<\/i>What are virtual worlds? In this context, a\u00a0world\u00a0<\/i>is an environment that its inhabitants regard as being self-contained. It doesn\u2019t have to mean an entire planet: It\u2019s used in the same sense as \u201cthe Roman world\u201d or \u201cthe world of high finance.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what about the\u00a0virtual\u00a0<\/i>part? Not to get too philosophical about it:<\/p>\n Virtual worlds are places where the imaginary meets the real.<\/p>\n A computer implements virtual worlds (or network of computers) that simulate an environment. Some\u2014but not all\u2014 the entities in this environment act under the direct control of individual people. Because several such people can affect the same environment simultaneously, the world is said to be\u00a0shared\u00a0<\/i>or\u00a0multi-user<\/i>. The environment continues to exist and develop internally (at least to some degree) even when there are no people interacting with it; this means it is\u00a0persistent<\/i>.<\/p>\n Although virtual worlds now have many applications beyond that of being mere entertainment products, they began as computer games<\/a>; furthermore\u2014perhaps because of the large sums of money involved in their creation and the guaranteed huge monthly incomes they can generate\u2014computer games remain at the cutting edge of virtual world development.<\/p>\n For these reasons, much of the vocabulary commonly used to describe virtual worlds is games-based. Thus, the human beings who interact with the simulated environment are known as\u00a0players\u00a0<\/i>rather than\u00a0users<\/i>; the means by which the environment introduces goals for the players is called\u00a0gameplay<\/i>; the activity of interacting with the environment is referred to as\u00a0playing<\/i>.<\/p>\n Specialists may adopt a different vocabulary that is formal for their particular area of expertise, for example a cultural anthropologist<\/a> might prefer to talk of \u201cindividuals\u201d exhibiting \u201cbehaviors\u201d in response to \u201cpressures;\u201d however, for any broader discussion of the subject the dominance of game-oriented terminology is impossible to resist, and it is therefore the one that shall be used here.<\/p>\n The exception is the very term \u201cvirtual world\u201d itself. Over the years, a number of words, phrases, and contrived acronyms have been used to describe these projected milieus, none of which have been entirely successful. For reasons that will be explained shortly, virtual worlds were originally known as Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs)<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n Although this term is still in common currency to the extent that it has made it into several regular dictionaries, it is not universally accepted. In particular, many players of certain of its subcategories see it as implying some kind of combat-oriented world view, and prefer the term\u00a0MU*\u00a0<\/i>instead (MU for Multi- User and * for anything that could conceivably follow).<\/p>\n This would be analogous to calling dinosaurs *saurs on the grounds that \u201cdinosaurs\u201d vaguely implies1 that they were all pea-brained carnivorous monsters, whereas in fact many were pea-brained herbivorous monsters\u2014and hey, there are pterosaurs and plesiosaurs, too.<\/p>\n The first virtual worlds were text-based, in that their environments and the events occurring within them were described using words rather than images. Confusingly, although the term MUD applies to virtual worlds in general, the term MU* does not\u2014it\u2019s used strictly for text-based worlds. The introduction of computer graphics into the mix therefore caused a second spate of naming, in order to make a distinction between graphical MUDs and text MUDs. At first the new games were called\u00a0persistent worlds<\/i>, but when the enormous numbers of simultaneous players they were attracting became their defining feature this changed to MMORPGs<\/a> (Massively- Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). Said acronym dominates at present, but it is rarely used with enthusiasm (not least because it\u2019s unpronounceable) and it is therefore likely to be abandoned the instant some viable alternative emerges.<\/p>\n Although, properly, all these persistent, shared, computer- moderated environments can and should be referred to as MUDs, the term is sufficiently loaded that outside the cognoscenti it is unlikely to be universally interpreted this way. Enough people think that MUDs are a mere category of MU*s (rather than the reverse) for it to be confusing. Therefore, this book prefers the more descriptive and less emotive \u201cvirtual worlds\u201d as an alternative.<\/p>\n It is important to note that virtual worlds are not the same as\u00a0virtual reality (VR)<\/a>, which has a much more specific meaning.\u00a0<\/i>Virtual reality is primarily concerned with the mechanisms by which human beings can interact with computer simulations; it is not especially bothered by the nature of the simulations themselves. People who visit virtual worlds may some day benefit from research into visors, data gloves, and beyond, but the fundamental attraction for them is what awaits when they enter a virtual world, not the means by which they do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
Some Definitions\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n