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	TABLE OF CONTENTS Design Pointers Interview: Chuck Clanton Body Language The Design Process

6.4 Interview: Chuck Clanton

Chuck Clanton wore many hats during the creation of There, including director of user experience, principal designer, and executive producer of social interaction. Clanton was codesigner of this avatar-centric communication project (described in Section 6.2.1 under Social Grouping and discussed in this interview). Prior to joining the There team, Clanton was at Bullfrog and Electronic Arts U.K. Studio.

Q: First of all, a little about There itself: some folks might not consider this a game. What about you? Do you think that There falls within the "game" context? Why or why not? What is or are the primary driver(s) for participation in There for players?

Based on strict definitions, There is certainly not a game. It has a physics, which could be considered rules, but there is no way to win or lose. In the entertainment sense, it is a toy, something you use for play. Psychologically, it is an immersive environment, a world, and a place where you can live part of your life.

We thought and talked about There as being a virtual world, a place where games could be invented and played. Like the real world, much of the fun surrounds rather than inhabits games. You anticipate a game, you prepare to play or to watch your team, you talk about what happened afterward and are elated or depressed at the results, sharing those feelings with others. Like the real world, games result in social fun outside the game itself.

So, activities in There are certainly games. I ran one of the first Buffy Trivia Contests in There. It was great fun and definitely a game. One woman knew the answer to every question and was fast on the buzzer. The contest was so one-sided that we all got quite silly and giggly, spending more time talking and razzing each other than actually playing. I talked with contestants and even others who had heard about it for days afterward.

(The winner ended up running most of the Buffy Trivia Contests later because no one wanted to play against her!)

Most people are attracted to There because of the opportunity to do fun activities with other people, and they stay in There because they form friendships. Fun activities include those available in real life, like shopping for the right outfit, and those that are purely fantasies, like "surfing" the boneyard in Tyr under the full moon on a hoverboard. For some, their avatar is an extension of themselves so they are living in this virtual world. For others, their avatar is a fantasy of some part of themselves they would like to experience and cannot in any other way. An example of this is selecting an avatar of the opposite gender. It is quite thought provoking as a guy to have a female avatar and see all the ways other guys relate to me. (And I enjoy all of the possibilities for clothing that are not available to male avatars. In Elizabethan times, men got to wear all sorts of fancy clothing, but today most finery is reserved for women. In the animal kingdom, adornment of the male is commonplace, often more than of the female. Too bad for modern men, but in a virtual world, you can choose to have a female avatar and take advantage of all of the wonderful clothing that exists in There.)

Q: There seems to be primarily a social activity space. Did this focus of play affect how you developed player-character styling, animation, and actions? How so?

Yes, very much so. Very early in the development of There, we initiated a project called "avatar-centric communication." The team working on this was Jeffrey Ventrella, who codesigned most of this with me; Fernando Paiz, who was our lead engineer and a very creative contributor; and Ko Patel, another very creative engineer who contributed many ideas as well. Tom Melcher, the president at that time, was really our executive producer and a creative contributor as well. We believed very strongly that There would be primarily a social place. So talking with others would be extraordinarily important. In real life, talking in person has great value compared to a disembodied voice, like the telephone, or even this email conversation. We knew we needed to express that value in There to realize the benefit of having an avatar. Otherwise, you might as well use email and IM. There are several reasons why having a conversation in a body in a place is important. The place itself adds context. Talking while looking out at an incredible vista from the top of a volcano is very different from meeting someone in a small dark tomb whose hidden entrance you just discovered. A crowded bar adds a different flavor than the seashore. The greatest value comes from the body of your avatars, body language.

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