virtual.worlds

The Art of Halo: Creating A Virtual World
$24.95
Very nice look at the art of Halo....

I recommend it highly!

Learning and Teaching in the Virtual World of Second Life
$60.00
There has been somewhat of a backlash against Second Life, in the context of business applications. The tangible financial benefits of that have proved illusory to many businesses who set up storefronts on Second Life. In contrast, this book offers educational uses that seem far more plausible.

Here, the emphasis is on teaching students via a virtual experience that can draw the attention and keep it. It is still possible to be cynical and consider this to be little more than a glorified video game. But the book shows that Second Life can indeed be interesting and even addictive in a good way to many students.

Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality
$14.95
This is a thought provoking book with an excellent tour of what goes on in the game design world. But let your own thoughts occur without being led by those of the author. In that way the read will be productive.

The title is an accurate prediction but not a good indication of the content. I think increasing numbers will get involved in virtual reality for the fun and psychological rewards it brings, but they will do it for escape to a kind of pure and controlled environment, something the physical world can never be.

Having been a character in World of Warcraft, a game I played with dedication for 9 months, I opened this book with anticipation.

But the central premise that the fun to be had in the virtual world will bring demands for the real world to be more fun is more than a bit wacky. I get the impression that the author wanted to make some kind of broad statement in defense of virtual reality and settled on the transfer of fun.

The real world is full of entertainment and fun already. Neil Postman wrote a book called Amusing Ourselves to Death that questioned it. That was a far better thought out book than this one.

Castronova wants us to believe that the politics that work to make an online game can be transferred to real life but there are differences that make this all but impossible. For one thing, the risks in real life are real. You don't get to die and come back to life, you don't get an infinite number of tries to achieve a goal. The real environment is not magically regenerative so that once you have taken something another copy appears to be taken by others. There is no infinite supply of anything here on Terra Firma.

Throughout the book, I kept wondering if he had read Brave New World, a dire warning of a world where pleasure for the masses has been achieved while the whole thing is watched over and directed by hidden managers. Castronova implies that it would be a good thing for virtual world game designers to step into positions of authority. Aldous Huxley is turning in his grave.

The book increases in silliness, reaching a peak in the fantasy in the epilogue of a Senator logging in to World of Warcraft.

But Castronova's effort is not a waste of time. Read it for enlightenment about how and why game worlds work as they do...and they do work very well.

Designing Virtual Worlds
$49.99
Mr. Bartle's writing is precise and his facts carefully researched, even the ones he experienced himself. This is a huge, superbly constructed history of the tools and philosophies developed over the years in experimental and commercial development of online virtual worlds. Because of Mr. Bartle's personal knowledge as a long-time designer and his sharp memory for the significance of trends and details, this book will raise anyone's appreciation of whatever virtual worlds one comes across on line or on disk, whether they be famous commercial ones or those developed by enthusiasts for their own pleasure. I would think it would be a must read for gaming students. What a grand, satisfying, fascinating book! And when one considers that this exciting history is only the beginning of VW development... Wow!