Making Virtual Worlds: Games and the
Human for a Digital Age
IDEA2009
Toronto
Thomas Malaby
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Virtual Worlds

World of Warcraft

Second Life

Photo by Shane Willis

“I was always struck by the expressive and,
not so much societal elements…I didn’t go in
feeling like we’re going to make people’s lives
better. But I did go into it feeling like none of it
was interesting unless there were a lot of
people involved.”
- Philip Rosedale, Founder of Linden Lab

Playing and Making the World

(pre-D7UX ;) )

Norbert Wiener & Socio-Technical Systems

Stewart Brand & The Whole Earth Catalog

Ken Kesey & The Merry Pranksters

Games, Mastery,
& Complex Systems

Homo Ludens - Man the Player

Homo Fabricans - Man the Maker

Homo Creans - Man the Creator

Homo Creans - Man the Creator
_________________
Homo Fabricans - Man the Maker
Homo Ludens - Man the Player

Designer/Developer
_________________
Player/Users/Content Creators

Constant and his New Babylon -- http://members.chello.nl/j.seegers1/situationist/constant.html

Thomas Malaby
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
malaby@uwm.edu
www.uwm.edu/~malaby
Making Virtual Worlds: Linden Lab and Second Life
(June 2009, Cornell University Press)