Multi-User Environment Studies: Defining a Field of Study and Four Approaches to the Design of Multi-User Environments

Abstract

A fundamental shift has occurred in the development of software programs which must take into account the humanistic ways in which people connect via software and the Internet. Software design models need to incorporate the significant element of human interaction involved in a category of programs I call 'multi-user environments', the most 'people-intensive' or 'presence-intensive' of software programs. This article lays out Multi-User Environment Studies as a field of study and defines multi-user environments as software programs that allow a person to interact with other people, programmed entities, and/or a persistent environment in real-time or asynchronously. A spectrum of multi-user environments are identified, including Talk programs, MUDs, Web chat programs, people browsers, audio-video conferencing programs, computer games, and worlds. I offer four analytical frameworks from which to study multi-user environments, based on interface design, performance studies, literary studies, and cultural studies. The evolution of new terminology related to dynamic digital environments is discussed. Examples of curriculum are provided from a course on virtual environments that I taught at West Virginia University in 1998