Mapping the Metaverse
Terra Nova is where I go when I get sick of the high-pitched squealing accompanying rumors of the nth Mariotroidelda release for the Wiiiiiii that's found on the majority of blogs on my feed. I think of the writers there as being the Algonquin Round Table of the Internets Too Point Oh, lounging about in a plush, yet masculine den and discussing Horde/Alliance ratios over port and cigars.
Ren Reynolds, one of the Nouveau Terran writers, posits that an adequate mapping system for the make-believe worlds we live in has not been achieved, and asks readers, the Internet, and god almighty for a solution:
Like other TNers and probably a good slice of our readers I'm all over the metaverse, sometimes in multiple spaces at the same time - Second Life, WoW, There, EvE, SWG and those 'almost-spaces' like Animal Crossing; heck I might even get a Cyworld account. [...]I have this shadow in my mind you see. Like the cube is a partial shadow of a tesseract. I can feel the space of virtual spaces that I want to see mapped and made into a geographical metaphor. I want someone clever and creative to go invent a way to easily understand the relative positions in virtual spaces that we occupy. I know it's not just a list of IDs, or a flat diagram - I know what it isn't but I don't know what is is.
I find this immensely intriguing, the thought of visually mapping something so ethereal. It will take a steady hand and a solid mix of art, design and engineering to successfully create such a construct.
Any Kotaku Scouts that are so inclined are welcome, nay, encouraged to hit me up at that sidebarred email address with ideas along these lines, including rambling diatribes and ambling diagrams.
Or you could just read the rest of Ren's article and comment there [Terra Nova]
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