Table of Contents

Massively Multiuser Virtual Environments and Online Gaming

NSERC Discovery

Professor

Summary

Technologically speaking, we are now reaching a stage where we are capable of creating a virtual society, digitally, which resembles and complements the real society in many ways, to the extent that soon one will not be able to distinguish which one is real and which one is virtual. It is then that we have created a true eSociety: one that feel as real and normal as the society we are used to, including its massiveness in terms of the number of people and population. These Massively Multiuser Virtual Environments, lead by their most commercially successful incarnation called Massively Multiuser Online Gaming, give us capabilities that do not exist in the real society, and in a manner of speaking extend the real society into the digital realm, where social, economical, business, and personal possibilities are limitless. In this research program, we will investigate, design, and implement information and communications technologies (ICT) that will bring us closer to this goal.