[MUD-Dev] The Root of the Tree

[Eric Random]

There has been some discussion about the term "virtual world". Most
notably, the discussion seems to concern the questions of what it
is, why it is used, and exactly what functionality does it serve, at
least to those of us in the MUD-Dev community. When I hear the term
"virtual world", I think...

  VIRTUAL: being such in essence or effect

  WORLD: the sphere or scene of one's life and action

In it's most fundamental manifestion, it is a SPATIAL REPRESENTATION
which can be INHABITED by a CORPOREAL PROXY. One might also include
a quality of interaction, but, to me, corporeal implies an agent of
interaction.

"What about objects? Like trees?" Spatial representation contains
all objects, as the object "ground" and "sky" are just as much
objects as "cup", including corporeal proxies and space itself. The
only differentiation from the perspective of the user is: that which
one interacts with, and that which one interacts through. Physics,
or the rules which define the behaviour, actions, and interactions
of objects, is considered a part of spatial representation, as is
user interface, which is a matter of the presentation of such.

"But Galaga and Pac-Man would be considered virtual worlds. I would
consider Everquest much more a virtual world than those two." This
illustrates a CONTINUUM of the extent to which something may be
considered a virtual world by determining the extent it is CONGRUENT
to the fundamental properties of REALITY. In a MUD, I may be able to
walk, run, jump, swim, craft, eat, drink, emote, talk, fight, kill,
and die, but in Galaga, I can fly, shoot, kill, and die.

"But Galaga is not at all like a MUD." It isn't, because it doesn't
share many of the same properties, but it could, if we progress
along the continuum. What features need to be added to make it more
congruous with the real world?

ACCESSIBLE. An entity (such as a person/user) must access the
spatial representation through a corporeal proxy which inhabits that
representation. A single particular existence of a corporeal proxy
and spatial representation is called an instance, and respectively,
a corporeal proxy instance and world instance. Instances may be
comprised of various sub-instances, for example, a corporeal proxy
instance may consist of both a proxy instance and corporeal
instance. The act of manifesting an instance is called
instantiation. The act of a user accessing the spatial
representation through the corporeal proxy is called a
session. Sharing is a property of access. To realize a shared space,
a single world instance must be capable of multiple asynchronous
sessions accessible to multiple users . The sessions may further
have the access characteristic of simultaneity. The quality of
simultaneity may require the use of a network in which access may be
implemented as a client-server model. A spatial representation will
have particular limitations on the degree to which it can be shared;
that is, the number of sessions, simultaneous or otherwise, may be
limited, either by design, technical limitations, or failure. Access
may also be affected by design or technical limitations of the
degree of temporal activity in the spatial representation, that is,
the number of changes in the experience of the proxy over a given
time interval. Virtual worlds vary in terms of their accessibility.

PERSISTENT. Multiple users asynchronously accessing a single
particular instance of a spatial representation through multiple
sessions requires the instance to have persistent existence, that
is, a world instance continuing existence whether sessions exist or
not. The existence of an instance between sessions need not be
active, that is, the state of the world may be saved if no change
occurs between sessions while no sessions are active, and reloaded
upon the first requested session. The act of saving or loading the
state of an instance changes only whether the instance is active or
not; the instance may still persist. Further, the level of
persistence may be such that the state of instantiation (whether it
is created, exists, or is destroyed) is independent of the client or
common user, that is, the common user cannot reset or destroy the
world instance. A world instance may have a property of persistence
without relative perpetuity. World persistence includes the
persistent states of objects in that world, including corporeal
proxies.  Particular characteristics of the corporeal proxy may
persist between sessions. Attributes of a proxy may persist, while
others aspects may not, such as the corporeal instance of the proxy;
that is, the proxy may persist between sessions without being
corporeal (ie. capable of interaction with the world). Virtual
worlds operate at varying levels of persistence.

CONTIGUOUS. The spatial representation is potentially accessible
through a single session (ie. one is not required to create a
separate session to access a particular region in the world
instance), and bounded space in the world instance is logically
adjacent regardless of access rights. Virtual worlds may exhibit
varying levels of contiguity.  For example, standard servers in DAOC
may be considered both a single virtual world, or three virtual
worlds which intersect each other in specific RvR regions. DAOC and
Everquest exhibit different levels of spatial contiguity, and, are
together non-contiguous or separate worlds. Contiguity may rely upon
a particular action or state such as stepping on a pad, killing a
creature, reaching x points, gaining a level, digging through a
wall, etc. Contiguity between regions could be uni-directional, such
as one may enter but not leave. Contiguity may have temporal
association, such as one may enter, but just not leave at the
moment. Contiguity may be affected by varying levels of persistence
across contiguous regions. Meta- or non-Euclidian space, such as a
castle in a closet, may still be contiguous. Further, shared
instantiation, common instantial space, or objects sharing a common
instantiation need not be contiguous. Degrees of contiguity and
non-contiguity allows for the distinction of the boundaries of a
virtual world (an inside and an outside). Virtual worlds operate at
varying levels of contiguity.

SELF-CONTAINED. A virtual world, to varying degrees, may or may not
operate independent of a world in which it is
non-contiguous. Reality portrays the boundary maximum of
self-containment, although perhaps not absolute (in consideration of
recent theories of quantum mechanics such as string theory). Virtual
worlds, by existence, suffer particular aspects in loss of
self-containment. For example, users which access the virtual world
through corporeal proxies may not exist entirely within the virtual
world, such as humans who exist in the real world.  As such they may
act in ways which effect the virtual world without direct
interaction. External markets and resources may be considered a loss
of self-containment. Virtual worlds operate on various levels of
self-containment.

VAST. Just as a virtual world has limitations on its accessibility,
it has limits, designed or technical, on it's size. The real world
is quite vast, and as such, designers of virtual worlds aspire to
vast spatial representations. Vastness refers to spatial
representation as a whole, and as such, concerns not only the size
of space, but the entirety of it's representation, such as numbers
of objects or numbers of rules concerning their interaction
(physics), spatial density, etc..  Virtual worlds vary in levels of
vastness.

FUNCTIONAL. A virtual world may be designed for specific functions
such as training, education, experimentation, entertainment,
communication, simulation, or instrumentation (such as mediums of
control for telerobotics). Functionality is both an perceptual
experience of the user and a goal of the designer. Functionality
need not be orthogonal, and perspectives can differ between user and
designer. A simulation can be entertaining, and entertainment can be
educational and experimental, for example. Virtual worlds may have
varying degrees of functionality.

REALISTIC. Spatial representations may be vast, but vastness does
not imply realism. Although the virtual world continuum is, in a
way, a continuum of realism, in that the more such a construct
becomes a virtual world, perhaps the less virtual it may
seem. Realism is a particular attribute of the spatial
representation, as in design, it is a particular means to an end, or
perhaps more an end to the means.  Degree of realism is reflective
of the client (user), and bounded by the functionality. Humans
operate in the real world, and as such, have developed particular
expectations of behavior and interaction, in which some means of
interaction and behavior are more natural and intuitive than
others. In other words, human experience is rooted in realism, and
as such, is the common language of human experience. Functionality
determines the degree to which realism operates, for example, too
much realism may distract from education or entertainment, to little
realism may hinder a simulation. The interaction of realism and
entertainment is particularly complex, in that entertainment is an
emotional response to a qualitative interpretation of
reality. Realism is the degree to which vastness reflects realism
based on the reality of the user.  (Sidenote: the reality of the
user is the totality of perception of the user. The user need not be
human.)

SOCIAL Although spatial representation includes the interaction
between corporeal proxies, and thus the means for socialization, it
is of particular importance in the virtual world. Corporeal proxies
may be capable of interaction and communication, but the two do not
imply socialization. Socialization is an emergent property of
communicative forms of interaction and is a medium for culture and
community.  Socialization is an aspect of realism as human reality
is a social space. Socialization serves a functional purpose such as
in experimentation, entertainment, and education. Socialization has
particular start-up costs associated with such aspects of
organization, form, and ethics, which can be more generally
considered as Order due to it's emergent nature. It may take several
forms, altering in organization and inconsiderate in ethics; this is
the start-up cost of stability. Particular social representations
can override these startup costs and allow a society to form faster
and with less effort.  Socialization is the degree to which a
spatial representation facilitates society in a self-containing
manner. Virtual worlds have various degrees of socialization. (Side
note: the degree to which a virtual world is actually social,
though, depends on the composition of the user base and how it
interacts with the degree of socialization of the virtual world.)

DYNAMIC. Dynamism is denoted by change, and change is a property of
the real world. Dynamics, to some degree, can be created by
persistent and simultaneous accessibilty when humans can interact
with other humans and other world objects through proxies. This
immediately allows for two types of dynamics: One, interaction and
change effected by a human are instrinsically dynamic in that they
are non-deterministic and sentient; Two, session arrangement may be
non-deterministic creating dynamics in proxy population of both size
and composition. These types of dynamics are properties of
accessibility. The dynamic this trait is more referring to is
self-evolution; that is, the extent to which the world changes
regardless of accessibility, whether sessions exist or not. This is
not particularly AI, as AI can be implemented as part of a spatial
representation, but more an effect of AI, and other such adjacent
fields of ALife, automatons, and chaotic systems. One might
attribute proxy capability as a form of dynamics, such as dynamics
of politics or complex interactions, but these are more facets of
accessibility, socialization, realism, and vastness. Dynamism is the
degree to which a virtual world can change independent of proxy
interaction. Virtual worlds exhibit varying degrees of dynamism.

IMMERSING. Immersion is the state in which the totality of
perception is captivated or an experience is encapsulated. Like
being entertained, being immersed is a qualitative interpretation of
reality, and as such, is based on the interaction of the person and
the perception of their environment. Therefore, knowledge of the
person (audience) is integral to the design of the immersing
environment in which they will interact.  Many aspects of
aforementioned characteristics of virtual worlds, such as realism,
vastness, and dynamism, may create the experience of immersion, but,
like socialization, it is emergent to the experience.  Such
emergence can be facilitated with focused design principles.
Immersionality is the degree to which a virtual world facilitates
the experience of immersion. Virtual worlds exhibit different
degrees of immersionality. (Side note: I tend to use immersive, but
upon parusing my dictionaries, I find immersion, immersed, and
immersing, but no immersive. I found this very interesting. Upon
searching for immersive on the web, I mainly received hits
concerning virtual worlds and virtual reality. Further, the only
formal existence of the term beyond common usage is that Immersive
is a trademarked name of a company which sells virtual reality
products! I did finally locate immersive in Webster's New Millenium
Dictionary, and it was defined as a computing term. Immersing and
Immersive, or Immersionality and Immersivity, the latter pair being
conjured out of air for function, are interchangeable. I'll leave
this to literary linguists to ponder, and move on.)

THEATRICAL. Although an aspect of an entertainment function, theatre
can have a particular importance in virtual worlds. Theatre has a
number of literary elements such as plot, setting, principal
characters, and theme, but it is not simply telling a story, but
telling a story in a space and allowing audience participation. This
can be considered a form of interactive fiction. The function of
theatrics in virtual worlds is, like the others, grounded in
realism.  Reality has a history, a story, which places the present
in a particular context. Theatre, in this way, is used as a device
to engage the user in the world, and provide their particular
instantiation with context and meaning. Particular design principles
for literary elements may further be used to engage and progress the
user along their own particular story within the virtual world. I'm
at a loss for words here, but dramaticuity (or histrionicity?) is
the extent to which a virtual world facilitates and integrates
dramatic or literary elements.

As this post is long enough, I'll wrap it up. There are many
potential topics here for discussion. The term virtual world, as
shown, is more of a continuum, and as I add more features, or
increase the extent to which particular features exist, the more
congruous to the real world it becomes, and thus the more worldlike
it is. If the magnitude of the continuum increased from left to
right, classifications on the right would be considered more virtual
world-like, as classifications to the left may be considered more
virtual environment-like. But, unlike the right side, which is
considered maximal congruence with reality, the left side is
considered not the maximum of a virtual environment, but the point
at which a virtual environment starts becoming world-like. If any
one of these aspects are removed, I could still have a virtual
world, but if I removed all aspects, I am left with a particular
core in which to build upon. This core is the binding aspect of so
many different fields and inter-disciplinary offerings. If someone
says "I design virtual worlds", this, to me, is what I understand it
to mean.

-Eric Random
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