Designing Virtual Worlds - Richard Bartle

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Auteur(s) : Richard Bartle

Editeur : New Riders Publ

Langue : Anglais

Parution : 01/07/2003

Format : Moyen, de 350g à 1kg

Nombre de pages : 741

Expédition : 1327

Dimensions : 23.5 x 19.3 x 4.3

ISBN : 0131018167

Résumé :

The most comprehensive treatment of virtual world design to-date from one of the true pioneers and most sought-after design consultants.

• A tour de force of VW design, stunning in intellectual scope, spanning the literary, economic, sociological, psychological, physical, technological, and ethical underpinnings of design.
• Provides the reader with a deep, well-grounded understanding of VW design principles.
• Covers everything from MUDs to MOOs to MMORPGs, from text-based to graphical VWs.

Various sales projections for the online games market for 2004 range anywhere from dollars1.2 to dollars5 billion. These estimates are based on the success of established MMORPGs like Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest and Lineage, and the expected success of the long anticipated Star Wars Galaxies. These sorts of games immerse the players in virtual worlds; game worlds that persist over time and in which there is a shared, multi-user experience. These games developed from traditional games and MUDs (text-based multi-user interactive games). The Internet made virtual worlds more accessible and more graphical, and participation has grown exponentially.

Designing Virtual Worlds brings a rich, well-developed approach to the design concepts behind virtual worlds. It is grounded in the earliest approaches to such designs, but the examples discussed in the book run the gamut from the earliest MUDs to the present-day MMORPG games mentioned above. It teaches the reader the actual, underlying design principles that many designers do not understand when they borrow or build from previous games. There is no other design book on the market in the area of online games and virtual worlds that provides the rich detail, historical context, and conceptual depth of Designing Virtual Worlds.

Biographie:

Richard Allan Bartle, Ph.D., co-wrote the first virtual world, MUD (Multi-User Dungeon), in 1978, thus being at the forefront of the online gaming industry from its very inception. A former university lecturer in Artificial Intelligence, he is an influential writer on all aspects of virtual world design and development. As an independent consultant, he has worked with almost every major online gaming company in the U.K. and the U.S. over the past 20 years. Richard lives with his wife, Gail, and their two children, Jennifer and Madeleine, in a village just outside Colchester, England. He works in virtual worlds.

These reviewers contributed their considerable hands-on expertise to the development process for Designing Virtual Worlds. As the book was being written, these dedicated professionals reviewed all the material for technical content, organization, and flow. Their feedback was critical to ensuring that Designing Virtual Worlds fits our readers' need for the highest-quality technical information.

Matt Mihaly is the founding partner, lead designer, and CEO of Achaea LLC. Founded in 1996 in San Francisco, Achaea designs and produces some of the world's most popular and successful commercial text MUDs, including Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands (http://www.achaea.com), Aetolia, the Midnight Age (http://www.aetolia.com), and Imperian (http://www.imperian.com)-all of which run on Achaea's proprietary network engine, Rapture. Matt graduated from Cornell University in 1994 with a degree in Political Science and is a licensed stockbroker. These experiences have informed his game design tendencies and he is an expert on business models, political systems, and community dynamics in virtual worlds. Along with the inevitable interest in games, he spends his free time pursuing Brazilian jujitsu and kickboxing, cooking, travelling, hiking, kayaking, skiing, and scuba diving.

Damion Schubert has been working in online world design professionally for over seven years. He was originally the lead designer of Meridian 59 (and several expansions), as well as the lead designer for the defunct Ultima Online 2. He has also served as a contractor for such projects as The Sims Online and Kalisto's Highlander Online. Currently Damion is serving as a senior designer at Wolfpack, which shipped Shadowbane in March 2003.

Sommaire:
Introduction. 1. Introduction to Virtual Worlds.

2. How to Make Virtual Worlds.

3. Players.

4. World Design.

5. Life in the Virtual World.

6. Its Not a Game, Its a….

7. Towards a Critical Aesthetic.

8. Coda: Ethical Considerations.

Index.