# Initiation

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

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This stage takes place in the virtual world, and is therefore the one that is most important to virtual world designers (more important than they may realize!). You may want to look back at the player development tracks shown in Figure 3.5 before you read this. You also might like to refer to the review of Hedron’s Six Circles, because this (at last!) is why I mentioned it [^91].

- The road of trials. The player finds their feet. This is the opportunist/griefer step, where players meet and respond to small challenges to determine the extent of their abilities. Their success or failure at these will establish their course of future action.

- The meeting with the goddess. The player seeks knowledge, either through experimentation (as a scientist) or from others (as a networker). The more that players learn about the virtual world and its inhabitants, the more they learn about themselves. If they can handle what they learn, they are stronger for it. They begin the process of immersion—that is, of coalescing their real-life self with their virtual self.

- Woman as the temptress. Once players have learned enough to become accomplished, they are at last informed enough to judge whether they want to attempt to complete it. Are they in it for the long haul, or is their academic curiosity sufficiently satisfied that they don’t feel they need to continue? This step covers the transition from discovery to application, from learning to doing.

- Atonement with the father. This is the step that players spend most of their time taking, putting the skills they have acquired into practice. It’s where the planner-type achievers and politician-type socializers strive to improve and impress. The virtual world’s achievement metric (for example, character level) charts the players’ progress to their goal. When they reach the end as the virtual world defines it, they “win.” It is the key moment in their virtual existence. The “father” who they are confronting is the virtual world’s (lead) designer, whose will is expressed by the virtual world and who wields its ultimate power. When the designer (through the implementation of the virtual world) accepts them, then they have the closure they need to move on to the final, serene state of total immersion.

- Apotheosis. Players wind up here as friend-type socializers or hacker-type explorers. They understand the virtual world, its people, and themselves; they are at peace with all. Challenges from the virtual world, when they arise, are no longer important.

- The ultimate boon. Oh dear. Virtual worlds don’t have an ultimate boon. Players have no token of their achievement. They have skills and wisdom that they can bring back with them into the real world, but nothing formal to symbolize it.


[^91]: See if you can match the circles up to the steps—it’s not all that difficult.