MUVE
Encyclopedia
MUVE refers to online
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....

, multi-user
Multi-user
Multi-user is a term that defines an operating system or application software that allows concurrent access by multiple users of a computer. Time-sharing systems are multi-user systems. Most batch processing systems for mainframe computers may also be considered "multi-user", to avoid leaving the...

 virtual environments, sometimes called virtual world
Virtual world
A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of...

s. While this term has been used previously to refer to a generational change in MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...

s, MOO
MOO
A MOO is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users are connected at the same time.The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses...

s, and MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

s, it is most widely used to describe MMOGs that are not necessarily game-specific. The term was first used in Chip Morningstar's 1990 paper The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat. A number of the most popular and well-known MUVEs are listed below, although there are a number of others. Modern MUVEs have 3D third-person graphics, are accessed over the Internet, allow for some dozens of simultaneous users to interact, and represent a persistent virtual world.

Habitat
Habitat (video game)
Lucasfilm's Habitat was an early and technologically influential online role-playing game developed by Lucasfilm Games and made available as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link, an online service for the Commodore 64 computer and the corporate progenitor to America Online...

(1987) and Club Caribe
Club Caribe
Club Caribe was one of the first graphical online worlds. It was available in the 1980s on the exclusively Commodore 64 online service Quantum Link. Originally available in limited release as Habitat, Club Caribe was eventually released to the public as an extension of Q-Link's "People Connection"...

(1988) could be considered the first graphical MUVEs.

A multi user virtual environment is created in three steps. The first is a server or a farm of servers, which are used as the host of the virtual world. Second, a program or an interface is needed that allows people to create a user name and some sort of identity that they can use when they log into the server. The third is there has to be some reason for the person to want to be in the Virtual Environment.

When many users log into the environment at once the ability to communicate, interact and exchange information is what usually goes on. In Dieterle Clarke's research at Harvard University, he says that they enable users to 'access virtual contexts, interact with digital artifacts' use 'avatars' to represent themselves, communicate with other avatars, and to participate in situations that replicate the situations one experiences in the real world.

Virtual worlds can be made of text, 2D, and 3D bit maps that replicates a desired environment. MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...

 (multi-user-domains) are widely used as dominantly textual virtual environments. 2D and 3D virtual domains usually require an avatar that the user 'guides' in order to explore the environment.

General strategy for making a virtual interface
First a computer and a plan are needed. There are designers that create an interface to make a virtual world without the knowledge of programing. Some include Autodesk's Maya, Virtual Home Space Builder and Internet3D Space Builder, Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...

 Cosmo VRML 2.0, Truespace, and many others people will recommend. These interfaces use VRML
VRML
VRML is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind...

(Virtual Reality Modeling Languages) to create both the avatars for the world as well as the artifacts and environment.

Impact on the users in and out of the world
There has been bad connotations of online virtual games, that are not favorable. Some have been known to play for too long and become consumed in the game with no return. Others have been known as moderate hobbyists that spend a good portion of their free time in a virtual environment. In the modern changing world, the use of virtual worlds becomes more frequent. In 2009, there was an estimated 1.8 billion Internet users in the world potentially in a virtual environment.

See also

  • Active Worlds
    Active Worlds
    Active Worlds is a 3D virtual reality platform. The Active Worlds client runs on Windows. Users assign themselves a name, log into the Active Worlds universe, and explore 3D virtual worlds and environments that other users have built. Users can chat with one another or build structures and areas...

  • Croquet Project
    Croquet Project
    The Croquet Project was an international effort to promote the continued development of the Croquet open source software development kit for creating and delivering deeply collaborative multi-user online applications....

  • Edusim
    Edusim
    Edusim is a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment "Immersive Touch" 3D Natural User Interface based concept of lesson driven 3D virtual worlds on the classroom interactive whiteboard or classroom interactive surface...

  • Neverwinter Nights
    Neverwinter Nights
    Neverwinter Nights , produced by BioWare and published by Infogrames , is a third-person perspective computer role-playing game that is based on third edition Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms rules. It was originally to be published by Interplay Entertainment, but the publisher's financial...

  • OpenSimulator
    OpenSimulator
    OpenSimulator is an open-source server platform for hosting virtual worlds. It is compatible with the client for Second Life and can host alternative worlds with differing feature sets with multiple protocols.-Features:...

  • Project Wonderland
    Project Wonderland
    Open Wonderland is a 100% Java open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio, share live desktop applications and documents and conduct real business...

  • Quest Atlantis
    Quest Atlantis
    Quest Atlantis is a 3D multiuser, computer graphics learning environment that utilizes a narrative programming toolkit to immerse children, ages 9–15, in meaningful inquiry tasks . Quest Atlantis combines strategies used in the commercial gaming environment with lessons from educational research...

  • Second Life
    Second Life
    Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...

  • There
    There (internet service)
    There is a 3D online virtual world created by Will Harvey and Jeffrey Ventrella. There Inc. was founded in the spring of 1998. Closed beta began in July 2001, with various stages of beta following, and ending with an October 2003 launch date...


External links

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