A persistent world, or persistent-state world (PSW), is a virtual world which, by the definition given by Richard Bartle, "continues to exist and develop internally even when there are no people interacting with it".
First virtual worlds
The first multi-player game to demonstrate on-line persistence was the text-based MUD1 written in 1978 by Rob Trubshaw and Richard Bartle. Initially only available for a few hours in off-peak time at Essex University, UK, it featured a world reset every 105 minutes. Nevertheless, it persisted independent of players logging in for the time it was running. The subsequent decade saw many on-line worlds clone this template, but all featured variations on timed resets and reboots or did not allow players to retain objects within the game other than running point totals such as treasure or experience points as a marker of progress.
Avalon: The Legend Lives can be considered the first game to introduce a true persistent state world in 1989. Avalon pioneered the ability for items to be retained by the player whilst offline while the Avalon realm at large continued 24/7 with only a morning backup to mark the world pausing briefly. It is currently the longest running online virtual world.
See also
- Instance dungeon