Re: Types/uses

annette@construct.net
Wed, 29 Nov 1995 16:29:03 -0800

annette:
> I'm convinced it's because people want room for their own imagination to
> roam and that pre-made graphics can seriously interfere with this.
brandon:
>I'd agree that some people would rather "read a book" than "watch a
>movie." On the other hand, there are plenty of people who'd rather
>watch a movie than read a book. And let's face it, a lot of MUD room
>descriptions are pretty bad, because not a lot of effort has been put
>into writing them. From an imaginative/literary standpoint, the
>single-person text adventures that I played in my childhood were far
>more engaging than any MUD text I've ever seen. So I think there's
>more than one reason why people get totally sucked into MUDs.

Very much agreed.
I'm shocked to notice that our websites activity is focussed very much on
the non interactive areas. It's been the opposite in all the other sites
I've been involved in.

> The
> current state of VRML is also lacking in stimuli for the active young mind.
>
>Could you elaborate? I agree, but my list of specific reasons is so
>long and convoluted that it would be quicker if you started with your
>own. :-)

Hmmm, a couple to start then:

- Poor choice of subject matter (malls, single objects, etc)

Until people really sit down and think. "What do I really want out
of a
virtual experience?" we're gonna see the same old tripe.

- Not even good at what it's supposed to be good at (yet)

The general idea of VRML is to provide Virtual Reailty in the form of
environments, and eventually interations between beings withing these
environments which are distrubutable over the internet.

Existing files seem to be to large to be distributed comfortably by
modem, and offer little in the way atmosphere or interactivity.

- Not widely compatable

Like HTML these days, VRML looks vastly different depending on platform
and browser. Until the browsers support the VRML standard fully, and
decent browsers are avaiable for all platforms (a tear falls as I
think
of my poor Mac), it's a really messy deal.

that's it for now.

I sit and pray for a Mac browser and the merging of Java and VRML.

annette :)

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wishing for snow

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