thisworld

thisworld is a collaborative, transmedia world-building project and media franchise centered on a modular fictional realm that evolves through user-created content and curator-led storytelling. The project treats thisworld as a shared universe where stories, images, sounds, and interactive experiences can be placed into the same evolving fabric. The goal is to explore themes such as memory, perception, and how communities construct meaning through collective imagination.

Content is produced and published across multiple formats, including short fiction, visual art, videos, audio pieces, and interactive text adventures. A central platform hosts submissions and a timeline of 'moments' that mark shifts in the world’s state. The narrative is deliberately non-linear, allowing different contributors to influence future chapters while preserving an overarching, though diffuse, canon.

Contributors participate under community guidelines that emphasize originality, attribution, and respectful collaboration. Governance is distributed, with a core editorial team providing curatorial oversight and ensuring consistency with the project's thematic principles. Intellectual property rights are managed to balance openness with creator credit.

Reception among audiences and critics has been favorable within the independent art and digital storytelling communities, who praise its participatory model and fluid world-building. Critics also note that the open-ended approach can be challenging for newcomers and may lead to a fragmented reading experience without sustained engagement.

See also: worldbuilding, transmedia storytelling, collaborative fiction, alternate reality game, internet art.