Imaginary Realities

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Imaginary Realities (IR) is an online magazine dedicated to text-based gaming, from MUD and roguelikes to interactive fiction. The original Imaginary Realities magazine was an influential MUD community online magazine running from September 1998 to December 2001. [1] The current incarnation of the publication was started by Richard Tew in December 2013 [2] and had until September 2015 released five new issues under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license.

The 1998-2001 run of Imaginary Realities was hosted under the auspices of George Reese's Center for Imaginary Environments at imaginary.com. [3] Imaginary Realities featured articles by Richard Bartle, Raph Koster, Julian Dibbell, Chip Morningstar, Randy Farmer, Skotos, Brian Green, George Reese, Jessica Mulligan, Wes Platt, Cat Rambo, Richard Woolcock, and Geoff Wong, as well as many other major figures in the MUD community. [4] It was edited by David "Pinkfish" Bennett of Discworld MUD , Selina Kelley, Marcie Kligman and Daniel McIver. [5]

Articles from Imaginary Realities have been cited in Richard Bartle's Designing Virtual Worlds [6] and Julie Coiro's Handbook of Research on New Literacies, [7] and it was noted in Mulligan & Patrovsky's Developing Online Games as a venue where a previous work by Mulligan was published. [8]

After its disappearance from the Web, several mirrors of the original Imaginary Realities were brought online. These efforts have been applauded by at least one major former contributor, decrying the alternative of the content's loss, [9] and at minimum appreciated for aiding in recovering his work by another. [10]

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References

  1. ↑ Fletcher, Steve. "Companies and Organisations in VR or AR: Imaginary Realities". Virtual Worldlets Network. Archived from the original on 2005-05-20. Retrieved 2010-05-01. Imaginary Realities was for five years the hub of MUD development, with hundreds of articles archived in its monthly e-magazine. It covered all aspects of textual world development holistically, and attracted article submissions from the great minds, and big players in the field at the time. The loss of its presence in December 2001 was a major blow to the industry.
  2. ↑ "Imaginary Realities - Introduction". journal.imaginary-realities.com. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  3. ↑ Hahn, Harley (2000). Harley Hahn's Internet & Web Yellow Pages (Millennium ed.). Osborne / McGraw-Hill. pp.  545. ISBN   0-07-212170-X. Imaginary Realities Here's something to read when you are taking a break: an online mudding magazine. Whether you are a player, a coder or an admin, you'll find something interesting here, especially in the back issues. Even better, you can print a copy of an article and give it to your parents for an anniversary present. (Parents love stuff like that.) Web: http://imaginaryrealities.imaginary.com
  4. ↑ Bennett, David; Kelley, Selina (2001-07-01). "Author Index". Imaginary Realities. Archived from the original on 2001-07-16. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
  5. ↑ Bennett, David; Kelley, Selina (2002-01-06). "Editors". Imaginary Realities. Archived from the original on 2002-12-24.
  6. ↑ Bartle, Richard (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds . New Riders. pp. 356, 518, 567, 580, 596. ISBN   0-13-101816-7.
  7. ↑ Coiro, Julie (2008-03-10). Handbook of Research on New Literacies. Routledge. pp. 630, 634. ISBN   0-8058-5652-8.
  8. ↑ Mulligan, Jessica; Patrovsky, Bridgette (2003). Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide. New Riders. p. 453. ISBN   1-59273-000-0.
  9. ↑ Koster, Raph (2007-02-13). "Imaginary Realities also resurrected". Raph Koster's Website. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
  10. ↑ Green, Brian (2007-02-14). "Olde tyme post: Acting Casual About Casual Gamers". Psychochild's Blog. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
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