Richard Bartle - Part 2 - Designing Virtual Worlds

Update: 2025-08-17

Description

After spending almost 2 decades trying to make MUD a viable commercial project, Richard returns to academia after publishing his seminal book, Designing Virtual Worlds, and begins teaching and researching game worlds and player behavior.

We delve deep into the study of games, talk about why it's important and the future of virtual worlds, the morality of being a god, both as a designer and a gamer, and where the industry can go from here.

Recorded: February 2025

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Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bartle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD1
https://www.mobygames.com/game/124837/multi-user-dungeon-mud1/
https://mud.co.uk/dvw/
http://howtobeagod.com/
http://pdf.textfiles.com/zines/ESCAPIST/theescapist_043.pdf

Books by Richard:

How to Be a God

http://www.howtobeagod.com/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0955649498 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0955649498/ https://mud.co.uk/richard/How%20to%20Be%20a%20God.pdf

Dheghōm http://www.Dheghōm.com/ (http://www.xn--dheghm-fgb.com/) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1915964008/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/1915964008/ https://mud.co.uk/richard/Dhegh%C5%8Dm.pdf

Erwā

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1915964040 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1915964040

Bhéwonom

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1915964067 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1915964067