Chapter: The Designer
The role of virtual world designer is fraught with paradoxes. You have to be imaginative yet realistic; deep-thinking yet practical; surprising yet dependable; an individual yet part of a team; a doer yet a listener. You have to know a lot about some things and at least a little about everything else.
This chapter has presented the context. If you didn't already, you should now know where virtual worlds are, how they got to be that way, and where they seem to be headed. Whether they actually do go in that direction is another matter. It all depends on people like you.
Subsequent chapters of this book lay out the choices before you, but only you can decide which to make.
The options suggested are only that, options. If you look at them and think, "they wouldn't work in my virtual world," you could well be right; that isn't to say they wouldn't work in someone else's, though. Players are often quick to go to the specific when they should be staying at the general. "You can't have permanent death in EverQuest!" Well, of course not?EverQuest was designed not to have permanent death in it; adding the concept would be as misguided as placing a learn-to-play-golf feature in a Saturday night chat show. It doesn't fit the format. In an afternoon sports magazine, hey, it might work. In a new series targeted at the recently retired, it would make perfect sense.
You can taste ideas to see if you like them, but you don't have to swallow them whole. Besides, even if they're your favorites, they might not go together. Italian cuisine does not call for pistachio ice cream to be added to spaghetti bolognaise.
Question the paradigms, avoid stagnation. You have to understand a system before you can challenge it, but that doesn't mean you have to accept it. Just because you see a list of ideas here, that doesn't mean it's exhaustive. The virtual worlds people remember are the ones that are different, not the ones that are the same.
After the success of the Harry Potter series, children's book publishers went all out to find the next Harry Potter. Everyone likes plucky, magic-wielding youngsters! Well, up to a point: What they actually like is Harry Potter. Whatever the next big children's publishing sensation turns out to be, about the only thing you can say about it is that it won't look like Harry Potter. Those companies writing virtual worlds that are EverQuest clones are scrapping for crumbs from the high table.
Read, assimilate, understand. Then think for yourself.
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