Oh and please remember These are just some ideas to get some conversations
going. They man not represent what I think in 10 mins or even by the time
I send this post ":P
1. Alternate Worlds.
I think a virtual world dosen't have to be a virtual reality world,
(You prob. know this if you'v read my previos posts), but my main alter-
native is Text based MUSH/MUD/MOO's. Are there any other alternatives
out there you can think of? IS Irc A virtual environment, If you imagine
that the ppl you are chatting to are with you (and I find it hard not to)
maybe it is ?
2. Rewards and punishment.
It would seem that there is very little to hold a person's interest
in a virtual world after the initial *Experience* Has worn off. Ok if
you are rewarded by your interaction with other ppl or you get a chance
to be creative that that is it's own reward. But are there other ways
to reward ppl for thier involment in a VW? And if you reward ppl to
encourage them to join your VW community, should thier actions there
be rewarded, or even punished somehow. How do you reward punish someone
with no physical presence ???
At university they had an adventure game on thier network, and doing
right things gave you credits that you could then use in other games.
There was a currency that crossed boundries, (Hmm that sounds a bit
contrived I'd better try and justify it). If you collected enough gems
in the adventure game you could sell them for credits, you could then
log out the adventure and join a networked poker game where you could
bet with you'r credits. It was all virtual credit so Why not.
Our Society is based on money and that was reflected in the example
above, Can anyone think of another method of payment in a virtual world.
(If it was a virtual reality world perhaps you could trade planes and
colours so you can make things, but that's money again isn't it ??)
3 The Need for Speed.
What are your views on VRML ? I think its a good Idea but its execution
on my m/c is soooo Slow, I think I'd need a Sun SPARC workstation before
I could really enjoy it. Are we going to see different solutions for
modeling 3d worlds or are we just going to have to wait for affordable
hardware.
Come on there must be some Techie ppl out there with some Ideas on this.
Well Thats just my mad ramblings to try and start some new thread's.
Now it's over to you lot. ":)
simon@dvstsol.demon.co.uk