BYTE MARKS
Money being made in 'persistent worlds'
By Burt Lum
In the beginning, there were online environments call MUD (multi-user domains) and MOO (MUD object oriented). These were usually text-based games, more commonly referred to as role-playing games (RPG), where people could join by defining their character and contributing to the continually evolving storyline.
The MUD environment is still popular in academic circles, not only as an exploration in collaborative space but as a realm for the Internet purist to have a little online fun.
A natural extension of the MUD — given the increased performance of personal computers, broadband connectivity and widespread adoption of the Internet — is a 3D, graphics-based, interactive game scenario, generically called massive multiplayer online games (MMO), or persistent worlds.
In these persistent worlds, you join the game as a character of your choosing. Once there, your evolving role continues as you play the game. It persists after you end a session and is remembered when you start back up. The MMO refers to the number of participants in the game. This is not a game you play against or with the computer. It is one of interaction with other online players.
Whereas MUDs and MOOs are generally free, for the persistent worlds of Everquest (everquest.station.sony.com), Star Wars Galaxies (starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com), Sims Online (www.ea.com/eagames) and World of Warcraft (www.worldofwarcraft.com) there's a price to play.
Studios like Sony Online, Electronic Arts and Ultima Online know there's money in these persistent worlds. For example, the fantasy world of Everquest has approximately 450,000 subscribers all paying about $10 a month to play. That's big business.
Star Wars Galaxies teamed LucasArts with the developers of Everquest to create an interactive role-playing game based on the popular movie series. Sim City, one of the most popular computer games, seems a natural extension to the online interactive version. ;)
Burt Lum is one click away at burt@brouhaha.net.
