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InfoSec in Synthetic Worlds: Historical Perspectives from MOOs, MUDs, and MMOGs
Published in C.A.P. Smith, Kenneth W. Kisiel, Jeffrey G. Morrison, Working Through Synthetic Worlds, 2009
Many of the security issues described above have manifested in the precursors and early versions of synthetic worlds that have emerged over recent decades. As computer networking began to spread widely in the 1970s and the availability of inexpensive dumb terminals increased, software developers began exploring avenues for multiuser gaming. Early multi-user games such as MUD (multi-user dungeon) allowed players to interact with one another through text descriptions of the environment and text messages between players. Later versions of similar games, sometimes referred to as MOOs (multi-user object oriented), additionally permitted users to create their own content—for example, new areas to explore or new objects to possess and wield. MOOs, in their turn, evolved into multi-player, networked games where landscape and characters rendered onscreen using computer graphics (note that text remained a common mode of social communication). Although MIDI Maze (Atari 1987) was perhaps the first graphical game with a networked multiplayer mode, the shareware title DOOM (id Software 1993) arguably provided the first example of a graphical multiplayer environment that functioned on a conventional local area network. Within a year or two, titles such as The Realm Online (Sierra 1995) began to popularize Internet-based game play. Each of these graphical multiplayer games embodies some or all of the most essential characteristics of synthetic worlds—persistent characters represented by avatars, shared landscape, real time or near real time interaction, and modes of social communication such as text—albeit in a rather primitive form. Present day MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) such as World of Warcraft™ (Blizzard 2008) encompass many of the characteristics that we can expect to find in future synthetic worlds. More pointedly, other existing virtual environments such as Second Life—which many do not consider as a game—provide key elements such as currency exchange, object creation, and object behavior scripting will likely support the future use of synthetic worlds for organizational purposes.
New product design and implementation of aboleth: a mobile D&D character creator for enterprise mobile applications and metaverse
Published in Enterprise Information Systems, 2023
Victor Chang, Dan Lawrence, Le Minh Thao Doan, Ariel Qianwen Xu, Ben S.C. Liu
A MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) is a text-based Dungeons and Dragons type of real-time role-playing game available on the Internet. It first appeared in the late 1970s and is the prototype for today’s online role-playing games, which are totally text-based, with no visuals (Birmingham 2021). Online role-playing games today may be thought of as a graphical version of MUDs. MUD creates a virtual world for players and allows a number of players to engage in adventures, wander about and interact with other players at the same time. Moreover, players are able to create their own objects and environments according to their own preferences (Hsu and Chen 2009).