what’s in a name
I’ve been meaning to post this for a week or so.
A few days after Boris came up with the name “immersive web” I realized that it was brilliant. Why?
Because:
1) It makes it relevant to people that don’t play games.
Most of you don’t and it would be very hard to convince you that something happening in the gaming industry would ever effect the way you currently use computers.
2) It makes the idea of building it seem possible.
After all - who builds the web? We do. Who builds games? Uh . . .
3) It gives the idea that it would replace our current web.
We think of only one “web”. So if we call this mmorpg of the future “the web” then it makes it sound like our current web wouldn’t exist.
If you asked people if they want to build an opensource MMORPG they would just look at you funny. But if you tell them that some company is going to build *and* run their web there’s a much better chance they’ll roll up their sleeves and start building back.
Basically - the term “web” comes with a lot of great baggage. We all know what the web is supposed to be like. It’s supposed to be open, extendable, controlled by its users, have freedom of speech, etc. All the things that MMORPG’s aren’t.
All this from someone who hates names ;-) Even at my most machiavellian I couldn’t have come up with a better name to frame this discussion.