State of Play V: Speakers' Bios

Profile

Dr. Richard Allan Bartle is a British writer and game researcher, best known for being the co-author of MUD, the first multi-user dungeon. He is one of the pioneers of the massively multiplayer online game industry.

Bartle received a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of Essex, which is where he created MUD along with Roy Trubshaw, in 1978.

He lectured at Essex until 1987, when he left to work full time on MUD (known as MUD2 in its present version). Recently he has returned to the university as a part-time professor and teaching fellow in the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, supervising courses on computer game design as part of the department's degree course on computer game development.

In 2003, he wrote Designing Virtual Worlds, a well-received book about the history, ethics, and "nuts and bolts" of massively multiplayer games.

Bartle is also a contributing editor to Terra Nova, an influential collaborative blog that deals with virtual world issues.

He is currently a Visiting Professor, Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, Essex University

He presently lives with family in a village just outside Colchester, England.

Web Presence

Personal Website

Selected Publications

• Designing Virtual Worlds.  New Riders: Indianapolis.(2003)
• "Players who suit MUDs," in Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, The Game Design Reader. MIT Press: Cambridge.(2005) Originally appeared in Journal of Mud Research, (1)1, 1996.