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

[olag at ifi.uio.no]

Eric Ransom:

> There is little inter-disciplinary confusion over the term
> "virtual world". It is rather well-known as a general classifier¨

Well, I disagree. People will be quite happy to refer to anything
from walk-through 3D models to the entire web as "virtual world".

> Since when does knowledge of existing systems limit the creation
> of new ones? I would certainly agree one should not limit their
> creativity to only that which has already been created.

Well, since people started to build houses, not to mention cars?
Anyway, that is not the main point.

> A genre is defined by characteristics, and is a form of
> classification. I find "virtual world" in our context more of a
> medium than a genre, though. Genres are normally determined on
> more internal qualitative characteristics of style, form, and
> content.

Hmm.. Genres are culturally defined and cannot as such be fully
defined by characteristics of the objects, but to a large extent by
context, IMO.  I.e. "games" are those things which you find in
certain shops, or those things which teenagers spend time with
etc... Often endowed with style, but style is certainly not what we
care about here?

> lacking, the scope of the categorization is less so. This paper
> was written 8 years ago, and these categories and items are
> surprisingly relevant. Simply browsing the competence matrix of
> surveyed worlds one can sort our daily MUD-DEV conversations right
> into them. It's definately worth reviewing when considering a
> starting point.

I guess I just have to disagree with everything you said here. :)

> The function of such a committee is to discuss, update, manage,
> maintain, and provide a binding authority for central
> interaction. This could be contained within the confines of
> MUD-Dev, and need be neither rigid nor broad. It simply provides a
> forum with form and process on exactly what we are talking about.

Ah, but we know that. The problem isn't MUD-Dev, the problem is the
surrounding world.

Cheers,
Ola.
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