Assuming the class has read the article about The Habitat project, I would like to share my thoughts on the topic. First, I was intrigued by the fact that this game came about in the mid-80s and I had never heard about it until I read this article. Second, this game reminded me of so many games that are available today, and third, it made me think about how virtual communities affect people in real life.
Created in 1985 and lasting until 1988, the Habitat virtual community game "was arguably one of the first attempts to create a very large scale commercial multi-user virtual environment." The game was certainly not played by many and used technologies that are obviously outdated today. So why haven't we heard of this game? I kept asking myself this question as I read the article and decided that not many people know about it simply because it was not popular and has been replaced with many new technologies.
Since the 1980s, what games have developed that resemble The Habitat? This was another question that came to me as I read the article. I came up with The Sims, World of Warcraft, The Tycoon games, Farmville, and a few others. Is The Habitat the main reason these games exist today? While I do not know the answer to that question, I am sure The Habitat provided inspiration for these virtual community games.
If people could act as freely as they do in virtual communities in real life, would they? For example, if violent acts could be committed in real life as easily as they can in virtual communities, would people commit them? This is a question in which the answer is simply a matter of opinion. In a virtual community, actions have no real consequences. In real life, there are clearly rules and laws. Do people avoid certain actions only because there will be legal consequences or because of moral and ethical reasoning? I personally believe most people choose to obey certain morals regardless of the rules of society.
Whats even more surprising, is how ahead of their time they were about the implementation of such games. The system they outline, including transmitting abstract actions and events instead of changes in images, pixels, etc., is exactly how most modern multiplayer games function. As they state, it allows for anyone to play the game regardless of computer architecture or speed, and it minimizes the amount of network traffic required to play the game. This insight is something other game developers of the era had not yet caught on to. Imagine trying to play modern games if every change on the screen has to be sent across the internet!
ReplyDeleteEven more interesting is that even though they were focusing on transmitting information between computers, their ideas are completely applicable to human communication... where abstract ideas are used for communication instead of describing specifics in hopes that the receiver can piece together its meaning. If you think of different people as having different hardware, architecture, and software then this comparison becomes strikingly apparent.