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Chris Jonsson Special to the Ebbtide MUDs, Multi-User Dimensions, are glorified chat rooms in which there are many players wandering through a virtual fantasy realm. For one who has never traveled through one of these virtual spaces, the question of how real virtual-reality can be seems fairly simple: You have reality and virtual reality, and they are separate. The journey to understanding that the reality of a MUD might not be so virtual after all may seem like a long one, but as with all journeys we can begin with a single step: We start with a book. Any good book, one that you love to read. Why do you love to read this book? Is it because the author creates a world, a scene, a mood with their words that transports you from your chair into that world? Can you remember a book where you could smell the aroma being described wafting through air, or hear the sounds around you? All of these things are a bridge from the author to you. When you read a book and you find that you strongly agree or disagree with how the author handles the situation or character, you can yell at the book, or laugh at it, but the author will never know. You could write to the author or the publishing house, if you felt really strongly about it. What if you could write the story with them? You could read the lines of the book as the author wrote them and then in turn respond as you wished. Better yet, you could write yourself into the story. The author would have their character do or say something and then you would directly respond in turn. You have just entered into the realm of the MUD. This is what people do who spend their time in these dimensions. They are writing a story, but they are writing one with many different characters, each character with their own personality and thoughts. It is this interaction that blurs the line between reality and virtual reality. When you are directing your character to do or say something, you are directly affecting those around you. You can offend others; you can make others laugh. In MUDs there are those who are shy, those who are bold, those who are seductive and those that are mean. In MUDs, characters interact with one another, they have sex, they have fights, and they have discussions. An excerpt from Julian Dibbell's "My Tiny Life" describes a virtual rape that took place in LambdaMOO. The perpetrator was banished from the realm. But it wasn't until other characters from the rape scene wrote their responses on-line to all of MOO, that the question of virtual vs. real came to light. Calling for vengeance, the player of the victim later related that as she "wrote those words, post-traumatic tears were streaming down her faceŅa real-life fact that should suffice to prove that word's emotional content was no mere fiction." Words, stories, and imaginings can elicit physical responses, and leave deeper emotional wounds than those of real-life traumas. As Edward Bulwer Lytton said, the pen is mightier than the sword. © 2002 Shoreline Community College™ |