From: fortony@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Felix Sebastian Ortony)
Subject: Re: More on MUDs (Was Re: VR Worlds better than Reality) (LONG)
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1991 01:41:39 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL



The following is a long article, you're warned.

evard@plover.mcs.anl.gov (Remy Evard) writes:

>Howard Rheingold asks:

>> Can you tell us about LPmud in a way that is consistent with living in
>> a kind of VR world? And something about the scope of LPmud as a
>> subculture? Do you think this world will be enthralled with VR
>> frontends, or is the text format essential to the illusion?

First of all, I respectfully submit that you should try MUDs yourself.
As an example, 'telnet 139.178.1.13 6250' and log in to 'guest',
password 'guest.'

LPMud is not the be-all and end-all of MUD servers.  It's a server with
internals to emulate games like the popular 'Dungeons and Dragons' game,
and while it does that reasonably well, it's a bit clunky.  There are
other servers dedicated to a more 'realistic' environment.  In the end,
of course, the 'realism' is only defined by the skill of the authors who
write the descriptions and build the world onto the server.  You might
check out rec.games.mud (if you can wade through the chaff); a good starting
point into that file (or into MUDding in general, actually) is the series
of Frequently Asked Question posts that 'Moira' and I ('Rhodesia') have
written -- they're available via e-mail or in the newsgroup, if you're lucky.

>In this sense, MUDs will only work when VR allows you to define your
>own appearance.  This will probably be a normal feature with VR interfaces.

I think MUDs work now.  Many MUDs have poorly written worlds, but as anyone
who's gotten absorbed in a good horror story can tell you, good, vivid writing
can be every inch as good (if not better) than the like amount of television.
In fact, that brings up a point I'm a little worried about -- is Virtual
Reality to Textual Adventure what Television is to Books?  As a writer, I'm
a strong advocate of the power of imagination.

>Yes, it's a definite subculture.  It's the intersection of many other
>subcultures, mainly gamers and bulletin board freaks.  Programmers get
>into it too, but typically only for the world-building possibilities.
>These people usually do it for a while, and either get bored, and move on 
>to more interesting things, or write newer, better MUDs.  Of course,
>I'm generalizing, and will probably get flamed by the non-general cases.

Snicker.  Well, I won't flame you, but you're not wholly accurate.  The
subculture isn't really 'mainly' anything; people who are computer literate
form the large category on the most prevalent MUDstyle (TinyMUD), but they're
pretty evenly spread out from college students looking for a good time
to graduate students looking to escape their theses to professionals chatting
about esoterica with each other.  And everyone gets into it for their
own reasons -- chief among those being that it's fun.

>One other point - and I'm sure it's flammable too - as Johan said, to
>really get something out of a MUD, you have to spend at least 8 to 10
>hours in it.  All of the good MUDders that I know spend much much
>more than that.  There's no doubt in my mind that people will end up
>being *at least* as dedicated to virtual worlds, potentially spending
>most of their time hooked up.  Hell, I know people who spend most of
>their waking time reading and posting news...  The point is that people
>will get addicted to VR, but people get hooked on things anyway.  At
>least VR is interactive and potentially thought provoking, unlike, 
>say, television...

Mmm, but therein lies the crux of the matter.  I'm a supporter of VR, but
I'm not sure MUDding is the dimwitted cousin it appears to be on the
surface.  That is to say, I can create an object called a 'flowerpot' that
has the description 'This flowerpot has seen the weathering of ages.  Chipped
and worn, it stands in mute testimonial to the persistence of the gardeners
who, even as this island sunk beneath their feet, kept their trade alive."
If someone picks it up, a message to everyone in the area can be issued along
the lines of "John picks up the flowerpot.  A clod of earth falls at his
feet."  The picker-upper can see a personalized message about the clod almost
hitting his big toe.  If he types 'break the flowerpot', it can shatter into
a thousand pieces and reveal, hidden in the dusky earth, a dirty gold key.

I can create the above object in about 40 seconds on a MUD, and I contend
that it's every bit as amazing and intriguing as a computer representation --
perhaps more so, since each individual has their own ideas about it, their
own viewpoints on the matter, their own imaginings about what it'd be like
to run their fingers along the edge of the timeworn gardenpiece.   There's
no way to convey the sense of age and brittleness of a piece of ceramic
with a computer -- and to those who say "but there will be!", I must say
I have my doubts.  I'm sure computers will not be able to emulate every
adjective I can think of -- not ever.

With VR-as-it's-cracked-up-to-be, the creation and imagination aspects are
gone. Just as television cannot be created by the average user, VR cannot
be internally made, worked and reworked by its users.  Books, like
MUDs, can be written by anyone very simply.  Also, MUDs allow anyone who
feels like it to manufacture their own segment of existence.

>MUDs will be much more interesting when VR becomes publicly available,
>but as Johan pointed out, VR world builders could learn a lot from MUDders.

I don't think television-making-capabilities/VR-making-capabilities will
ever enter the public domain as well as books and MUDs can or have.  Text
and language possess the special power of inciting the reader's imagination.
Saying "There's a gorilla behind you" is much easier although perhaps less
effective than going through all the trouble of simulating a gorilla with
a computer.  It's also about $100,000 less expensive.

Speaking for myself only (as the MUD community is far too defiant and
tribal to actually have spokespeople), I'll be awed when VR comes out,
but television hasn't stopped me reading or writing books.  I'll keep
using MUDs for my virtual worlds.

Questions, replies, or requests for the MUD FAQ set via e-mail are welcome.

>Re'my Evard 
>Overworked Grad Student, CS Dept, U of Oregon        remy@cs.uoregon.edu
>Support Staff , MCS Division, Argonne National Labs    evard@mcs.anl.gov

--
fortony@cs.uiuc.edu