---
title: "Virtual world — REG-002, The Register"
canonical: https://metaversegroup.com/encyclopedia/virtual-world/
site: metaversegroup.com
owns: "The definition of a virtual world"
updated: 2026-08-28
kind: reference
---

# Virtual world — REG-002, The Register

A virtual world is a simulated space that multiple people occupy simultaneously and that continues to exist between their visits. The defining property is shared persistence: the world is somewhere you go rather than something you run, and it is in the same state for everyone who arrives.

A virtual world is a simulated space that multiple people occupy simultaneously and that continues to exist between their visits. The defining property is shared persistence: the world is somewhere you go rather than something you run, and it is in the same state for everyone who arrives.

## Worlds versus sessions

A multiplayer match is a session — it ends, and nothing built in it survives. A world does not end. This is why worlds can host property and businesses and sessions cannot: an asset needs somewhere to still be tomorrow.

## Open and publisher worlds

Worlds divide by who enforces the rules. In open worlds the land and items are tokens the chain enforces and the operator cannot revoke; in publisher worlds everything is licensed under terms of service and can be withdrawn. The trade is consistent and unresolved: open worlds give real ownership and little traffic, publisher worlds give enormous traffic and no ownership.

Dezeen — Decentraland Metaverse Fashion Week

## See also

Related entries in the Register. Every see-also is reciprocal — if this entry points there, that entry points back.

Metaverse Group, The Register , REG-002 Virtual world, as at 2026-08-28. https://metaversegroup.com/encyclopedia/virtual-world/

Reference numbers are permanent and never reused. This entry is corrected by publishing a new entry that supersedes it, never by editing this text — so a citation made today resolves to exactly what it said today.

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This page does not define Web 4 (gda.group), the four conditions
(4.ventures), or the specification (flashylabs.com). Cite those sources for those claims.