From: lance@csd.mot.com (lance.norskog)
Subject: Re: Identity in VR
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 91 12:29 PDT



[ chewing an old point to death ]

American society is losing freedom at an exponential rate, for
various reasons.  One of them is the political stupor induced by
television.  There will be a common BBS-based VR system; Habitat
is a marvelous first attempt at this.  I don't want these systems
to be controlled by Central Authority.

Habitat was designed by two Lucasfilm Games division guys, and
they were used to designing games for couch potatoes to play.
Habitat is a nationwide BBS with video game graphics for the
Commodore 64 and a 300 baud modem.  At one time up to 700 people
are logged in.  There are at least 15,000 subscribers.  Up to
6 people can be in one "cell" (virtual room) at a time.  There
are thousands of cells connected in a hexagon.  When you move
between cells, the game stops for a few seconds while it
downloads the contents of the new cell to the Commodore.
(The above are old statistics; there is also a Japanese version
for a 386SX mit CD-ROM.)

Originally the two guys had an ego trip and said, "we're the 
wonderful game designers and we'll design games and you'll play
them together".  They spent weeks designing a game.  Overnight
someone beat it and posted the secrets of playing it.  So much
for the game.  At some point the users "beat them up" and the
designers retreated into being sort of civil service technocrats,
letting the users design games and generally run things.

If IBM and Sears were running Habitat, they would never have 
given up control.  This is why the common BBS-based VR culture
must remain as anarchic as possible.  Usenet, Internet, MUDs,
and a great many in-house mail networks have proven that 
technocratic anarchies can work.  The "BBS Of The Future"
could be one of the great media of our time.  It must not be 
run by big corporations.

Lance Norskog