Open Source Virtual Worlds

Description

1. Strypey:

"Exciting work on immersive 3D digital environments is being done by a couple of GNU projects. Firstly, there's the Maverick 3D toolkit. Then there's the VERA (Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms) engine which is intended to run on top of it, although there's little information available about this project, what it will do, and when code and a stable, testable version will be released. Then there's WorldForge, an active community releasing a full MMORPG engine, including a gameplay client called Ember, under the GPL. They also release a medieval-themed game called 'Deeds', to showcase the engine. Meridian 59 is another MMORPG engine licensed under GPL since 2012." (https://www.coactivate.org/projects/disintermedia/libre-game-development)

2. Wired on The Open Source Metaverse:

“Because he knows something about being at the whim of faceless decision-makers at profit-minded gaming companies, Ludlow is a big fan of an emerging concept in massively multiplayer online game circles: the open-source metaverse. Built by independent contributors, the open-source metaverse is an infinitely extensible virtual world with few rules and no oversight from corporate overlords. "Instead of the game being developed by a game corporation, it would be developed by multiple users donating time in sort of a wiki style," said Ludlow, a philosophy professor at the University of Michigan. "This is a different picture, one in which the games would emerge in a bottom-up kind of way. The structure wouldn't be dictated, but would emerge from numerous people trying to extend the game space." Ludlow acknowledges that his vision of a fully open-source virtual world is a couple of years off. But it's not total fantasy. There are already at least three groups implementing some form of open, metaverse-like platform: The Open Source Metaverse Project, or OSMP, the Croquet Project and MUPPETS. MUPPETS, or Multi-User Programming Pedagogy for Enhancing Traditional Study, is the brainchild of Andy Phelps, an assistant information technology professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He uses the project to immerse new students in their coursework even before they develop sophisticated programming skills." (http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,65865,00.html?)