Multi-User Interactions

Shahid Bhatti

"Mudding: Social Phenomena in Test-Based Virtual Realities" [1992]

-Pavel Curtis

Categorical breakdown of observations

The mudding population

Pavel has grouped his observations into three categories:

1. Phenomena related to the behavior and motivations of individual players
2. Phenomena related to inter-actions between small groups of players (especially observations concerning MUD conversation)
3. Phenomena related to the behavior of a MUD's community as a whole.

It appears that the educational background of the mudding community is generally above average and it is likely that the economic background is similarly above the norm. The people who have an opportunity to connect to LambdaMOO are not a representative sample of the world population; they all read and write English with at least passable proficiency and they have access to the Internet. Because they have Internet access, it might be supposed that the vast majority of players are involved in the computing field, but I do not believe that this is the case. It appears to me that no more than half (and probably less) of them are so employed; the increasing general availability of computing resources on college campuses and in industry appears to be having an effect, allowing a broader community to participate.

One can pick out a few common styles for names for example names from or inspired by myth, fantasy, or other literature, common names from real life, names of concepts, animals, and everyday objects that have representative connotations, etc.

Transvestism (TVism) as a medical diagnosis was probably used for the first time by the German sexologist, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, about forty years ago when he published his book, Die Transvestiten.[1] The term is now well known in the sexological literature, indicating the desire of some individuals - men much more often than women - to dress in the clothes of the opposite sex. It is, therefore, also described as "cross-dressing." Most writers on the subject refer to transvestism as a sexual deviation, sometimes as a perversion. It is not necessarily either one. It also can be a result of "gender discomfort" and provide a purely emotional relief and enjoyment without conscious sexual stimulation, this usually occurring only in later life.

The emergence of MUDs has created a new kind of social sphere, both like and radically unlike the environments that have existed before. As they become more and more popular and more widely accessible, it appears likely that an increasingly significant proportion of the population will at least become familiar with mudding and perhaps become frequent participants in text-based virtual realities. We must begin to try to understand these new societies, to make
sense of these electronic places where we'll be spending increasing amounts of our time, both doing business and seeking pleasure.

PernMUSH PernMUSH is a a rigidly-maintained simulacrum of the world described in Ann McCaffrey's celebrated `Dragon' books. All players there have names that fit the style of the books and all places built there are consistent with what is shown in the series and in various fan materials devoted to it.

InfoCity is an undergraduate project designed to influence both the academic and social life of the College of Computer Science. InfoCity focuses on making a text-based virtual reality for the college. Students (both grads and undergrads), faculty, and administration can cooperate in a multi-user, virtual environment. Our community can connect from their dorms, homes, or offices at any time of day or night. Ideally, this environment would provide many things such as advising tools, expansion of office hours to everyone's convenience, and a social climate for members to have informative exchanges of their expertise.

"Welcome to 'Electronic Cafe International': A Nice Place for Hot Coffee, Iced Tea & Virtual Space" [1992]

- Kit Galloway & Sherrie Rabinowitz

ECI Co-founder, Sherrie Rabinowitz is one of many California-based artists selected to be a part of an important exhibition at The San Jose Museum of Art.

 

Internet-Based Education: Some Guidelines

The Internet offers many powerful resources for implementing distance education. Internet-based education can take many forms, including: (1) tutorial, (2) virtual classroom, (3) correspondence course, (4) project-based education, and (5) event-based education. Internet-based education can also provide a valuable supplement to more traditional approaches to education. And as Internet technologies develop, more possibilities emerge.

Virtual Reality images

CYBERARTS

The amalgamation

Create the concept of extended collaboration of resources and multimedia networking over the multicast enabled environments, on the model of Access Grid. The users can not only collaborate with each others on the MUD and MOO like environments but they can also communicate in the context of two dimensional remote video conferencing.