Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!milton!xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: Re: Toward a Typology/Topology of Virtual Worlds Message-ID: <11673@milton.u.washington.edu> Date: 25 Nov 90 17:40:38 GMT Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 37 Approved: hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu To expand a bit upon a prior posting, one dimension along which to characterize a virtual world is mallability. I see three easy to identify cases: 1) The VR is user-immutable. The user moves through it as a ghost, walking through open doors only, sitting in chairs but not moving them, experiencing the VR but not manipulating it. This might be a suitable way to access an extremely fancy canned database. 2) The VR is user-mutable. The user moves through it opening doors, and they stay open, rearranging the furniture, and it stays put for the next access. 3) The VR is user-configurable. The user moves through it adding doors or designing furniture, and they are there for the next access. In game terms, 1) may be compared to solving a maze, 2) to playing rogue or a nethack without the bones files, and 3) to a user-configurable MUD. In addition, for shared VRs, one may partition between 1) VRs that exist as a separate reality with its own state space for each user, even though the data base on which the VR is first experienced may be common. 2) VRs that communicate changes to other users in a shared reality, by passing a modified state space after a session. 3) VRs that communicate changes to other users interactively by sharing changes to the state space in "real time". In game terms, 1) is Pacman, 2) is nethack's bones level, or a MUD design session change, and 3) is a MUD being played or a mazewar session. Kent, the man from xanth.