This text provides a comprehensive treatment of virtual world design from one of its pioneers. It covers everything from MUDs to MOOs to MMORPGs, from text-based to graphical VWs.

A leading philosopher takes a mind-bending journey through virtual worlds, illuminating the nature of reality and our place within it. Virtual reality is genuine reality; that’s the central thesis of Reality+. In a highly original work of “technophilosophy,” David J. Chalmers gives a compelling analysis of our technological future. He argues that virtual worlds are not second-class worlds, and that we can live a meaningful life in virtual reality. We may even be in a virtual world already. Along the way, Chalmers conducts a grand tour of big ideas in philosophy and science. He uses virtual reality technology to offer a new perspective on long-established philosophical questions. How do we know that there’s an external world? Is there a god? What is the nature of reality? What’s the relation between mind and body? How can we lead a good life? All of these questions are illuminated or transformed by Chalmers’ mind-bending analysis. Studded with illustrations that bring philosophical issues to life, Reality+ is a major statement that will shape discussion of philosophy, science, and technology for years to come.

The past decade has seen phenomenal growth in the development and use of virtual worlds. In one of the most notable, Second Life, millions of people have created online avatars in order to play games, take classes, socialize, and conduct business transactions. Second Life offers a gathering point and the tools for people to create a new world online. Too often neglected in popular and scholarly accounts of such groundbreaking new environments is the simple truth that, of necessity, such virtual worlds emerge from physical workplaces marked by negotiation, creation, and constant change. Thomas Malaby spent a year at Linden Lab, the real-world home of Second Life, observing those who develop and profit from the sprawling, self-generating system they have created. Some of the challenges created by Second Life for its developers were of a very traditional nature, such as how to cope with a business that is growing more quickly than existing staff can handle. Others are seemingly new: How, for instance, does one regulate something that is supposed to run on its own? Is it possible simply to create a space for people to use and then not govern its use? Can one apply these same free-range/free-market principles to the office environment in which the game is produced? "Lindens"—as the Linden Lab employees call themselves—found that their efforts to prompt user behavior of one sort or another were fraught with complexities, as a number of ongoing processes collided with their own interventions. Malaby thoughtfully describes the world of Linden Lab and the challenges faced while he was conducting his in-depth ethnographic research there. He shows how the workers of a very young but quickly growing company were themselves caught up in ideas about technology, games, and organizations, and struggled to manage not only their virtual world but also themselves in a nonhierarchical fashion. In exploring the practices the Lindens employed, he questions what was at stake in their virtual world, what a game really is (and how people participate), and the role of the unexpected in a product like Second Life and an organization like Linden Lab.

Virtual worlds have exploded out of online game culture and now capture the attention of millions of ordinary people: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, workers, retirees. Devoting dozens of hours each week to massively multiplayer virtual reality environments (like World of Warcraft and Second Life), these millions are the start of an exodus into the refuge of fantasy, where they experience life under a new social, political, and economic order built around fun. Given the choice between a fantasy world and the real world, how many of us would choose reality? Exodus to the Virtual World explains the growing migration into virtual reality, and how it will change the way we live--both in fantasy worlds and in the real one.

A fascinating exploration of the history, development, and future of virtual reality, a technology with world-changing potential, written by award-winning journalist and author David Ewalt, stemming from his 2015 Forbes cover story about the Oculus Rift and its creator Palmer Luckey. You’ve heard about virtual reality, seen the new gadgets, and read about how VR will be the next big thing. But you probably haven’t yet realized the extent to which this technology will change the way we live. We used to be bound to a physical reality, but new immersive computer simulations allow us to escape our homes and bodies. Suddenly anyone can see what it’s like to stand on the peak of Mount Everest. A person who can’t walk can experience a marathon from the perspective of an Olympic champion. And why stop there? Become a dragon and fly through the universe. But it’s not only about spectacle. Virtual and augmented reality will impact nearly every aspect of our lives—commerce, medicine, politics—the applications are infinite. It may sound like science fiction, but this vision of the future drives billions of dollars in business and is a top priority for such companies as Facebook, Google, and Sony. Yet little is known about the history of these technologies. In Defying Reality, David M. Ewalt traces the story from ancient amphitheaters to Cold War military laboratories, through decades of hype and failure, to a nineteen-year-old video game aficionado who made the impossible possible. Ewalt looks at how businesses are already using this tech to revolutionize the world around us, and what we can expect in the future. Writing for a mainstream audience as well as for technology enthusiasts, Ewalt offers a unique perspective on VR. With firsthand accounts and on-the-ground reporting, Defying Reality shows how virtual reality will change our work, our play, and the way we relate to one another.

This book explores the rich and fascinating topic of virtual worlds by bringing together research findings and discussion pieces from an international group of leading practitioners in the field. There are many different definitions of virtual worlds, but they all share the characteristic of enabling real-time interaction between users who are present in these worlds in the form of avatars, i.e., digital projections of ourselves into virtual environments. A particular theme of the book is how our activities in virtual worlds continue to develop our understanding of the nature of virtual experience, and particularly what it means to be digitally human. These ideas are explored from a diverse and engaging range of perspectives that include archaeology, languages, teacher training, computing, meditation and well-being, forensic science, performance art and artificial intelligence. Each chapter provides an in-depth discussion and analysis, and practical examples of successful implementations of virtual world technologies are also included. The book will be invaluable to researchers and practitioners in the fields of virtual worlds, virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence. It presents evidence, discussion and advice on some of the underpinning concepts relating to virtuality, on the application of virtual technologies to our daily lives, and encourages us to ponder the possible futures of these types of technology.

Fourteen-year-old Jack North finds himself literally drawn into the frightening world of what he thinks is a new virtual reality game.

This anthology is a collection of views on "virtual world". This very title chosen not because of the hatred towards digital world on the contrary it's my anxiety. Somewhere in the future, I fear the days where virtuality exists no more as virtuality but has become so close to in achieving the essence of realness that no more it can't be differentiated from reality. Yeah... unlike that deceiving digital world, reality could be disappointing but it is the truth and nothing is more beautiful than the truth.

Consciousness is a hugely important brain phenomenon, but until now it has been a very poorly understood one in conceptual terms. However, a major breakthrough in our conceptual understanding has been made, and a radical new school of philosophical thought on the subject has arisen; and what we are now discovering consciousness to be, is truly mind-blowing! WHEN NIGHT FALLS explains this new school of philosophical thought on what conscious-mind is, how it relates to the brain, to our memory, and to the external world; and also discusses its existential implications, especially concerning the issue of conscious Life-After-Death.

This edition of this handbook updates and expands its review of the research, theory, issues and methodology that constitute the field of educational communications and technology. Organized into seven sectors, it profiles and integrates the following elements of this rapidly changing field.