Re: [mmox] MMOX: Strawman scope/goals/approach

[Jon Watte <[e-mail]>]

Gareth Nelson wrote:
> any code should be produced in. My vote is for python and C.
>   

Let me vote for Lua and C++, and then the OpenSim people can vote for C# 
and Java and we have all the bases covered :-)


> games are relevant (after all, MMORPGs for example are just huge
> virtual worlds with game rules thrown in), I fail to see how networked
>   

I think that's a common mis-conception. Most (almost all) MMOGs do not 
have much in the way of persistency, other than character possessions 
and stats. They also have a very static world, that generally does not 
allow users to move things around or place new things into the world. 
Finally, they do not support any form of UGC, which I think is more or 
less a requirement for a "real" virtual world. Lacking all three means 
that the technical job of implementing and running the MMORPG is much 
easier, but it also puts them on a lower rung of the expressiveness. A 
VW could express a MMORPG (with significant overhead compared to the 
MMORPG itself), but a MMORPG couldn't express a VW.

> Practically everything people do online is "multiuser", and lots of
> things are "massively multiuser" - look at any big site such as
> wikipedia for example.
>
>   

"What is virtual worlds" has been a general question for a long time, 
but I believe the "rough consensus" answer is that it's at least:

Interactive
Persistent
Identity Based
Collaborative
Supports UGC
(controversial) Based on a 3D Simulation

But, if we believe that we all need to agree on exactly what a virtual 
world is before we can make progress, experience shows we won't be able 
to make progress at all.

Sincerely,

jw