Naraya
Arcane
Richard Bartle Releases His Classic Book Designing Virtual Worlds For Free Online -- Here's His Guide To The Sections Still Most Relevant Today
https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2021/08/richard-bartle-designing-virtual-worlds-free-book.html
Professor Bartle, with characteristically wry self-effacement, just sent me his personal summary of the book chapter by chapter, noting which sections are still most relevant and which, not so much -- a handy cheat sheet for new/returning readers:
Chapter 1 [Introduction to Virtual Worlds] is OK but we've been in the 6th age of virtual worlds since 2012. Some of the historical stuff (on codebases, for example) is now only of historical interest. The material on influences is superseded, because these days most virtual world design is influences by the design of those worlds that preceded them.
Chapter 2 [How to Make Virtual Worlds] is OK; boring, but OK. There are new architectures available now, and the old ones are still viable but rather old hat today. VR is still just around the corner, though.
Chapter 3 [Players] holds up best. Most of what's in it still applies. The Community section is its weakest part.
Chapter 4 [World Design] holds up well, too. Some of the suggestions sound strangely fresh and new, with modern MMOs (as opposed to non-game worlds) having largely similar ways of approaching world design resulting in largely similar results. That said, there are new ideas around, so it's still somewhat out of
Chapter 5 [Life in the Virtual World] is fair, but modern ideas of identity politics make some of the points rather edgier than they were back in the day. The section on permadeath remains true, but it's not even something modern players could get their heads around, so it's really a bust in today's context.
Chapter 6 [It’s Not a Game, It’s a...] is state of the art for 2003. Thousands of academic papers about virtual worlds have since been written, so it's the most dated part of the book. Some of the points made by early researchers still hold true, but there are more points and more nuanced takes on the old points in many cases. It's unlikely to be a useful chapter for today's reader.
Chapter 7 [Toward a Critical Aesthetic] holds up well, but isn't of interest to anyone except the budding designer who hasn't had all thoughts that virtual worlds are creative expressions beaten out of them.
Chapter 8 [Coda: Ethical Considerations] is still relevant, largely for the same reasons it was relevant before: few designers think about this kind of thing, but they ought to.
https://mud.co.uk/richard/DesigningVirtualWorlds.pdf
https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2021/08/richard-bartle-designing-virtual-worlds-free-book.html
Professor Bartle, with characteristically wry self-effacement, just sent me his personal summary of the book chapter by chapter, noting which sections are still most relevant and which, not so much -- a handy cheat sheet for new/returning readers:
Chapter 1 [Introduction to Virtual Worlds] is OK but we've been in the 6th age of virtual worlds since 2012. Some of the historical stuff (on codebases, for example) is now only of historical interest. The material on influences is superseded, because these days most virtual world design is influences by the design of those worlds that preceded them.
Chapter 2 [How to Make Virtual Worlds] is OK; boring, but OK. There are new architectures available now, and the old ones are still viable but rather old hat today. VR is still just around the corner, though.
Chapter 3 [Players] holds up best. Most of what's in it still applies. The Community section is its weakest part.
Chapter 4 [World Design] holds up well, too. Some of the suggestions sound strangely fresh and new, with modern MMOs (as opposed to non-game worlds) having largely similar ways of approaching world design resulting in largely similar results. That said, there are new ideas around, so it's still somewhat out of
Chapter 5 [Life in the Virtual World] is fair, but modern ideas of identity politics make some of the points rather edgier than they were back in the day. The section on permadeath remains true, but it's not even something modern players could get their heads around, so it's really a bust in today's context.
Chapter 6 [It’s Not a Game, It’s a...] is state of the art for 2003. Thousands of academic papers about virtual worlds have since been written, so it's the most dated part of the book. Some of the points made by early researchers still hold true, but there are more points and more nuanced takes on the old points in many cases. It's unlikely to be a useful chapter for today's reader.
Chapter 7 [Toward a Critical Aesthetic] holds up well, but isn't of interest to anyone except the budding designer who hasn't had all thoughts that virtual worlds are creative expressions beaten out of them.
Chapter 8 [Coda: Ethical Considerations] is still relevant, largely for the same reasons it was relevant before: few designers think about this kind of thing, but they ought to.
https://mud.co.uk/richard/DesigningVirtualWorlds.pdf
