Interaction Forms, Agents and Tellable Events in EverQuest

Abstract

This paper focuses on forms of interaction and agents in a virtual world and how one may apply an understanding of these to an actual analysis of a virtual world. First, it proposes a distinction between 4 basic agents in a world: players, NPCs, objects and world rules. These agents are involved in 4 basic forms of interaction: navigating, manipulating, social interaction and information retrieval. Looking more closely at how these different forms of agents and actions forms are employed can help us think more closely about the construction of tellable events (emergent narratives) in a multiuser environment.