The new frontier of cyberspace has recently become a popular arena for virtual play and creative fiction. All over the Net, we’ve heard of multi-player modem games, MUDs, MOOs, MUCKs, and “sims”. This usually involves participants role-playing in a pre-determined fantasy or SF-themed world such as a universe based on Star Trek or a fantasy world based on a medieval AD&D-style theme.
The World Building 101 project on eWorld™ seems to incorporate some of the basic premises of the above, but takes it one step further. It’s not easy to describe World Building for the first time because there is no similar project to compare it to. Maybe it could be described as “SimUniverse Online”, if such a thing had existed. Perhaps, we can simply introduce it as an online-based, collaborative fiction world creator/simulator.
Fortunately, Mark Underwood, project leader of World Building 101 on eWorld, gives us a better perspective of what World Building is all about in the Mac Star Digest interview below.
 
MSD: Mark, I’ve heard quite a bit about your World Building 101 project on eWorld. From what I have ascertained so far, could it be summed up as a “virtual world simulator”? My first impression was that it was some sort of SimWorld or SimUniverse online. Is this an accurate assumption on my part, or is there a lot more to it than this?
Mark: Hmmmm...I guess you could call it that, except the only programming that’s been done is all in “wetware”! ;-)
If you’re familiar with the works of Harlan Ellison, the closest comparison/description I use is his “Medea: Harlan’s World” project, which made it into a marvelous anthology about a shared world created by some of SF’s brightest luminaries (I have an autographed copy with all but Frank Herbert’s signature...he will be missed).
In World Building, we get folks together, pick a star, add some planets, design the details, and then from those we postulate the aliens, the culture, and then the stories, artwork, sounds, etc. that eventually get created. Of course, half (or some would say MOST) of the fun is just in the creation process itself. There’s always this moment during the sessions in which we “hook” another person into the process, and then they become so excited! Ideas flying everywhere...people actually stumbling over themselves in the process of letting the “of course that means” fly!
MSD: There’s more than a handful of online services out there, and this is the first project of its kind I’ve heard of anywhere. I was curious to know how you got involved in the project in the first place. Were you commissioned for the project by the higher-ups on eWorld, or were you originally involved in the inception of the idea?
Mark: Ahhhh....the halcyon days of eWorld... ;-)
Well, I was one of the original beta testers of eWorld, since I was a Newton Mail subscriber from Day One — and they’re the same service. After being online for awhile, I was asked if I would be interested in becoming one of the “CCC” staff — the Community Conference Crew. These folks are responsible for hosting the eWorld-sponsored events and helping folks out on eWorld.
In September of 1994, about two months after eWorld was “opened” to the public, Hazel Holby, one of the CCC “managers”, came up with the idea of hosting “theme” weekends. There would be a “gaming” weekend, a “digital media” weekend, etc. One of the themes was Science Fiction. Hazel asked for folks to both volunteer time and come up with ideas for conferences.
Well, I’ve been with SF for almost 30 years (my first library book was Heinlein’s “Orphans of the Sky” at 9 years old...loved it immensely), and a writer of the stuff almost as long (though as yet none of my novels have been published — only the short stories). Since these weekends would be once a month, I quickly thought of the idea of a continuing series of workshops for writing SF. From there, I thought of Medea, and the rest was easy. I wrote up the idea, sent to it Hazel and Jenna (her “boss”), and we started in October. In honor of their contributions to WB101, both Jenna and Hazel have worlds named after them. ;-)
 
MSD: Well, the idea of simulating virtual worlds or role-playing virtual lives is starting to become a popular pastime in cyberspace. On some online networks, “simming” adventures or MUDs are becoming standard fare. Whether it’s playing on a Star Trek MUD or simming an X-Files adventure, these virtual worlds are cropping up all over the place. Does WB offer any elements that distinguish it from these other kinds of virtual play?
Mark: We’ve actually thought of a “MUD” version of WB101, and it may yet come to pass!
I guess from the start, we’ve always thought of the “net result” of WB101’s sessions would be a multimedia CD-ROM “travelogue” of a visit to our created solar system, along with a full history of the creation process and all the side effects. This is again sort of like the “Medea” project — but we’re going MUCH further in that all of the email, all the notes, and all the sketches have been kept, to allow us to show you not only how the idea got started, but how it was refined.
So from a “play” standpoint, I suppose all we’re doing right now is a collective dreaming, in a sense — except it happens real-time during the conferences. Once the worlds are all thought up, of course, we’ve established a series of “guidelines” for anyone to “play” in — and this play at the moment is in the form of creating media.
MSD: So, some form of role-playing component may eventually arise from all this world building?
Mark: Most certainly. I imagine it will be along the lines of taking on a role of either an alien or a human explorer and sending teams against each other with specific goals — sort of like the Star Trek MUDs. Actual combat, per se, would be extremely de-emphasized — which I know will turn a lot of folks off — but you can still have the “against the elements” and “treasure hunt” scenarios. Anyone can wield a sword...it takes a good bit of skill to wield a tricorder. ;-)
MSD: WB101 seems to have such an open-ended environment... if your members are (more or less) starting from scratch when they develop their fictional civilizations and biological ecosystems. I take it that the typical World Building participant has far more creative talents and enthusiasm — and artistic inclinations — than your average Online Joe or Cyberspace Sue.
Mark: Yes and no. For example, the very first session — our chief planetary architect, Scott McCormick, had just signed on to eWorld not fifteen minutes before walking into the auditorium. He went from 0 to 60 in about 2.6 seconds, lept up on the stage, and began to cook! Because of his scientific background, we had instant expert help with the science. Those folks we bring on the stage during the conference so everyone in the audience can “hear” them.
But we get a lot of surfers to the weekly labs — where we hone down the details from the ideas generated in the monthly 2 hour sessions — and those that aren’t scared away by the weird conversation (“how many arms?”) usually join in and contribute. And we use EVERYTHING in one way or another — no one’s ideas are discounted. In our second system, one of the “students” suggested a ringed moon. Planetary physics will tell you such a thing couldn’t have formed naturally. But the experts got together, and over the next few weeks, came up with a way that it could be done! Not remain for a long time, mind you, but long enough! So she had this nifty visual concept — the ringed moon — and turned it over to the others to “implement” and add to the system.
MSD: Now that you bring that up... does that mean that WB’s “guidelines for creation” are guided in some part by the known physical laws? For example, if one of your participants wanted to create something that broke half of the rules of Newtonian Physics... what gives? To what extent does the WB community balance creative fiction versus plausible physics?
Mark: Good science fiction mandates that every assumption be based as much as possible in known, proven science. That’s what distinguishes it from fantasy, where anything goes. It’d be real easy to use fantastic aliens and explain away their behavior by saying “because I said so”, but that’s not as good of a “read”. The novels and works that stand the test of time in the SF field ALL have good science as a backdrop — even if the science later turns out to have been “repealed” by new theory. It’s because the logic of the story is internally consistent.
Jennans, the aliens on the third world of Barnard’s Star, started out as a cross between a bat and an armadillo. We used to call them “batadillos”. They’re hexapodal gliding mammals, so you won’t see them doing the backstroke in an Olympic-sized pool. They have three-digit hand and feet, so their arithmetic is base 18. Not so much hard science as common sense.
By and large, most of the students come to a consensus without violating physics. Anything that does really sound far out is thought through (like the ringed moon) and only after it’s found to be impossible to reconcile with the existing facts is it discarded.
 
MSD: It’s doubtful that a project such as WB101 could have started if it were not for online technologies that allow eWorld (and other networks) to run today. Computers and online technologies are getting increasingly sophisticated! Can you foresee other developing or future technologies — from either Apple or other technology pioneers — being integrated into the World Building experience? Maybe a couple of years down the line?
Mark: Not even that far. We’re already at work converting several of the Bryce-rendered “planetscapes” into QuickTime VR navigable movies to further “immerse” you in the worlds. The “teaser” for the Barnard system was created using the Apple Media Tool, which is cross-platform — so the file can be seen by Windows AND Mac users. We committed to making sure there were no platform biases in terms of the material as much as possible — pictures are in JPEG, sounds in AIFF, etc. And QTVR is also cross-platform. QuickDraw 3D (another cross-platform addition) will give us easy three-dimensional rendering, so we can begin to really have fun with graphics!
It may sound like we’re Apple fanatics (and we are), but most of the cutting edge technology is still coming from Cupertino, not Redmond.
Beyond that, for the Internet, we’re looking at ScriptX and Hot Java for converting some of our material into interactive distributed media objects. Both would allow us to create objects that could be added to a “landscape” that could interact with the user and other objects. For example, a Jennan object is downloaded dynamically into a Urbos (another Barnard system world) “landscape” — and the user gets to watch what happens as it tries to adapt. It may sound far-fetched, but this is being done already by Kaleida with ScriptX — visit their site (http://www.kaleida.com)!
MSD: And as eWorld expands, grows explosively, and experiences growing pains like the other online services, do you think it may negatively change the community atmosphere and collaborative process that’s so vital to the World Building forum?
Mark: I hope not, but that’s one of the reasons we’re eager to see how the AOL scrapbook works out. [Material from WB101 will be showcased on AOL in the Scrapbooks section]
In some ways, WB101 is a very passive project — you can log on when you like, experience/download what you find interesting, and contribute when you want. But the “active” portion of the project is still the most important to me, as it generates the best ideas.
With the Medea project, for every good idea that came from the audience, ten more were bad. Harlan had a tendency to try and dismiss them as quickly as he could, for lack of time — but we have all the time in the world, so to speak, to point out to folks why their idea just won’t fly. So let’s have more students! We can only gain from the experience!
MSD: Earlier, you mentioned some pretty heavy names in Science Fiction. Who else and what else inspired Mark Underwood into the realm of SF? What did you watch, what did you like to read as a kid?
Mark: Well, Robert Heinlein is one of them, for sure. I think I’ve read everything of his, both good and bad (and he did have some bad stuff — even he admitted to that). Larry Niven, Gene Wolfe, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert...lots of them contributed in little ways to the style of SF I write. Of the new crowd, I loved “Snow Crash” by Neil Stephenson and the “Hyperion” saga by Dan Simmons (whom I’ve met — very nice guy). And I do read other stuff, but things that aren’t too far away — fantasy, mystery, and horror. Stephen King’s “It” is my favorite horror story, I know all of Lovecraft, all the colors of John MacDonald’s Travis McGee, and each lap of Dick Francis’ mysteries.
Television was Outer Limits more than Twilight Zone, Star Trek (all four incarnations), Doctor Who (Tom Baker IS the only Doctor), and I’m a serious X-Phile.
Movies....I saw 2001 when I was 13 and it made a lasting impression. “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, the first “Alien”, “Forbidden Planet (‘Yes, Morbius. A simple blaster.’)”, “Blade Runner” are among the ones I watch countless times.
MSD: Is the project currently going as well as you had hoped for or envisioned earlier?
Mark: Far beyond my wildest imaginings! We currently have two system in progress: Barnard’s Star and Sirius. Originally, I thought we might complete a “cycle” in six months (remember, we meet for an hour weekly, and 2 hours monthly for a total of 6 hours a month — but I expected a lot of work being done “off line”), but Barnard, almost a year later, is only now getting complete stories. Sirius, started in April, is only now ready to start detailed planning.
Once we get the main “backbone” story for Barnard completed (we refer to it as the “GUT” story — as in “Grand Unified Theory”), we’ll be ready to cut the first WB101 CD. Initially, it will be more of an interpretive work rather than an interactive one — but we will include all the materials so that folks can contribute their ideas, etc... and then those will be folded into the project, and so on.
Outside the CD part, we’ve begun an area on America Online that we will be posting the material to (a member “scrapbook”), we have a web page for a “teaser” of the project (it’s a long URL: http://www.amug.org/amug/sigs/newton/nanug/ BioPages/MarkU/wb101/WB101_Barnard.html), and there’s the MUD idea. So I think we’ll be busy for quite some time! ;-)
MSD: Great! Hey, do me a favor... keep in touch, since I would like Mac Star Digest to follow up and cover future developments on the WB101 project. It looks like a project starting to take off with a lot of momentum and enthusiasm. This thing looks HOT! Boy, am I glad I sent out for that eWorld Starter Kit just a few days ago! :-)
Mark: ROFL! Well, we have a mailing list of sorts...but it’s manually done at the moment. ;-) Drop me an email message indicating you’d like to “subscribe” (MarkCCC@eWorld.com), and we’ll try and keep you up to date on the WB101 events. If you’re an eWorld subscriber, check the WB101 folders in the Trading Post area, as well as the WB101 Discussion Board (both in eWorld Live at shortcut: eLive) for more information (as well as the files!)
MSD: Mark, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I’m sure that a lot of the Mac Star Digest readers are just hearing about World Building 101 for the first time, and you’ve definitely given them a good overview here!
Mark: :: bowing :: My pleasure!
 
Interview guest: Mark Underwood / MarkCCC@eworld.com
