Virtual Cultures

Cultures of Virtual Worlds, UC Irvine,

This should be proclaimed Virtual World Quarter (not to be confused with Real Earth Day) since it seems like there has been a high concentration of events on the between March, April and May. In March, Life 2.0 was held inside Second Life. Sadly, first life, especially the part of that involves classes, students and book deadlines, detained me from joining that. However, this last weekend, I was able to get myself to Irvine for the Cultures of Virtual Worlds Conference instigated by my dear friend (and one of my PhD advisers), Tom Boellstorff, along with Maria Bezaitis from Intel, who sponsored the event.

Rand Miller on the Design Philosophy Behind Uru

This is a very interesting interview with Rand Miller on "Gamers with Jobs" where he talks about the underlying premise of Uru. He describes it as content-based MMOG where content is the central focus of gameplay rather than a means to an end of a leveling-based experience, and new content is introduced on a regular basis to keep the world fresh. The challenge is to find a business model for this type of game.

Also for those who "myst" Uru, some players made a beautiful Myst-style 2D walkthrough of the game.

New Study: Violent games make people relaxed

A new study shows that players are

more relaxed after playing violent video games

, such as World of Warcraft.

The Final Days of Uru...Again

As most of our readers are probably aware, the game that initially brought Ron and I together, Uru, now known as Myst Online on GameTap, is closing this week. A group of players have made this video, which I must say, brought me to tears.

Don't Give Up, Uru

The Uru community has been through the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" multiple times on an epic level. This little film sums up not only the experience of Uru refugees, but of any group who has lost their play community.

I was sent this while in the middle of writing my Uru book. I'm sure this will find its way into the "final chapter."

IMGDC 2008

Just got back from IMGDC 2008, the indie MMO Game Developers Conference, and for the second year running, the conference does a great job of pulling together some of the top Indie developers and designers (Gordon Walton, Dr. Richard Bartle, Brian Green) in a very approachable setting.  Some of the best value in a working conference is the ability to connect with your peers, network, talk ideas, best practices, latest developments, etc., and IMGDC is a great venue for just that.

More on Uru Cancellation

It seems the Uru cancellation is heating up. Too bad the game didn't get this much attention when it was live. Two really interesting articles that people sent me today on the subject:

First this one, about a mass immigration into Second Life (from Tom Boellstorff): Large Group Considers Coming to Second Life.

Second, this one, a really nice article by Andrew Plotkin via Simon Carliss on Game Set Watch pondering the future of a user-run Uru with homegrown Ages, including the possible use of Multiverse as an engine for such. Myst Online: Uru - Beyond Cancellation. Wow all our worlds are colliding! Look for more posts on this in the coming weeks.

Call for stories from the Uru Community

I fear I'm not a good story-teller, I wish I was.  It's a gift really, and one that embodies and communicates the values of a community... story-telling is an important part of what holds a community together.  We affirm, celebrate, castigate, discuss, debate, and just enjoy our contact together when we tell stories.  We'd like to call on the Uru community to share some of their stories here, as a celebration of the many wonderful (and less-so) events that brought us together.

On the closure of Myst Online Uru Live

I think to ... express the many things I think, and feel, about this news http://www.mystonline.com/, the closure of GameTap's Myst Online Uru Live... well, I can only touch on this.  Being community manager, and, gratefully, a member of the community, when Uru Live was closed down before was one of the most painful and awful experiences of my life.  Too though, for me at least (though I think it's true for many) that the tremendous bonds that were forged between us, experiencing that time together, will doubtless last my lifetime. I guess I'm mostly glad that the community got its chance to enjoy, even briefly, the world they've (we've) dreamed of for so long.

Uru Live to Re-Close

Four years ago today, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, an MMOG in the Myst series, which had been in Beta for about six months, was closed by its publishers, UbiSoft. Anyone who knows Ron and I will be familiar with the story, with which he was intimately involved as Uru's community manager at the time (and for some time afterward!), and which was the subject of my Ph.D. thesis and forthcoming book. On Monday, GameTap, who now operates the game, announced that they would be closing it down in 60 days.

Why We Need Community Management: A Rant

We don't really have a category for rant, but we should!

Okay here is the existential question that begins my rant: Why do ALL virtual worlds and game companies have technical and customer support during work days between 9am and 5pm or some rough equivalent of that? I really don't know of a single virtual world that has customer service hours AT NIGHT or ON WEEKENDS which is when the use of their service is the highest. It does not take an ethnographer to figure out this simple fact: the majority of MMOG/Wers, with the rare exception of retirees and people with disabilities, play games AT NIGHT and ON WEEKENDS! So this policy which seems to be pervasive is like having a restaurant that has a sign in the window that says: "Dinner Served 9am-5pm." It's the ultimate oxymoron.