Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
From Text to Animation: Avatars as Figures of Transition
Virtual worlds describe one such expansion of evocative, communicative space we
have inhabited with emoticons, icons, and images on the road to pervasive media en-
gagement. The history of computer-simulated virtual worlds is essentially as long as
the history of computing. The worlds span the most basic text exchanges to the most
complex of graphical and procedural simulations. A virtual world exists on a computer
server or a series of servers configured to allow many people to access the same inform-
ation at the same time. The virtual worlds allow real-time inter-actions among the play-
ers. This means we can have synchronous conversations and direct feedback. Built of
computer code, a virtual world presents persistent information to players about where
they are, what is happening, and what it looks like.
Text-based virtual worlds are more than twenty years old now. For text-based worlds,
visualization takes place in the imagination, as one must read through descriptions of
fellow players and context. In graphical worlds, the computer network generates an im-
age that everyone can see. Additionally, when I add something to the world—a new
room to a dungeon or a red hat on my avatar's head—everyone can see that virtual ob-
ject as well.
The first text-based multiuser dungeon (MUD) lived on the intranet at Essex
University beginning in 1979. Graphically simulated virtual worlds appeared in nascent
form as early as 1985. The rich graphical and interactive experience we have now in
networked virtual worlds arose in the 2000s with the dawn of the massively multiplay-
er online game (MMOG) and the accessible price of processing power. The primary
difference between text-based and graphical worlds is that graphical worlds present di-
mensionality. There is a virtual embodiment that adds shared perceptual experiences of
visualized objects, motion, and directionality. Not only can we see (and sometimes cre-
ate) images that live in the world, but also the images are animated, they have depth,
and they adhere to “physics.” For example, when I drop something in a text-based
world, a line of code appears announcing to all that “Player X has dropped the cup.”
When I drop something in a graphical world you see it leave my hands and hit the
floor. The same terms of shared sensory perception go for the experience of navigating
a graphical space. Instead of text that narrates my actions, you see an avatar walk up
and down the steps to the castle. Additionally, I can have a face, a body, and gestures in
the form of the avatar.
