As Worlds Change

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Nalates
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As Worlds Change

Post by Nalates »

For a long time I have posted about games/worlds needing to evolve. Massively just ran an article on the same idea. They are relating evolution as something educators are needing to support their efforts.

Virtual worlds must accommodate, adapt and evolve, or die

I think the addition of shared HTTP screens (Flash, QuickTime, etc) that all participants see and see the same changes in those screens, regarless of who clicks them, coming in SL is an evolving step.
Nalates
GoW, GoMa and GoA apprentice - Guildmaster GoC - SL = Nalates Urriah
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Nalates
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Re: As Worlds Change

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As Worlds change... some die. The autopsy can tell us what was done right and wrong.

On GamaSutra Celia Pearce wrote: In-Depth: Requiem For A World. Celia has written of other of her research projects. She writes about THERE this time and her take on it's closing.

She is putting in words ideas I have just been forming. The idea of people becoming invested in a character is one. The time and effort spent creating a character can be huge. Celia's research shows some interesting connections to what we saw in MOUL.

While I have not considered friendship the most important part of a MMOG, Celia thinks it is. I think I may have been underestimating it. The social tools that make Facebook so popular are about working with friends...

Celia Pearce wrote: Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds. It includes information on the Myst-Uru culture in THERE.
Nalates
GoW, GoMa and GoA apprentice - Guildmaster GoC - SL = Nalates Urriah
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Dot
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Re: As Worlds Change

Post by Dot »

The people Celia mentions in the article and in her book are mostly members of The Meeting Place hood. The last TMP Funday Meet in There was a tour of the communities and hoods that she had planned for her next stage of research it seems -- it was due to take place in the first week of April, but was quickly brought forward (it was just starting to be organised in the week before the closure was announced).

The developments in There that she mentions mirror what seems to have happened in Second Life, with the development of a fairly distinct culture of learning and building. However, I suspect that the Uru refugees had a far greater impact on the development of There than those in SL did, simply because they were a far bigger group proportionately within its player base -- something that caused serious problems in the first few months after Prolog's closure (there was initially a great deal of hostility from other players towards this large group suddenly appearing and trying to set up an alternative home from home).

Uru people were behind the development of hoods in There (Mystery Island and Uru Island were among the first, I believe), the University of There, the player-based NCD group for encouraging and supporting the development of player communities. They were also strongly supportive of There when it hit a sticky patch early on.

The importance of friendships, yes -- that was the only thing that got me to go into There in the first place. I vehemently hated the female avatars -- not a good match for this person! Building together too -- that is where Paislee and I first started developing environments to relax and linger in; before then I only knew Paislee from an oddly memorable anecdote she told during one MOUL-based TMP story night.

Will the friendships last? Individual ones may do. But I suspect the group is beginning to be spread too thinly across various games and worlds and social networking methods. We're each gravitating to those where we feel most comfortable, and that seems to be fragmenting the group so that we are no longer able to meet almost daily online as we once did (personal impression -- I hope I am wrong -- perhaps I am just too busy doing what I have been doing :( ).
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