Interaction Forms, Agents and Tellable Events in EverQuest

Key insights

7 takeaways

01
The paper proposes an analytical framework for virtual worlds built on four basic agents (players; NPCs and informative objects; manipulable objects; world rules) and four basic interaction forms (navigation, manipulation, social interaction, information retrieval).See it on page 1
02
The framework is presented as a work in progress: its in-depth empirical analysis of EverQuest (released 1999) is reserved for later publication.See it on page 2
03
The author argues that existing definitions of interactivity are too vague to be analytically useful, and situates the framework within Jensen's three paradigms of interactivity and the ludology-narrative debate, claiming virtual worlds contain elements of all of them at once.See it on page 3
04
A grid maps which agents can perform which interaction forms for which player types, linking the framework to Bartle's player typology and to spatial and temporal forms of immersion.See it on page 7
05
The grid is intended to guide an interactional analysis of the EverQuest interface, examining which action forms the interface encourages and which come to dominate player experience as characters advance in level.See it on page 9
06
Observations such as players grouping more at higher levels are offered only as hypotheses to be tested, not as established findings.See it on page 9
07
The paper suggests the framework could inform future design of emergent narratives in multiuser environments by explaining how interaction may produce "tellable" events in Marie-Laure Ryan's sense.See it on page 9

Summary

This paper develops an analytical framework for studying interaction in virtual worlds, using the 1999 massively multiplayer online game EverQuest as its primary case. Its central proposal is a terminology that is specific enough to describe concrete worlds yet general enough to compare across them. The author argues that virtual worlds involve four basic agents (players, NPCs and informative objects, manipulable objects, and world rules) and four basic interaction forms (navigation, manipulation, social interaction, and information retrieval). The framework is explicitly presented as a work in progress, with the in-depth empirical analysis reserved for later publication.

The paper situates its approach within existing debates on interactivity, noting that many scholars define the term too vaguely to serve as an analytical tool. It draws on Jens F. Jensen's three paradigms of interactivity (sociological, media and communication, and human-computer interaction) and on the ludology-narrative debate, arguing that virtual worlds contain elements from all of these paradigms at once. The author links the framework to Bartle's player typology and to two forms of immersion, spatial and temporal, and presents a grid mapping which agents can perform which interaction forms for which player types.

The stated purpose of the grid is to guide an interactional analysis of the EverQuest interface, examining which action forms the interface encourages and which dominate player experience as characters advance in level. Anecdotal observations, such as players grouping more at higher levels, are offered as hypotheses for that analysis rather than as findings. The paper also raises the question of how such interaction might produce "tellable" events in Marie-Laure Ryan's sense, suggesting that the framework could inform future design of emergent narratives in multiuser environments.