From: aaronp@tekig2.pen.tek.com (Aaron Pulkka)
Subject: Re: Imagination vs. VR (was Re: More on MUDs etc.)
Date: 16 Aug 91 00:22:49 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.




In article <1991Aug15.224130.25826@milton.u.washington.edu> fortony@herodotus.
cs.uiuc.edu (Felix Sebastian Ortony) writes:

>                                    [...] In discussions of virtual
>reality, I don't see the meta-involvement of the VR author with the
>user coming into play.  Indeed, once a VR has been 'done', I imagine
>that it's very difficult to alter its facets; how do you add an arm
>to a virtual robot without spending hours at the terminal typing in
>new data?  [...]

	A virtual world should never be 'done'.  A good virtual world 
should constantly be changing in response to its participant's actions (like
the 'real' world) [unless the designer chooses it to be static].
Any difficulty in adding an arm to your virtual robot could only come
from an inadequate definition of your generic virtual robot.  If you define
it to have an arbitrary number of attachements (of somewhat aribitrary types),
adding an additional arm should take little effort and should be something 
that can occur on-the-fly.  Almost all facets of a virtual world can be 
altered; if it's difficult to alter some, that was a design decision.

	Besides, if the virtual environment is multi-participatory the 
designer may be in the world interacting with the with the other participants
(try that with a book) [granted, it isn't meta-involvement].

> [...] I don't think VR is any more author-user interactive
>than books.  In fact, I think it's less so.  When I write short fiction,
>I take it to my workshop.  The others read it, comment on it, perhaps
>even scribble on the copies and give them back to me. [...]

	When people design virtual worlds, they will (do) take them
to 'workshops' of sorts, and get feedback from other designers.  But consider
being able to gain feedback from all your readers, instead of a select few, 
while they are reading your work. 

	I doubt anyone is trying to replace books with VR.  Books certainly
have their own special qualities, but interactivity is a quality in VR that
many other forms of media (books included) are lacking.


--

	+--------------\      
	| Aaron Pulkka  >	aaronp@narrator.PEN.TEK.COM
	+--------------/