I don’t even quite remember how to play this. As you might be able to tell, this is a really old recording off of analog tape. I wrote it after Don Conoscenti showed me how to do partial capoing, hence the name. I wandered around playing at Kerrville Folk Festival that year a lot.
How Open Big virtual worlds grow
(Visited 43353 times)Over at WoW Insider, an article asks “Why are people leaving WoW?” They offer up this graph of concurrency from Warcraftrealms as evidence.
Well, here I am to explain. 🙂
What is a virtual world?
(Visited 19739 times)In response to Lum and Cuppy and Moorgard:
Online games and virtual worlds are not the same thing. If you’re building an MMO, you better be sure which one you intend to make.
Online game: a game played using network connectivity.
Virtual world: a simulation of space. cf long usage in the VR community, 3d viz community, etc. Somewhat deprecated since these days, everyone wants connectivity.
Online virtual world: a simulation of persistent space connected to via a network, wherein users are represented by proxies often terms avatars. Note thatboth “online” and “virtual” are often elided from the term.
Synthetic world: see online virtual world.
MUD: old term for online virtual world.
Avatar: the proxy by which a user is represented in an online virtual world.
Toon: see avatar.
MMOG: an online virtual world wherein embedded systems layered atop the spatial simulation present game rules.
MMORPG: an MMOG where the game presented is an RPG.
“Worldy”: an adjective applied to MMORPGs to describe RPGs with certain rather specific game characteristics, such as freedom of character construction, diverse rule systems including non-combat roles, etc.
“Social”: an adective applied to online virtual worlds to indicate that their primary emphasis is not on games.
Metaverse: the hypothetical idea that online virtual worlds would be linked together to form a single network.
Mirror world: an online virtual world that mirrors data from the real world.
IBM/MIT Virtual Worlds conference notes
(Visited 5349 times)Virtual Worlds News is liveblogging IBM and MIT’s conference.
- Opening remarks.
- Colin Parris: “Virtual Worlds and Business Value”
- “Digital Convergence and Identity” panel
I am sure more will be posted.
GigaOM’s Top 10 Most Popular MMOs
(Visited 6247 times)You may join the debate already in progress.
FWIW, I think some of these numbers are wrong. But the overall point the list is trying to make is right.