126 lines
5.8 KiB
Plaintext
126 lines
5.8 KiB
Plaintext
From: mauldin@lonestar.utsa.edu (Alex L. Mauldin)
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Date: 12 Feb 93 22:14:59 GMT
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Newsgroups: rec.games.mud.admin
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Subject: Magazine Article on MUDS
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Here's an article which appeared in the November 18th, 1992 issue
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of the _Chronicle_of_Higher_Education_. It's the first article I've
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seen in a major publication talking specifically about Muds. If
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anyone else has seen similar articles, then I'd appreciate some
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references for them.
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Anyway, for those interested, here it is:
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_____________
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HOW STUDENTS SEE AN ARTIFICIAL WORLD
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by David L. Wilson
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A MUD, generally defined as a Multi-User Dungeon, is a kind of
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computer game that is increasingly popular on campuses around the world.
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Linked via the Internet and other computer networks, participants
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enter an artificial world where they can pretend to be aboard a space
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ship, play a character in a medieval village, or wander around a party
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conversing with people, aliens, and even household appliances.
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Almost all are text-based
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-------------------------
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Very few of the hundreds of games use graphic images. Almost all
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MUDS are text-based, meaning that users must rely on a description of the
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settings and characters rather than on pictures.
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For instance, a person logging on to a game called "LambdaMoo" is
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greeted with the following message:
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The Coat Closet
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The closet is a dark, cramped space. It apprears to be very crowed in
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here; you keep bumping into what feels like coats, boots, and other people
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(apparently sleeping). One useful thing that you've discovered in your
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bumbling about is a metal doorknob set at waist level into what might be
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a door. There's a new edition of the newspaper. Type 'news' to see it.
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The bewildered can ask the computer for help with commands that will
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let participants move about. By typing the word "out," the user can
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leave the closet and enter "The Living Room," where other people logged on
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to the system can be "seen."
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Users can design their own characters, which can represent anything,
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from themselves to a vase of flowers. In the latter case, when the user
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left the closet, the other individuals in the living room would have read
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the words: "A vase of flowers enters," on their computer screens.
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Once in the living room, users can communicate with others in the
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room by typing words, which appear on the computers of every other
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person using the game at that moment. Users can move from room to room,
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"examine" objects, such as a "dog" that will rush up and wag its tail
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when anyone enters the room.
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2 Important Elements
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--------------------
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Amy S. Bruckman, a research assistant at the Massachusetts Insti-
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tute of Technology's Media Laboratory, has been studying MUDS and the
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people who use them.
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She says the two most important things about MUDS are that parti-
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cipants can design their own environment, and that much of what happens
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within a MUD involves interaction between people.
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"That's the difference between a MUD and basic information exchange,"
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she says. "You've got this virtual world and you take on a virtual
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identity. Some people play themselves, and some people play fanciful
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characters which have nothing to do with themselves."
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For instance, she says, people in a MUD frequently masquerade as a
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person of the opposite sex in their interactions with others on the MUD.
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These and similar interactions give users new insights into themselves
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and others.
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But users can still make an educated guess about who's on the other
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end of the character, she says. "Chances are three to one that they're
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19 and male and a computer-science student at a state university. That
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sums it all up."
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Are They Addictive?
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-------------------
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Some are concerned about the games. "There seems to be something
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addictive about MUDS," says Claude W. Anderson, associate professor of
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computer science at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. "I've seen
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students' grades plummet because they were spending too much time on these
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things. We have a saying at Rose-Hulman: 'Friends don't let friends play
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MUD.'"
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Ms. Bruckman says her research has found that some do become obsessed
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with the medium. "One person talked about _cutting_down_ to 12 hours a
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day," she says.
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Ms. Bruckman rejects the word "addict" to describe those who, by
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their own admission, spend too much time on a MUD. "If someone takes
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heroin, you take a certain amount of it and you're addicted, and that's
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a property of the substance. For people who become obsessed with comm-
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unications media, it's more a function of them rather than the medium," she
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says.
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Most people who spend too much time in a MUD have other problems that
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they are working out, she says, and anonymous socialization may be helpful
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for them.
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But, she says, few users actually lose themselves in a MUD. "Most
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people are perfectly normal, with fine social skills, who use this a lot
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less than the average American uses television," she says.
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--------------------------------
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Anyone have any comments about this article? I thought it
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was pretty interesting, even though the person writing it prolly
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didn't have a clue about MUDS before he started writing this
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article. I did think it was funny that LambdaMoo got a plug
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in here. Why couldn't he have used a MUD I play?
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- alex -
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--
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* I have been one acquainted with the night.
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* I have walked out in the rain -- and back in rain.
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* I have outwalked the furthest city light.
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- Robert Frost
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