People log in and go to a place in cyberspace for a reason. Recent posts suggest that this place doesn't have to exist before they go there (and it could disappear when they leave). Each place, though will have a tone or atmosphere to it. To some extent this is the result of the software developers' intent, but many systems allow the user varying degrees of control over this atmosphere. I remember when it was a big deal that AW had implemented fog. Not a computer game fan myself, I didn't understand why this would move people. In retrospect, I think they wanted the worlds to look like their favorite games and they recognized that implementing fog can make for more intimate spaces, and I think they just wanted more control.
When I read Scientivore's post about navigating through digital graphic data to a place that was pleasing, I visualized it in 3D in my head. I probably did that because I thought of this as a way to optimize the amount of data I could put in my picture?
I have seen in working with people building worlds that the setting is extremely important. Sort of the initial conditions. It's also tough to force people outside of their comfort zone on their own, but if you give them a blace and empty space and allow them to make places in it, you will see some very interesting things.
Some people will enclose themselves and create a comfortable background. Others figure out how to cast extra light on their objects, and some get into transparencies. We talked about gloomy spaces that are highly designed, but what are the abstract principles here?
Ma'am ,if i could post a picture of a bunny with a pancake on its head, i would.
Posted by: Rich Bryant | Jul 17, 2007 at 14:22
What an odd post. I'll just say that the imagination doesn't always have to make sense. In fact, it rarely does. That's sorta the point of unshackling your mind and allowing your thoughts to move on a tangent not limited by the normal boundaries of what seems reasonable.
Posted by: neonangel | Jul 18, 2007 at 00:15
The media give us so many images people nowadays hardly have to think for themselves anymore. When the suggestion comes to move through digital graphic data you may imagine visions from the film 2001, johnny mnemonic, the matrix, ghost in the shell or various other types of prefabricated representations.
In my view, gamers make their world into their own space though, even when it's predesigned and visualized, it's the gamers that make the world a gaming enviornment. World of Warcraft without its players wouldn't be called a game. Then people enact in games, writing out their visualizations of their own perception. This changes the gameplay and to some degree the game world.
But if you truly want to see how players enact upon their environment, you'll have to enter Second Life for a while and watch a fully user-generated content environment. This is no game however (as referred to by gameresearchers) but what creative users seek most of all is to create their own audiovisual utopia. Second Life hands them the tools, but I think gamers in all types of cyberspace will do that to some extent already.
Posted by: r.l.mollenkramer | Jul 18, 2007 at 08:04
What's interesting is how frequently the spaces created by people within Second Life, with an entirely blank canvas, are so often mirrored on the real world. Whether this is because the technology/tools are still in their infancy, or whether the real world forms a set of almost hardwired constraints on our ability to design and play and build is an interesting question.
Posted by: Andy | Jul 18, 2007 at 09:02
I once had a professor tell me that books are the purest form of virtual reality because the mind fills in the gaps.
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Actually, the real significance of fog is as a tool for dealing with what happens when things are too far away. It just fades into 'the fog'. You dont have to use fog as fog, you can use it as 'where things go when they get closer to the horizon'. Thats often how its used in 3d graphics anyway.
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