Inhabited virtual worlds
Other, more or less equivalent, terms you may see are: multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs), collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), persistent online virtual environments (POVEs), distributed computer graphics electronic spaces, and socially inhabited electronic spaces.
[The Street] is the Broadway, the Champs élysées of the Metaverse. It is the brilliantly lit boulevard that can be seen, miniturized and backward, reflected in the lenses of his goggles. It does not really exist. But right now, millions of people are walking up and down it. …
Like any place in Reality, the Street is subject to development. Developers can build their own small streets feeding off of the main one. They can build buildings, parks, signs, …
Hiro has a house in a neighborhood just off the busiest part of the Street. It is a very old neighborhood by Street standards. …
(Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, 1992, pp.23-4)
Listed under this section are …
- World-building toolkits
- Text-based VR
- 2D and 2.5D worlds
- Multi-user VRML worlds (using the Blaxxun browser)
- Multi-user worlds built with Adobe Atmospheres
- Active Worlds
- Second Life
- Other multi-user 3D environments
Readings
Guest, T. (2007). Second Lives: A Journey Through Virtual Worlds. London: Hutchison. ISBN: 0091796571. [Amazon]
Stephenson, N. (1992). Snow Crash. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN: 0140232923. [Amazon]
