[MUD-Dev] the why of online worlds

[Mike Sellers <mike#bignetwork,com>]

Some of you may see this more than once, depending on how many email lists
we share. :-)

I ran across this quote today, and it really resonated with me.  One
question that seems implicit in much of what we do in attempting to create
online worlds, is: _why_ are we doing this?  Is it ultimately for pure
entertainment (at the level of Baywatch or perhaps Star Trek?), for
unabashed commerce, or something else?  

Personally, I believe that viewing online worlds as mere entertainment or
commerce is missing the much larger, more important picture. I've said in
other contexts that fundamentally, I believe the Internet will prove to be
either the next locus of human colonization, or the biggest waste of time
in history -- to a large degree, it is up to us to decide by way of what
products and services we provide.  Can the web be more than a new overbuilt
cyber-strip chock full of banal advert-sites and Lord-of-the-Flies game
worlds?  I think so.  

Now you may think that I've been reading too much philosophy again, but
apart from any marketing hype, I do see the web in Promethean terms: it is
already causing greater shifts in our world than did movable type.  And
that is why, for my part, I'm not content to just make yet another way cool
combat system or fantasy game (though those are appealing too :-) ).  Games
are great, but I believe we have the opportunity, finally, to do more than
just provide lulling illusions to our customers. If you'll forgive the
gender-specific pronouns, I think you'll see what I mean:

              We are all blind until we see
              That in the human plan;
              Nothing is worth the building
              That does not build the man.

              Why build these cities glorious
              If man unbuilded goes.
              In vain we build the world
              Unless the builder also grows.

                            -- Edwin Markham

Comments?


--

Mike Sellers       Chief Creative Officer       The Big Network
mike#bignetwork,com                  
<http://www.bignetwork.com/>http://www.bignetwork.com

                       Fun   Is   Good