind and Oblivion are essentially
this. I wouldn't be shocked if Oblivion came with a surprise feature
that allowed a handful of friends to play in the same world; would
it then be a 10-player virtual world? How many players need to be
logged in before it's officially a virtual world? (The old
camel's-back problem.)

If a tree falls in virtual world and no-one is logged in, does it
make a sound? (Pun accidental.)

>  - 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

This turns the movie into a rail "game", like a
choose-your-own-adventure or Dragonslayer (laser-disc game from the
1980's). The user (or audience) makes a choice once in a long while
and stays on the track until the next choice. I'd call this a 1/2
player game, since there is a player, but the player only gets to
make sporatic and limited choices.

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

While I understand what you're getting at, most MMORPGs don't show
any effect that players have passed through except for an occasional
dead monster that disappears 30 seconds later. The characters are
persistant though, sometimes even their apartments, but their
apartments only "exist" when the characters are logged on. Guild
halls could be considered persistant, but because only guild members
can enter, their attachment to the world is only slightly
less-tenuous than individuals' apartments. (Schrodenger's Cat
problem... if a cat dies in a player's apartment while the player is
logged out, is it really dead?)

> 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.

In a few books I've read about game theory, a game without a
predefined goal is often called a "toy". For example: "The Sims" is
a toy. I supposed a MMORPG would be a toy too, although MMORPG
marketing teams wouldn't like calling it such a diminuitive
name. Others on the newsgroup would know more than I about the
nomenclature.

> 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).

I wish you well on your quest, but you'll run into some problems:

  1) You'll need to come up with a definition that's watertight
  enough that it's not easy to poke holes in.

  2) Obviously, there isn't any term (so far) that fits the meaning,
  which is why there are several terms such as virtual world, MUD,
  MOO, MMORPG, MMOG, etc. exist.

  3) You could pay a company to invent a term... they're very good
  at making up names for medicines and cars. (I don't think this
  will work, although I did have someone E-mail me out of the blue
  and tell me my house was very "teligent" or "telic" (I think). He
  had invented 2 new words; I think he even made a web site for
  them.) Combining roots sometimes works, like "un-world",
  "hyperworld", "hyperverse", "virtuniverse", "computiverse",
  "grindopia", etc. Or, you might be better off stealing a word from
  a foreign language, as was the case with "Avatar". Maybe the
  Aboriginal word for "The dreamtime" or "The dreaming"...

    a) If you come up with a good term, make sure it doesn't get
    trademarked by someone.

  4) You'll need to get everyone (or most everyone) to agree.

  5) Your term will eventually be hijacked by marketing teams and
  have its meaning twisted beyond recognition. What does
  "multimedia" mean? When that word was the latest buzzword, I heard
  about 50 different definitions. I also cringe every time I hear
  "fuzzy logic", "neural networks", "tropical housing", or "open
  plan living".

However, if you don't come up with a good name someone else will
come up with one for you (probably the company with the largest
marketing budget). One team I working in at Microsoft was producing
a sound card, but we couldn't come up with a good name that wasn't
already used. Eventually, we had to choose a name to start printing
boxes, and (as I recall) Steve Ballmer make the choice for us. It
was to be called the "The Windows Sound System", which none of us
liked, and is about as obtuse as "Massively multiplayer role playing
game".

Mike Rozak
http://www.mxac.com.au
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