This text is the second in a series of informal essays where I present a more causal argument then my normal analytical texts. I this text will be the first in a series discussing abandoned spaces of digital landscapes, and how they may seen as mirrors of their real life equivalents. This chapter will discuss the basic themes and concepts we will need for our furhter discussion of the topic.

Introduction

The abandoned and lost space of humankind have always intrigued me for as long as I can remember. From the ancient towns and burials of long lost civilisations, to the modern ruins of failed commercial enterprises, there is a certain sense of longing and sadness I feel when visiting these areas. It is a feeling I find hard to put in to words, and one that I surprisingly felt when exploring the virtual chat room Second Life for the first time, the vast square miles of now abandoned and forgotten buildings awoken something within me, a feeling that I wish to try and express trough this series.

Before we start this exploration proper, I have some concepts I would like to present. This chapter will be dedicated to a few analytical terms that we will use to explore a number of strange and partly to full abandoned digital spaces. By setting out clear parameters, I hope to make this series easier to follow, as well as more enjoyable to read.

Definitions

I will start this series by making some definitions of the material I will discuss in this series. These terms will be as a base for every world we will be analysing in this series. I will primarily discuss two aspects of the abandoned spaces we will find in this series. The first pertains to the places themselves, the second will discuss the creators of these spaces.

Virtual Landscapes

First of all I will present the main three various digital lands. By doing so will I hope to more easily help the reader conceptualize the spaces I am presenting. I will split up the areas we will explore in three separate categories, websites, games and virtual chatrooms.

The website

Arguably one of the oldest repository of digital content, along with chat rooms and databases. Many of these services had been lost to time, or simply fallen in to technological obscurity. The endless march of technological progress pushing more and more of these once high tech and modern services in to the void of obscurity.

Exploring some of these website, be it via an archive, or by visiting some of the few pages that are still up and unaltered, it is, at least to me an etherial experience in and of itself. The radically different design language, the esoteric ways of orienting oneself across the website, the inherent newness (at the time), of the hyperlinks. The infamous space jam website is still available and mostly fully operational after al this time, but there exist a wide number of various sites for you to explore on your leisure. I would be amiss if I did not mention the amazing work of internet archives, Wayback machine!

The most basic form of world we will look at will be a series of web sites, forums and databases that have for one reason or another been abandoned or neglected by their original creators. I mainly added this segment for completeness sake, and will most likely not spend most of my time discussing websites per say. Note that some games such as Neo-Pets will inevitably fall within the preview of website as well as game world. I will point these instances out when we encounter them.

The game

There are innumerable games that have been abandoned by their publishers over the years, but for this text in particular I wish to discuss the various online games, be it games played via a web browser or a dedicated platform. many online only games of today and yesteryear will eventually be met with this faith, of being left to their own devices, and slowly disappearing in to the void of obscurity.

For the sake of this series will I only discuss games that are explicitly meant to be experienced in an online environment, and one that is still accessible online in its original form, or via some form of facilely, like third party servers. I will only discuss games that are currently accessible online, and have some sort of servers running. I want to be able to experience the servers themselves, as much as the games, so any game that has an offline function as stand in, will as a result not be covered in this series.

The virtual chatroom

The virtual chat room is what this text will spend most of its time discussing. The concept of a virtual chatroom is one that has for a long time interested me deeply. The idea of having a visual representation of your avatar for the sole purpose of chatting is somehow deeply fascinating to me. The fact that many of these worlds allows the users to create their own custom content and avatars makes this concept so much more interesting to me personally.

The most well known of these virtual worlds currently would be VR chat, but for this series will primary spend our time discussion its predecessors such as second life. Due to the fact that Second Life and its contemporaries has existed for so long, it means that the existence of abandoned and or lost materials is rather prevalent amongst the its virtual landscapes. These abandoned structures, towns and monuments will be one of the main points of interest for this series.

The creators

We must also discuss the creators of these virtual worlds. Some creators, like when it comes to the developers of the worlds, be it a website or game are easy enough to pin down. The other creators, as we will see, are more elusive and harder to pin down. Much like how archaeologists tries to trace the identities and lives of the the architects of ancient civilisations, so will we try and gleam stories from what the makes of the worlds have left us.

Developers

The first category of creators we will discuss is the “official originators” of the digital world. The developers, publishers and owners . It is at their prerogative that the worlds itself was created and it is at their prerogative that the world can be destroyed. When it comes to most video games and websites, the creation is squarely set at the hands of the developers.

I will in this series define developers first as foremost as the “official”, original creators of the product, and any third party support or creation will be first and foremost be seen as creations of the users. I will note where there are exceptions to these rules.

Due tot he significant amount of official correspondence, journalism and other materials will it be rather easy to find official narratives to many, if not most of the abandoned worlds we will be discussing in this series. With that said, as I am a belier in the concept of the death of the author as a valuable tool for discussing media, will I be first and foremost look to the texts themselves when we go on our digital archaeological digs.

Users

Many websites or online games uses some form of user generated materials as part of their world building, be it posting, character creation of full on modifications to the base product. User generated contend takes a much bigger parts in virtual chatrooms such as second life and VR chat, where entire worlds are made out of the creations of its users.

By user I am in this text referring to individuals that have purchased or in other ways gained access to the product, and is creating content without ties to the official developers.

The nature of user created materials make it difficult to find out any details of the original creators. even if we have a name and ad ate of creation, it is more often then not some form on pseudonym or nickname. even if we were to know these creators, finding any additional information about them would be exceedingly difficulty, if not impossible. just when excavating real life settlements, we will have to really on general knowlage of the time period, and the general knowledge of the culture, to gleam some information from these digital dig sites.

“Nature”

Many of these worlds are enormous, and while much of it is created by and, many features are also created by algorithms or similar processes. These randomly generated materials are an inportant part of the wider digital worlds that we will be exploring in this series, and can ad a surprising amount of character and ambience to any area,

This this segment will I also ad any form of error, coding incomparability another problem with the media that the creators did not intent on. Due to their very nature, it is impossible to ascertain the nature of the “true” creators of these elements. With that said, examining these natural features, might gives us some hints on the rules that govern the worlds we are exploring.

Final thoughts

I have in this text, in as brief of an explanation as I can, presented the basis for this series. we will use this base formula, as we make our way on our digital scientific travels. My goal is to present this series in the form of a travel journal, together with an archaeological study. These are both formats that are new to me, and as a result this entire series will be a learning experience for me.

Note that this series will be a lot more informal and personal then my normal materials, and I hope that you will find this trip an interesting one, as we travel in to strange new lands. If this sort of text is not your cup of tea, then more traditional research and analysis is on the way as well!