BOOK SPOTLIGHT - Designing Virtual Worlds: Volume 1
Richard A. Bartle (2025); CRC Press; Game Development
The following spotlight was kindly submitted by Video Game Library volunteer James Crosby. You can find James on his website: mmofolklorist.com or over on Bluesky @mmofolklorist.com
“Absolute monster of a book, but brilliant” - James Crosby
There are few game designers whose industry experiences can be counted across six decades. Fewer still have spent that time in the service of creating online worlds. As co-creator of 1978’s MUD1 – widely credited as being the first text-based multiplayer virtual world and the grandfather of the entire MMO genre – Richard A. Bartle is a uniquely positioned authority on this still relatively young medium.
In Designing Virtual Worlds, Bartle distils a lifetime’s industry knowledge of everything you could ever wish to know about online game design. The first edition of Bartle’s book (2003) was a hefty tome that has long been considered essential reading for anyone ambitious (or foolish) enough to build a virtual world and open its doors to the public. For this entirely rewritten and greatly expanded second edition, Bartle has wisely elected to split his work into two volumes. Volume One begins with a history of virtual worlds before diving into a breathless exploration of how these worlds are built to accommodate their players.
Expanding upon his own, highly influential theory of player types (Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers), the major idea at the centre of the second edition is that players progress along these types in a way that mirrors Joseph Campbell’s concept of the Hero’s journey. While Bartle himself confronts the thorny critical reception Campbell’s template holds today, it’s difficult to contest that the parallels Bartle draws between the two does indeed offer a convincing answer to the question: “Why do we play these games?”
There’s a lot of bad blood between players and online games. I certainly count myself among those who have been burned (and burnt out) by what can sometimes seem like a predatory and hostile corner of the medium. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can offer Designing Virtual Worlds is that it has made me approach MMORPGs with an appreciation for their art and unique social opportunities in a way that I haven’t done since my initial love affair began two decades ago.
You can find more about the book right here in The Video Game Library.