Some Fundamentals of Virtual World Immersion

Here’s a relatively concise list of elements I feel are required for a truly modern immersive world experience. This list includes some basic requirements as well as those forward-looking and convergent technologies defining the new digital world. Roughly in order of importance:

Life – agents, animals, vegetation, vehicles, flocking, emergent interactions
Particles – trash debris, dust, fluids, bugs & birds, all dynamic
Lighting – variant & dynamic, color shifts, shading, sun/moon tracking
Physics – collision, substance, weight, gravity, limits, damage
Audio – locational sounds, ambiance, music, machines, voices, life
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Time – periodic day & night, false(game) time vs. real-time, sun & moon(s)
Weather – wet, dry, clouds, fog, sunsets, wind, tides, waves, storms
Seasons & Schedules – weather, light, plant growth/senescence, trains/buses, clothing, habits, migrations
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Affordances – findability in & across worlds/nets, location, mapping, geocaching
Communication – in-world, out-world, across social nets, mobiles
Identity – user metadata, visible profiles, affiliations, interests, skills, media, world stats
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Interaction – with users, agents, objects, machines, architecture, landscape
Narrative – goals, needs, desires, food/money/health/tools/tech/toys
Authoring – persistent in-world modding, grafitti, tagging, comments, construction, destruction
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Media – in-world & out-world news, rss/video/SMS/Twitter/datafeeds, radio/mobile/tv/web
Record & Broadcast – user & world cameras, vids pushed to net broadcast, user record/publish, broadcast to in-world channels/spaces