Preserving Virtual Worlds

The Preserving Virtual Worlds project was a collaborative project undertaken by teams at four U.S. universities: Stanford University, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, and Rochester Institute of Technology. The project was carried out between 2008 and 2010 with funding by the National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP) of the Library of Congress. The project was completed in August 2010 with the release of the final project report, available at https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/17097.
One of the goals of the project was to develop methodologies for defining, ingesting, and describing collections comprising game / interactive fiction / virtual world software and necessary associated documentation. Eight test cases were developed for this purpose: Spacewar! (1962), Adventure (1977), Star Raiders (1979), Mystery House (1980), Mindwheel (1984), DOOM (1993), Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) and Second Life (2003-) Data gathered by the project team for these titles was deposited in the Preserving Virtual Worlds collection after the conclusion of the project.
A second related project, Preserving Virtual Worlds II, was carried out from 2010-2012 by the same four institutions, with funding provided by the Institute for Museum and Library Services.