Weather You Like it or Not

Shortly after being inducted as a caretaker in AWTeen, Simplaza.net/Gnu64 took the liberty of introducing violent weather conditions to the world for a stated 2-3 days. In his blog, Gnu said this was something he had wanted to do in AWTeen for years.

GC quickly aired his complaint about the vicious storm in the AW Forums. Although typically looking to rile people up, GC's thread garnered some legitimate support. The thread was short lived (Strike Rapier, AWTeen's Governor, has moderation privileges in the AWTeen forum), but it didn't go without notice. It quickly amassed five pages of replies - largely petty feuding, but some from various members who liked or disliked the change.

Like the governor's actions, Gnu's weather was protected by "popular vote," insisting a majority of users agreed to the changes.

Personal matters aside, this incident brings up a long standing issue in Active Worlds and one that AWTeen is no stranger to. Disputes about weather span years of AWTeen history.

The whole concept of weather in public build worlds raises a number of issues. In the real world, no one controls this attribute. We go about our lives enduring whatever the weather throws at us. In Active Worlds, weather and day/night cycles have never even been something that is built into the technology.

The individual nature of worlds doesn't allow for a universal weather system controlled by Activeworlds, Inc. and any cycles within worlds are therefore up to their users. A public build world presents a conflict because it's populated by a diverse group of inhabitants. Because these users are accustomed to idealistic static building environments, some are enraged when anything else is introduced.

A popular example of this was when Thor was used in AWTeen. Brant, AWTeen caretaker at the time, introduced the weather bot in 2001. The concept was very well received at first, but people soon complained of day/night cycles that would result in darkness during their entire time online. Its use of fog to create misty conditions also aggravated some builders. In general, it was the poor visibility and unpleasant appearance of builds that seemed to cause the most trouble.

This again brings up the fact that we do not control nature in real life. No matter how much we whine about fog or snow or rain we can't make it go away. Ultimately, we will all need to compromise. The topic of weather is much like the debate about historical places throughout our universe. Change can bring an incredible new dimension to the experience, and those opposing it are basically impeding progress. Like it or not, the different environments that have been exhibited in AW do add a sense of realism. Although not exactly the most attractive implementation of weather, the storm in AWTeen did create a wildly different aura. Instrusive? Somewhat. But also intriguing and immersive - exactly what you want in AW.

... to enable a more realistic atmosphere we'd have to implement unrealistic situations.

Newer features in the AW software do give us some control over our environment, helping us resist change when the global conditions are not to our liking. Zones allow us to control areas to an extent - allowing users to block world attributes such as lighting. If that's not enough, recent versions of the AW software allow precise segmentation of world environments. Strike Rapier's Hyperion bot, for example, can easily create something called a Hyperion Zone that filters the other world conditions from the defined region (this function is used in similar fashion to enable the different appearance between AWTeen's new Southern Province and AWTeen Prime).

But rather than block things out we should embrace dynamic conditions. Like real life, it's only fair to expect people to enjoy a dramatic change in weather and lighting from time to time. These changes should be something to look forward to - something to enhance building and exploring.

The reason we can't seem to compromise is because the weather systems that have been utilized are either poorly done or operate on undesirable schedules. Gnu's storm featured lightning textures that looked like AlphaWorld circa 1997 and rain drops taller than avatars. And although it could be considered a software limitation, rain inside of buildings just isn't attractive.

To overcome the resistance, any system used will need to give all users fair opportunity to experience all conditions, in addition to being visually pleasing. Even Thor's generous daytime schedule didn't do the trick. Instead, why not have 24 hours of daylight followed by 24 hours of night? Maybe just two days of night per week. A full day of storms, followed by a full day of clear skies. In essence, to enable a more realistic atmosphere we'd have to implement unrealistic situations. Many would obviously love to see changes in their building environments, and as long as those changes are done in a way that's practical and fair, most people should be able to appreciate them.

What do you think? What's your idea of a perfect weather system? Share your comments and check our poll.