A Theory of Virtual Worlds on Designing Virtual Worlds

Motivation

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

A critical aesthetic is a system of ascribing meaning to individual examples of an art form. When formalized, it amounts to a theory for that art.

The “aesthetic” here isn’t in the general sense: It’s not a branch of philosophy concerned with matters such as “beauty” and “taste.” Rather, it’s to do with the rules and principles that underlie an art (in this case, virtual world creation). A virtual world may look beautiful and have a great visual aesthetic, yet suck as a world. The art director controls the look, but the designer controls the world. Designers who want a particular look hire art directors whose work exhibits that look. The look is part of the overall aesthetic. Introducing the notion of criticism allows for rationalization of the communicative aspects of this aesthetic.

Some Questions

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

In developing a critical aesthetic for virtual worlds, we need to answer some difficult questions. I won’t pretend I answer any of them, but here they are anyway:

How is the “value” of the virtual world experience determined?
What do you need to understand when you have fun, and how do people with different understandings interact?
What rules apply to all virtual worlds, and what are their limitations?
What symbolism exists within the virtual world itself and within the way it is presented?

Template Theories

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

It’s easier to create something new by beginning with something old than it is to start from nothing. In developing a critical aesthetic for virtual worlds, it makes sense to look at existing theories for related art forms and see what light they can shed. It’s unlikely that they’ll fit very closely, but nevertheless they could provide a framework on which to build. Perhaps the symbolism used in virtual worlds is gifted to us already through that of its nearest relatives?

Signs and Symbols

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

So, let’s start with symbols.

When movies were first made, directors had to develop a language and their audience had to learn it: Real life doesn’t have jump cuts. When something happens in the way information is presented on a movie screen, which runs counter

to the way that human senses accept information in the real world, this signals an interrupt that the mind needs to interpret consciously. By codifying the interrupts so they are always used under the same circumstances, the brain can learn what they “mean.” This done, subsequent occurrences of the interrupt don’t register unless they subvert the code in some way.

Dimensions

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

External symbolism in virtual worlds can be explicit. You can create a virtual world where everyone is a dolphin trying to save the ocean from the evil oil companies that pollute the water ¹. This is not the kind of symbolism that I mean here, however. Rather, I’m concerned with the implicit kind, which are manifestations of the different views that designers hold regarding what is important about virtual worlds.

Debate—both verbally and through the action of design—takes place along several dimensions at once. Formally, these are

Whence the Symbols Come

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

An analysis of internal symbolism is justifiable here. Virtual world designers have many options available to them about what they put into a virtual world, what they leave out, how they put it in, and so on. In selecting between all the possibilities available to them, designers are employing their artistic faculties; furthermore, they are doing so deliberately. They want (for design/artistic reasons) to achieve an effect, therefore they arrange the virtual world to create it.

A Chemistry for Virtual Worlds

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

In screenplays, every action and every piece of dialogue must have a purpose. Movies are so expensive to make that anything that doesn’t advance the plot or round out a character must be ruthlessly cut. This even applies to comedies: You may laugh at the joke, but if the joke weren’t there, then at a purely structural level there would be a minor plot hole.

Virtual worlds don’t have quite the same financial or narrative constraints. It’s not the case that everything must have a purpose, but everything ¹ ought to have a potential purpose ². The players may determine a different purpose entirely to the one intended, deliberately or otherwise, but so long as they find some purpose they’re happy. It’s very frustrating to look for an object’s use when it doesn’t actually have one, and even worse if your complaints bring only hoots of laughter from the live team.