Imaginary Realities
Encyclopedia
Imaginary Realities was an influential MUD
community online magazine
running from September 1998 to December 2001. It was hosted under the auspices of George Reese
's Center for Imaginary Environments at imaginary.com. Imaginary Realities featured articles by Richard Bartle
, Raph Koster
, Julian Dibbell
, Chip Morningstar
, Randy Farmer
, Skotos
, Brian Green
, George Reese
, Jessica Mulligan, Wes Platt
, Cat Rambo
, Richard Woolcock, and Geoff Wong, as well as many other major figures in the MUD community. It was edited by David "Pinkfish" Bennett of Discworld MUD
, Selina Kelley, Marcie Kligman and Daniel McIver.
Articles from Imaginary Realities have been cited in Richard Bartle
's Designing Virtual Worlds
and Julie Coiro's Handbook of Research on New Literacies, and it was noted in Mulligan & Patrovsky's Developing Online Games as a venue where a previous work by Mulligan was published.
After its disappearance from the Web, several mirrors of Imaginary Realities were brought online. These efforts, though their copyright status is ambiguous, have been applauded by at least one major former contributor, decrying the alternative of the content's loss, and at minimum appreciated for aiding in recovering his work by another.
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...
community online magazine
Online magazine
An online magazine shares some features with a blog and also with online newspapers, but can usually be distinguished by its approach to editorial control...
running from September 1998 to December 2001. It was hosted under the auspices of George Reese
George Reese (computer programmer)
George Reese is an author and developer of several Open Source frameworks. George was born in Houston, Texas and attended Bates College where he majored in Philosophy. While in college he was program director of the local radio station, WRBC. He is currently CTO of enStratus and founder of Valtira...
's Center for Imaginary Environments at imaginary.com. Imaginary Realities featured articles 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...
, Raph Koster
Raph Koster
Raphael "Raph" Koster is an American entrepreneur, game designer, and author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Koster is widely recognized for his work as the lead designer of Ultima Online and the creative director behind Star Wars Galaxies...
, Julian Dibbell
Julian Dibbell
Julian Dibbell is an American author and technology journalist with a particular interest in social systems within online communities. His 1993 article "A Rape in Cyberspace" detailed attempts of LambdaMOO, an online community, to quantify and deal with lawbreaking in its midst. The article was...
, Chip Morningstar
Chip Morningstar
Chip Morningstar is an author, academic and developer of software systems for online entertainment and communication. A University of Michigan graduate, he participated in Project Xanadu, for which the word hypertext was first coined. Later, he overhauled the chat environment known as The Palace,...
, Randy Farmer
Randy Farmer
F. Randall "Randy" Farmer has created and organized numerous online communities. He is probably most famous for his role creating one of the first graphical online MMOGs, Lucasfilm's graphical MUD Habitat, with Chip Morningstar...
, Skotos
Skotos
Skotos, sometimes known as Skotos Tech, is an online game company that was founded in 1999 and released its first game, Castle Marrach, in September 2000. Its primary focus is prose online RPGs , though it currently offers a total of 15 different games...
, Brian Green
Brian Green (game developer)
Brian "Psychochild" Green is a game developer known for his work on the online 3D graphical RPG, Meridian 59. He worked on the game for 3DO, then co-founded Near Death Studios in 2001. He is a frequent gaming conference speaker and writes for a number of game design websites, including...
, George Reese
George Reese (computer programmer)
George Reese is an author and developer of several Open Source frameworks. George was born in Houston, Texas and attended Bates College where he majored in Philosophy. While in college he was program director of the local radio station, WRBC. He is currently CTO of enStratus and founder of Valtira...
, Jessica Mulligan, Wes Platt
Wes Platt
Wes Platt is a former professional journalist, game writer/designer, creator of the online games OtherSpace, Chiaroscuro and Necromundus, and one-time Director of Content Development for Fallen Earth.-Biography:...
, Cat Rambo
Cat Rambo
Cat Rambo is a science fiction and fantasy writer and editor who lives in the Pacific Northwest. She has been the co-editor of Fantasy Magazine since 2007. She collaborated with Jeff VanderMeer on The Surgeon's Tale and Other Stories, published in 2007...
, Richard Woolcock, and Geoff Wong, as well as many other major figures in the MUD community. It was edited by David "Pinkfish" Bennett of Discworld MUD
Discworld MUD
Discworld MUD is a popular MUD, a text-based online role-playing game, set in the Discworld as depicted in the Discworld series of books by Terry Pratchett.-History:...
, Selina Kelley, Marcie Kligman and Daniel McIver.
Articles from Imaginary Realities have been cited in 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...
's Designing Virtual Worlds
Designing Virtual Worlds
Designing Virtual Worlds is a definitive work on the practice of virtual world development by Richard Bartle, the father of MUDs. 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...
and Julie Coiro's Handbook of Research on New Literacies, and it was noted in Mulligan & Patrovsky's Developing Online Games as a venue where a previous work by Mulligan was published.
After its disappearance from the Web, several mirrors of Imaginary Realities were brought online. These efforts, though their copyright status is ambiguous, have been applauded by at least one major former contributor, decrying the alternative of the content's loss, and at minimum appreciated for aiding in recovering his work by another.