Gaming & Virtual Worlds

This page is generated. Do not edit it by hand — run scripts/atlas-vocab.py.

part of Creative Technology · tier 2 · 0 pieces of work carry it · 4 crafts it is confused with

The craft, and who hires it

Hired for in-game brand activations, branded mini-games, virtual venues and drops — reaching audiences inside gaming platforms where playtime, not watch-time, is the medium (the vendor landscape's experiential-tech game/virtual-world category).

Building playable games and persistent virtual-world experiences for brands — branded games, in-game and platform activations (Roblox, Fortnite, metaverse spaces), and interactive virtual venues. The craft is real-time engine and world building that the audience PLAYS, not watches.

Tag it when…

Tag when the work is (or records) a playable build: game mechanics and player control, engine-rendered real-time worlds, platform-native spaces users enter as avatars, scoreboards/objectives/interaction loops visible.

Never tag it when…

Never tag game trailers, game cinematics, or esports content — a game cinematic is Animation/Video Production craft ABOUT a game ('Game Cinematic' is a format tag in the market, not this craft), and the Gaming SECTOR (industry axis) or gamer audience are axis facts, never a craft basis (boundary law: subject/market ≠ craft). Headset-native immersion goes to VR; browser interactivity without game/world structure goes to Web / Interactive Development.

Easily mistaken for 4 other crafts

Every other page suggests neighbours by similarity. This one navigates by difference: each line names the craft this is confused with, and the rule for telling them apart.

• creative technology vr — Flat-screen or platform-based playable worlds = here; headset-native full immersion = VR. Delivery hardware is the test, not the word 'virtual'.
• creative technology web interactive development — Game/world structure (avatars, mechanics, persistent space) = here; site/microsite interactivity, even playful, = Web / Interactive Development.
• Animation / Video Production (game cinematics & trailers) — A rendered cinematic or trailer FOR a game is animation/film craft; tag this node only when a playable experience was built for the brand.
• Gaming (industry sector) — The buy-side Gaming sector describes whose content it is or what market it targets; this craft leaf describes that a playable build was MADE. A bank's Fortnite activation = this craft + the bank's industry.

At what size it applies

ASSET when the item IS the playable build or its dedicated case record; MOMENT when gameplay of a branded world appears as a beat inside a broader campaign film.

Where to look next

• The whole services tree — the services index.
• Every other vocabulary — the vocabulary index.
• How work gets credited to a craft — the entities chapter.