A running world involves many things that are not in any world's downloadable content. The people visiting, who they are, which figure each is driving at this moment, the keys they press: none of it is written in a world, and a world never names it. Content never names a player. This page lists what lies outside the content and where each thing belongs. It does not design those things: they belong to the browser, to services beside it, and to the person, each of which has its own design.
What lies outside, and where
| What | Where it lives | What the content sees of it |
|---|---|---|
| Players: the people visiting | the person, through their browser | beings a visitor drives, and their actions (Visitors) |
| Identity and authentication: who a person is, and proof of it | an identity service | nothing |
| Registration of an avatar: "this is my avatar", independent of any world | an identity or registration service | nothing; the description arrives for the world to present (Avatars) |
| The avatar's description, fetched for a person (written in this language, owned by the person) | kept with the person's registration; fetched by the browser on entry | a person description to present, never to keep (Avatars) |
| Possession and the session: which being a person drives now, over which connection | the browser and the world's server | whether a being is possessable; the being that acted (Visitors) |
| The visitor's own camera, which follows their being | the browser's built-in rule | nothing; the content names only cameras it makes (Cameras) |
| The person's settings: key bindings and input mapping; captions, translation and other preferences | the person's settings, applied by the browser | named actions only, never keys (Visitors: input mapping; Overlays) |
| The person's avatar policy: what a world may do to their avatar | the person's settings, applied by the browser before entry | an avatar it may present, or a visitor who did not come (Avatars) |
| Reserved actions: leave, portal home, menu, mute, block | the browser | nothing; they are never received (Visitors: three tiers) |
| The browser's own controls and its generic action menu | the browser | the world gives labels and availability (Overlays) |
| Payment | outside the browser's content model | nothing |
| Messaging between people | outside the browser's content model | nothing; speech inside a world is an act (Visitors: speech) |
| What a person carries between worlds | the person, as gifts a world granted (Portals) | what the destination accepts |
| Why a thing stands where it does: a site's requirements, such as "flat to 45 cm, 3 m clear of every solid, far from the balloon" for a bowling lane | the designer's choice of a place, and their own tools for checking it | nothing: the content states the place chosen (at ...), not the reasons it was chosen |
Fixing a draw for a test: making the riddle's liar the east guard in a scripted run, where the content says draw(choices, per: run) | the browser's own test tooling, which can set the draw from outside before the world starts | nothing: there is no content syntax for it, and no field or flag a world could read to tell a fixed draw from a free one |
| Checks a world holds: a test that counts agree (the looking-glass's counts of crossings, loops, escapes and exits, which a test reads and compares) | the browser's own test tooling: checks are test tooling, not content | nothing: a world's content carries no check, and a world is no different for having one run on it |
| Test hooks: counters a test reads to see that something happened (how many glows were sent, how many balls bowled, how many resets finished) | the browser's own test tooling, which can watch any value and any act from outside | nothing: a world neither keeps nor reads them |
Why the line is drawn here
- Trust. Machines trust neither each other nor the content. A world that could read who a person is, or press their keys, could follow them between worlds or act in their name (Distribution).
- Safety. A visitor must always be able to leave, mute or block, whatever a world draws or decides (Overlays).
- Portability. A person's habits and their avatar carry from world to world because they are the person's, not any world's.
Deferred
Not yet explored enough to judge:
- Multiplayer configuration: group size, raids, targeting.
- World-defined overlays and input: maps, communication, grouping, equipment and bag slots, key and gesture mappings.
How it connects
- Avatars: which pieces of an avatar are outside.
- Visitors and their actions: beings, actions, input mapping.
- Distribution: many visitors; secrets; trust.
- Overlays: the browser's own controls.
- The vocabulary and packages: why a world cannot reach the network, files or memory.
Open questions
- Where a person's avatar description is kept, and who may fetch it.
- Persistence: which server state survives a restart; bags belong to the visitor, who is outside the content (Distribution).
- Gifts kept between worlds: where a thing a world granted lives once the visitor has left, and in what form (Avatars).
- Multiplayer configuration and world-defined input: deferred (Visitors).