Chapter: Chapter 1. Introduction to Virtual Worlds

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KEY TOPICS

  • Some Definitions

  • What They Are and Whence They Came

  • The Past Affects the Future

  • The Basics

  • Influences on Virtual Worlds

  • The Designer

What are virtual worlds? In this context, a world is an environment that its inhabitants regard as being self-contained. It doesn't have to mean an entire planet: It's used in the same sense as "the Roman world" or "the world of high finance."

So what about the virtual part? Not to get too philosophical about it:

  • Real. That which is.

  • Imaginary. That which isn't.

  • Virtual. That which isn't, having the form or effect of that which is.

Virtual worlds are places where the imaginary meets the real.

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