The Massively Multiplayer Magic Kingdom

[BelizeIt]

What to visit an alternate world specially designed to amaze and delight? Head to Disneyland--or buy a video game.

 

Theme park imaginer Danny Hillis discusses in the April 2006 edition of Wired magazine, the wonderful virtual world of Disney. In the article Hillis talks about Disneyland and how it prefigured videogames.

 

What lies ahead are a variety of excerpts from the article.

 

Wired talks about how Disneyland itself was the first massively multiplayer game. You have all of these people milling around, with lots of open-ended missions to chose from.

 

Hillis agrees by telling how that when you go to a theme park with people you have a relationship with--friends, family-- and you interact with each other in ways you wouldn't in normal life. You get into situations where you're frightened or excited together.

 

Theme parks take you out of the everyday and re-create that sense of wonder from childhood, the time when nothing made sense, where you didn't know what would happen next and you didn't need to. They're wonderful, thrilling, and unpredictable--but safe. Hillis explains that's how he felt the first time he played The Legend of Zelda. It was a new thing. He didn't know what the rules were or what would happen next. But he didn't worry about it.

 

Wired next talks about how Walt Disney was hailed as the man who brought story to rides.

 

Hillis explains that there's a basic thing that happens in every ride: Normal life, an adventure, and then back to the real world. There's a narrative arc in any good experience, be it a ride, book, or a game. He uses the game Myst as an example because it had a fantastic story--that's what makes it work.

 

Wired mentions that Myst was about exploring an abandoned island, trying to figure out the backstory while solving puzzles.

 

Hillis felt that Myst is very close to the theme park experience. We're hardwired to remember things by location, and theme parks have a sense of place as well as story. It's like when you're immersed in a multiplayer game--a part of your mind believes that the place really exists.

 

Wired states that you can "play" parks like that--learning your way around, trying to dodge lines and uncover hidden surprises.

 

Hillis agrees because he felt the very best games are the ones where you have to figure out what the object is. The trick is to provide direction subtle enough that it's not perceived immediately. Theme parks have that, too. When you enter Disneyland, you don't know the Sleeping Beauty Castle is your objective, but there's no doubt when your in Town Square that you should be walking up Main Street USA. Just like a great game, you always have an idea that you need to go this way or that. Eventually you catch on to the themed worlds and the central hub.

 

The article goes on to talk about how Walt Disney envisioned Epcot as the ultimate interactive space as well.

 

As a side note, above the two page Wired article is a sketch of Disneyland drawn two years before the park opened. Sleeping Beauty's Castle looks quite different then what was actually built, but other things like the entrance to the park, Main Street USA, and Tom Sawyers Island look spot on to what they finally built.

[Homer]

Sleeping Beauty's Castle looks quite different then what was actually built

Was the drawing bigger than the real thing? (I'm sorry, that quote screamed for a tiny castle joke).

 

Sounds like an interesting article. Anybody care to scan?

[BelizeIt]

^ Indeed it is bigger, they show more of a traditional style castle wall which surrounds an entire area with Sleeping Beautys Castle located in the middle of the drawing.