With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the Synthetic Worlds Initiative has constructed a synthetic world, Arden, based on the works of William Shakespeare. Arden attempts to immerse users in the narrative, language, and culture of the world's greatest writer. It is a pilot project, a first step in our ultimate objective of using virtual worlds as laboratories for research on macro-level social phenomena.

* Enter Arden: The World Of William Shakespeare

 
 

The Synthetic Worlds Initiative is a research center at Indiana University whose aim is to promote innovative thinking on synthetic worlds. Synthetic worlds are immersive digital spaces that can host many online users on a persistent basis. The most popular applications of this technology today are massive video games. Our goal is to learn about this technology and deploy it for research and education. The Initiative holds a bi-annual series of conferences, the Ludium, and is building Arden: The World of William Shakespeare, a massive synthetic world.

* Download the whitepaper and institute prospectus

  
 
     
  A Ludium blurs the lines between work and play by embedding an academic conference within the context of a live-action game. The objective is to stoke intellectual enthusiasm (and hence productivity) using known game techniques.

* More on the Ludium Conferences

 
     
The SWI conducts research into the core systems of synthetic worlds and their impacts on users.

* Explore Introductory Research 		 
 
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