Designing Virtual Worlds
Encyclopedia
Designing Virtual Worlds is a definitive work on the practice of virtual world
development by Richard Bartle
, the father of MUD
s. It has been called "the bible of MMORPG design" and spoken of as "excellent", "seminal", "widely read", "the standard text on the subject", "the most comprehensive guide to gaming virtual worlds" and "a foundation text for researchers and developers of virtual worlds" that is "strongly recommended for anyone actually thinking about building one of these places" and "describes the minimum level of competency you should have when discussing design issues for virtual worlds". It has been noted as an authoritative source regarding the history of world-based online games. Its coverage of the virtual world design process has been called "a step further than most [books] in game design instruction". In less favorable reception, one reviewer, while calling it a "must-read" work, said he found "much that was questionable, incomplete, or just erroneous" in it. College courses have been taught using it.
Designing Virtual Worlds has been noted for its arguments that the fundamentals of player relationships to the virtual world and each other are independent of technical issues and are characterized by a blending of online and offline identity, that players do not know what will provide them with a positive game experience, that being the designer's role, and that the purpose of virtual worlds is the player's exploration of self, as well as for its expansion of the earlier 4-type Bartle gamer style taxonomy
into an 8-type model and its focus on the practicalities of its subject.
Virtual world
A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...
development by Richard Bartle
Richard Bartle
Richard Allan Bartle is a British writer, professor and game researcher, best known for being the co-creator of MUD1 and the author of the seminal Designing Virtual Worlds. He is one of the pioneers of the massively multiplayer online game industry.-Life and career:Bartle received a Ph.D...
, the father of MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
s. It has been called "the bible of MMORPG design" and spoken of as "excellent", "seminal", "widely read", "the standard text on the subject", "the most comprehensive guide to gaming virtual worlds" and "a foundation text for researchers and developers of virtual worlds" that is "strongly recommended for anyone actually thinking about building one of these places" and "describes the minimum level of competency you should have when discussing design issues for virtual worlds". It has been noted as an authoritative source regarding the history of world-based online games. Its coverage of the virtual world design process has been called "a step further than most [books] in game design instruction". In less favorable reception, one reviewer, while calling it a "must-read" work, said he found "much that was questionable, incomplete, or just erroneous" in it. College courses have been taught using it.
Designing Virtual Worlds has been noted for its arguments that the fundamentals of player relationships to the virtual world and each other are independent of technical issues and are characterized by a blending of online and offline identity, that players do not know what will provide them with a positive game experience, that being the designer's role, and that the purpose of virtual worlds is the player's exploration of self, as well as for its expansion of the earlier 4-type Bartle gamer style taxonomy
Bartle Test
The Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology is a series of questions and an accompanying scoring formula that classifies players of multiplayer online games into categories based on their gaming preferences. The test is based on a 1996 paper by Richard Bartle and was created in 1999–2000 by Erwin...
into an 8-type model and its focus on the practicalities of its subject.