# Introduction to Virtual Worlds

LLMS index: [llms.txt](/dvw/en/llms.txt)

---

What are virtual worlds? In this context, a world is an environment that its inhabitants regard as being self-contained. It doesn’t have to mean an entire planet: It’s used in the same sense as “the Roman world” or “the world of high finance.”

So what about the virtual part? Not to get too philosophical about it:

- Real: That which is.

- Imaginary: That which isn’t.

- Virtual: That which isn’t, having the form or effect of that which is.

Virtual worlds are places where the imaginary meets the real.

---

Section pages:

- [Some Definitions](/dvw/en/book/01-introduction-to-virtual-worlds/01-02-some-definitions/)
- [What They Are and Whence They Came](/dvw/en/book/01-introduction-to-virtual-worlds/01-03-what-they-are-and-whence-they-came/)
- [The Past Affects the Future](/dvw/en/book/01-introduction-to-virtual-worlds/01-09-the-past-affects-the-future/)
- [The Basics](/dvw/en/book/01-introduction-to-virtual-worlds/01-13-the-basics/)
- [Influences on Virtual Worlds](/dvw/en/book/01-introduction-to-virtual-worlds/01-20-influences-on-virtual-worlds/)
- [The Designer](/dvw/en/book/01-introduction-to-virtual-worlds/01-25-the-designer/)