''Designing Virtual Worlds'' is a book about the practice of
virtual world
A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...
development by
Richard Bartle
Richard Allan Bartle FBCS FRSA (born 10 January 1960) is a British writer, professor and game researcher in the massively multiplayer online game industry. He co-created ''MUD1'' (the first MUD) in 1978, and is the author of the 2003 book ''De ...
. It has been noted as an authoritative source regarding the history of world-based online games. College courses have been taught using it.
In 2021, the author made the book freely available under a
Creative Commons license
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...
on his website.
Contents
''Designing Virtual Worlds'' argues that the fundamentals of player relationships to the virtual world and each other are independent of technical issues and are characterized by a blending of online and offline identity. According to the book, it is the designer's role to know what will provide players with a positive game experience, the purpose of virtual worlds is the player's exploration of self, as well as for its expansion of the earlier 4-type
Bartle gamer style taxonomy into an 8-type model. The book also focuses on the practicalities of its subject.
Reception
It has been called "the bible of
MMORPG design" and spoken of as "excellent", "seminal", "widely read", "the standard text on the subject", "the most comprehensive guide to gaming virtual worlds" and "a foundation text for researchers and developers of virtual worlds" that is "strongly recommended for anyone actually thinking about building one of these places" and "describes the minimum level of competency you should have when discussing design issues for virtual worlds".
In less favorable reception, one reviewer, while calling it a "must-read" work, said he found "much that was questionable, incomplete, or just erroneous" in it.
References
External links
Preview at Google BooksAuthor's support site''Designing Virtual Worlds'' freely downloadable PDF under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license
{{MUDs
Books about the Internet
Books about video games
MUD texts
Texts related to the history of the Internet