Making a Liveable ‘Place’: Content Design in Virtual Environments
Xiaolei Chen, Yehuda E. Kalay · International Journal of Heritage Studies · 2008
This paper argues that designers of virtual environments must not only design the context of their worlds (as architects do) but also assume at least partial responsibility for designing the content (as filmmakers do). The design of a virtual environment is, therefore, a unique task that combines the traits of both architects and filmmakers, a fact that has often been overlooked by designers of virtual environments. Only by taking responsibility for both context and content, and being cognisant of the affordances and limitations of the medium used, can virtual environment designers create a sense of place, which will be comparable, if different, to the sense of place engendered by physical environments.