Making Sense of Virtual Worlds on Designing Virtual Worlds

Geography

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

It might surprise many designers to discover that geographers have an interest in virtual worlds. They do. They are interested in spaces, they regard cyberspace as a space, and virtual worlds are an exceptionally good example of the concept in use.

Note, there is a distinction ¹ between space and place. A space is an abstraction that groups objects of a particular type under a set of fixed rules; a place is a region (under adjacency rules) of some space. For example, matter operating under the laws of physics gives us the 3D space we call reality; Athens is a place in this space. Historical events operating under the laws of causality give us an “event space;” the French Revolution is a place in this space. Mathematicians are particularly fond of spaces, and will readily refer to name spaces, function spaces, and object spaces.

Architecture

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Architects think about spaces for reasons that differ from those of geographers. They are interested in the physical construction of objects within a space, yes, but also in the functional and aesthetic values they can project through such a construction.

In the real world, buildings are designed to fulfill some purpose. This purpose (and the proposed budget) provides the hard parameters within which architects operate. What about cyberspace, though? It’s clearly a space, but then so is the space of possible solutions to a crossword puzzle; architects would not be concerned with the latter, so why should they be concerned with the former?

Anthropology

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The discipline of science concerned with the study of other cultures is anthropology. With ever-dwindling numbers of unstudied cultures, it is unsurprising that anthropologists should take an interest whenever new cultures develop on their doorstep (as they have in virtual worlds). That virtual worlds have not been flooded with anthropologists, however, can perhaps be ascribed to three factors:

The traditional view that virtual worlds are games and therefore not worthy of serious study ¹.

Sociology

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sociology is the study of the organization, functioning, and development of human societies. It is very closely related to anthropology; basically, sociologists and anthropologists got to pretty well the same place but came from different starting points. Indeed, an excellent way to annoy a sociologist or anthropologist is to ask what the difference is between the two disciplines. It essentially boils down to three things:

Sociologists study only industrial societies, whereas anthropologists concentrate on (but don’t restrict themselves to) pre-industrial societies.

Psychology

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anyone with the remotest interest in the psychology of players of virtual worlds must—that’s must—look at John Suler’s hypertext book ¹, The Psychology of Cyberspace. Much of it is 100% relevant to virtual worlds (he talks about them directly), and some sections are classics in their own right. Others are merely short monographs, but almost no subfield of Internet-related psychology goes untouched. Suler has something to say about everything I mention in the remainder of this review, and more besides. There are other, more cohesive and directed introductions to the subject ², but none that I have encountered are as comprehensive as Suler’s.

Gender Studies

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I learned through experience as an undergraduate at Essex University that as a male I have been irredeemably socialized to hold oppressive, androcentric views about all things gender and that therefore my opinions on the subject are worth less than nothing. Even seemingly neutral actions on my part are inherently tainted by my early conditioning and testosterone-charged world-view, so can therefore only be regarded as manifestations of my poisoned, male psyche. Consequently, if you don’t want the purity of your beliefs about gender issues adulterated, you should skip this section.

Lexicography

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

After so many pages of dense theorizing concerning nigh-inaccessible ideological positions using elitist vocabulary, I thought I’d go on to something a little less stressful next: lexicography—the compilation of dictionaries.

Lexicography is one small part of lexicology (the study of the structure and history of a particular language), which itself falls under the scientific umbrella of linguistics. We’ve already met sociolinguistics in the context of anthropology; other major subfields include phonetics, syntax, semantics, and translation, none of which touch on virtual worlds very much (which isn’t to say that they shouldn’t). Three other subfields of linguistics do have something to say about virtual worlds, however: cognitive science and computational linguistics (which I file with artificial intelligence), and language acquisition (which comes under education). This leaves lexicography, with a dash of lexicology as a context.

Economics

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Virtual worlds (the more persistent ones, anyway) have economies. Economists study economies. Virtual-world economies are therefore legitimate objects of study for economists.

This doesn’t mean that many economists do study virtual worlds, however. Those who are involved in the area are more often than not players of virtual worlds who happen to be economists in real life, rather than economists coming to virtual worlds from the outside. That said, academic economists are becoming increasingly aware of virtual worlds, and we can expect more of them to become interested in the topic as time goes on.

Politics

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

When players of virtual worlds refer to “politics,” they’re really talking about systems of government. Politics will be involved in any process by which people gain office, whether that office is head of a country or head of the local chapter of Hell’s Angels. It can happen in any virtual world where players have the ability to gain power through the support of others. On the whole, though, players use the term in the context of offices that grant tangible, law-making powers to their holder, enforced by the virtual world itself. There are other forms of politics that are important for virtual worlds, especially so-called “issue” politics such as feminism; these, I cover where the particular issue is discussed. Thus, with one exception that I’ll give at the end, this section examines the research that people have undertaken concerning the government of and in virtual worlds.

Autobiography

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Virtual worlds have such an effect on people that often they want to write about their experiences. Although most of this takes the form of what might be called “fan fiction,” a little is more personal. Some players keep logs, some keep diaries; some write essays, some write poetry. A very small few write full-blown autobiographies that cover the period of their life that they spent in (and out) of virtual worlds. As the ethnography of an individual, these are remarkable resources; as a recounting of their author’s own, private hero’s journey, they’re invaluable.

Theology

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Theology? Why would a theologist…?

Then it hits you: As the real is to the virtual, so the spiritual is to the real. Theologists should be more interested in virtual worlds than perhaps anyone else except the designers of such worlds themselves.

I have two points to make before I begin this discussion.

Firstly, I’m an atheist. I’m going to be talking about religions here, and try as I might to be objective it’s inevitable that my views are going to show through in places. If this is likely to offend you, please skip the remainder of this section.