Difference between revisions of "Persistent world"
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Latest revision as of 10:16, 9 March 2009
A persistent world (PW) is a virtual world that continues to exist even after a user exits the world and that user-made changes to its state are, to some extent, permanent.[1][2] The term is frequently used in the definition of the massively multiplayer online video games and can be considered synonymous with that class of games.[3]
Overview
The persistence comes from maintaining and developing the state of the world in the game around the clock. Quite unlike other types of games, the plot and events in a persistent world game continue to develop even while some of the players are not playing their characters. That aspect is similar to the real world where events do occur regardless if they are directly or indirectly related to a person, as they continue to happen while a person is asleep, etc. Conversely, a player's character can also influence and change a persistent world. The degree to which a character affects a world varies from game to game. Since the game does not pause or create player-accessible back-up files, a character's actions will have consequences that the player must deal with.
Elements of persistent worlds can be found in computer games from as early as the 1980s, including Trade Wars (1984) and Orb Wars (1989).[4] The term gained popularity in the late 1990s with the growth in popularity of MMORPGs. The term is also frequently used by players of Neverwinter Nights (2002) to refer to MMORPG-like online environments, such as A Land Far Away, Arkaz, Arelith, Avlis and Bruehawks, created using the game's toolkit.
Offline persistence
Persistent worlds can be simulated in offline games, such as in the Animal Crossing series. Even though nothing happens while the game is off (due to the obvious technical constraint), the illusion of persistence is created by advancing events as soon as the game is turned on. The game generates events that could have happened during the real-world time in which the game was inactive. NPC development is also seen as a key factor in maintaining offline and online persistence. A method for creating NPCs that evolve and adapt to gameplay is seen in research done on motivated reinforcement learning agents [5]. Further persistence is possible if NPC interact with players in an adaptive way rather than a static method without regard to prior experiences.
See also
References
- ↑ Deal, David (2007). "Gamer Culture: A Brief History of Community and Digital Games". http://www.journalism.wisc.edu/~mjchen/spring2007/david/doom.htm. Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
- ↑ Marcellino, Bill. "Neverwinter Nights: Player's Guide to Persistent Worlds". http://nwn.bioware.com/players/pw_guide.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
- ↑ James, Daniel (Ed.); Gordon Walton (Ed.) (2004). "2004 Persistent Worlds Whitepaper". IGDA. http://www.igda.org/online/IGDA_PSW_Whitepaper_2004.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
- ↑ Koster, Raph (2002-02-20). "Online World Timeline". http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/mudtimeline.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-04-06.
- ↑ Merrick, Kathryn and Maher, Mary Lou (2006). "Motivated reinforcement learning for non-player characters in persistent computer game worlds". ACE '06: Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI international conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology 266: 1-3. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1178828.
