Virtual Worlds, Multiplayer Games, and Mindcrafting

There was a time when a game was simply a game. Something you played, like ‘block’ or skipping – and in computer games, you could have an electronic opponent if you could not find one locally, as you did with computer tennis.

Then they became more sophisticated and you had levels as with PacMan. From that, other games developed where you immersed a character into a world and played with and against the pixelated creations of the machine.

As technology improved, you played with your friends, like you did on PlayStation. Now things are entering another realm, the online realm. Here people from all over the world can band together against a common enemy as with World Of Warcraft, or build a world together, as with Second Life.

Interactive games are now known by children to be one way a computer is used. No longer do they want to be alone, they want their friends to join them – from all over the world.

Adults are playing these games too and are now creating their own environments and sharing them. Many examples of open worlds are being created, yet few will survive.

Now further on in the timeline, the giants are entering the games. Against Goliath, David doesn’t really have much hope. Today I read that one of these giants is EA Games, who are entering the world of ‘mindcrafting’, that is games that you make yourself.

Mindcrafting is used in Second Life already. This is a world that people make themselves, it isn’t regarded as a game and nor do EA want theirs to be. To them, it is a software toy, not a ‘game’ (tell me the difference please?). They claim that people don’t enjoy frustrating puzzles to keep players involved and that they want linear and story based experiences.  They have discovered that people want to “be that character’ and make their own story and have decided to put this creativity into the hands of the players. This is less for games developers to do, and more for users to imagine and create.

A new economic development shift is occurring here, as with television’s trend towards user created content, such as news items being sent in by the public. No longer will the games developer tell you what to play, you will tell them what you want to play instead. More evidence of the trend towards collaboration between individuals rather than control by corporations.

However, this form of collaboration in the virtual world sense has already been explored and studied in Second Life, the longest and most enduring virtual world ‘game’ platform. Here we see networks of communities developing and growing as people join with similar interests and add ‘their’ story to the matrix.

Such a community is Virtually Linked’s ‘London’ inside Second Life, where over 40,000 active users collaborate and make their own stories. Many other communities, such as Caledon, based on the Steampunk concept are there too. Will these communities and new ones adopt the games platform EA Games are suggesting? Who knows?

So, it has come full-circle. People are playing with other people, creating their own games and social environments, but with the use of the machine. The machine has become an interactivity tool. Not a passive opponent or friend, it is now the middleman, not the end game. Virtual worlds have been taken up by games creators and the machine is no longer our friend, but merely a collaboration and interaction tool for people to communicate with other people, wherever they are geographically located.

Is this 'mindcrafting'? To create and enjoy a virtual fireworks display together