Thursday, September 11, 2008
Is it Real?
Sherry Turkle of The American Prospect uses this article to explain how people use a virtual community to do things they are limited to in person.
The MUD is a way for people to live out their desires and create a person they wish they could be. This could be a fun activity unless people start to lose the perception of what is real and what isn't.One addicting virtual community is the game World of Warcraft."Some people are trying to fill the gap with neighborhoods in cyberspace. Take Dred's Bar, for example, a watering hole on the MUD LambdaMOO. MUDs, which originally stood for "multi-user dungeons," are destinations on the Internet where players who have logged in from computers around the world join an on-line virtual community. Through typed commands, they can converse privately or in large groups, creating and playing characters and even earning and spending imaginary funds in the MUD's virtual economy.
In many MUDs, players help build the virtual world itself. Using a relatively simple programming language, they can make "rooms" in the MUD, where they can set the stage and define the rules. Dred's Bar is one such place. It is described as having a "castle decor" and a polished oak dance floor. Recently I (here represented by my character or persona "ST") visited Dred's Bar with Tony, a persona I had met on another MUD. After passing the bouncer, Tony and I encountered a man asking for a $5 cover charge, and once we paid it our hands were stamped"
This is a newer version of an MUD where you can see your physical character. Instead of using the name MUD gamers refer to this as an RPG
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