tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27634509671089524542011-04-21T19:29:19.724ZOla Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.comBlogger91100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2763450967108952454.post-66313567283264117642007-12-24T11:36:00.000Z2007-12-24T18:06:02.925Z

Real money trading (RMT) is a result of users being able to organize themselves on the web and selling their in-world assets for real money. This detracts from the virtual world as a coherent self-sustaining entity and real-world inequalities spill over into the game. So what can you do about it? There have been many discussions in places like Terranova, Raph's blog and Tobold's blog, but most

Ola Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2763450967108952454.post-7997506080346377962007-07-31T14:03:00.000Z2007-07-31T19:35:04.032Z

Flash has enabled solo programmers to create games on their own without the backing of a big team. Here are a few I appreciate, all created by individuals or small teams... The following games are single user, but they also provide a world with a distinctive and artistic uniqueness to them. In addition, they play well. Not a small feat. Fancy Pants by Brad Borne is a platform game which

Ola Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2763450967108952454.post-55596316865258156452007-06-22T14:15:00.000Z2007-06-22T22:29:45.188Z

The term role-acting is a subsitute for the term role-playing, as the latter is more confusing than useful. Different people have different ideas of what it means. This is not surprising as the few players who consider the role-play aspect to be their main activity have to invest a lot of time and effort into bringing the psychological dimensions of their character to life. This is not for

Ola Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2763450967108952454.post-71459514835602501432007-06-22T08:43:00.000Z2007-06-22T22:37:23.397Z

When designing a virtual world you need to consider how the online reality differs from physical reality... This is a list of some of the major constraints that applies to most virtual worlds, their games and economies. Particular designs have to deal with even more constraints, of course. This list is temporary. Strong constraints New users arrive all the time: a key design challenge is to

Ola Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2763450967108952454.post-80436729120074733292007-06-17T08:19:00.001Z2007-06-20T08:41:47.300Z

Designers and users are easily annoyed by cheating in their game worlds. This mentality is destructive for the world... There are two main types of exploits: Cheating In-world cheating takes place in the world and involves users breaking the norms that is imposed on them by themselves or others. The term is often used to refer to users who gain advantages by innovative exploitation of the

Ola Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2763450967108952454.post-8189220306028313232007-06-16T11:55:00.000Z2007-06-16T16:13:54.677Z

Users of virtual worlds are usually represented in the world in terms of a character and the avatar of that character. Here are my definitions... (Please note that these definitions are preliminary and are likely to change.) Agent An agent is an entity in the world that is perceived as being autonomous and which is viewed as being capable of causing actions to take place. Character A character

Ola Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2763450967108952454.post-38418454166280410482007-06-15T11:17:00.000Z2007-06-15T12:31:25.527Z

Virtual worlds usually have static and dynamic aspects. For pragmatic reasons most online games provide static environments where the gameplay is fairly predictable. Common wisdom says that metamorphosis is more problematic than expansion... Unfortunately, continuous expansion without any clean-up can turn the world into an incoherent inflation mess. Advantages Inflation solves the long term

Ola Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2763450967108952454.post-43944744325240106272007-06-15T08:22:00.000Z2007-06-22T23:14:33.436Z

The term virtual world can be difficult to grap, therefore a definition is needed... Last update: 2007-06-22T23Z The term virtual world has grown out of the term virtual reality, thus signifying something that presents itself with traits from the physical world, but doesn't exist as a physical entity, typically mediated by a computer. This view is too limiting and arbitrary. A more abstract

Ola Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2763450967108952454.post-8212653113671788432007-06-14T12:54:00.000Z2007-06-15T12:29:12.349Z

What can you learn about virtual world design from the web-sphere? Game design guru Raph Koster sees a lot of connections. Of which some hit closer to home than others. I look at the others... and take the liberty of playing the Devil's Advocate. Feel free to put me in place. Just remember that this Devil has a pitchfork. You have been warned. From the slides: The value of the software is

Ola Fosheim Grøstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00457337402997851685noreply@blogger.com0