Posts with tag virtual worlds

This Newsweek article -- yet another mainstream look at this strange concept called World of Warcraft -- unexpectedly asks a very interesting question. Is WoW a game? Sadly, the article devotes most of its time to explaining the concept of WoW to an outside audience, rather than getting stuck into a discussion of virtual worlds, their categorisation, and their future.

It's often been said that WoW can be more like a job than a hobby; the regular hours, the repetitive tasks, the camaraderie, the rewards. The question asked by the Newsweek piece, however, has a different angle from the old "work vs play" debate. Instead, it asks -- is this the future? Are WoW's immersiveness, its ability to sneak into lives, its vast popularity all indicators of what virtual worlds in the future will hold? I think so.

'Serious' virtual worlds could easily take lessons from WoW on how to be fun, but while WoW may be exemplary with regards to current MMO design, it's still very much rooted in the 'entertainment' sphere -- future developments away from gaming and towards everyday pervasive virtual worlds have to cater for the seven million WoW-heads, and will be more easily received as a result.

The most important question of all, though, is: when we live and work in the Matrix, will there still be night elves called Légolass?

[Thanks, Dave]

Terra Nova has an opinion piece up on democracy in virtual worlds.   While we organize ourselves into self-governed guilds, where does it go from there?  From my own experience as a guild member and a guild leader, the governance involved in even small organizations can be a headache, and I can only imagine it getting worse with increased size and complexity.  Anyone have any opinions on democracy, from a World of Warcraft perspective?

While I try to stick with one MMORPG at a time, I know a few people who play several.  (Where do they find the time?  I'll never know!)  However, I imagine I'll eventually leave my Warcraft avatar behind and move on to other games - where I'll start from scratch.  However, this article on Wired suggests that the future may see the boarder between our virtual realities blurring.  Are we going to be able to bring our Sims to Azeroth?  Doomguards to Animal Crossing?  Perhaps not specifically, but as more and more people flood into virtual worlds, it will be interesting to see whether the boundaries between them change.