You perceive MUDs as "illusory?" I have to ask: are you speaking from
first-hand experience? Or are you speaking from a position of Fear,
Uncertainty, and Doubt as promulgated by the mainstream media?
Participating in a MUD, and participating in the tangled web of marketing
materials spun by the popular media are two very different things. Most
MUDders I've encountered are very adamant about the "reality" of their
experiences, to the point that they expect other people to act as though
they were face to face in the real world (which I personally find an
annoying request!) Whereas marketspeak is marketspeak, whether it's on TV
or about the Internet. If you find that corporate dialogue oppressive,
well I can only point out that it's nothing new. Indeed, if you examine
Bill Gates's agenda, of partnering with NBC and converging the PC with the
TV and the audio applicance, you should be tipped off as to how the
"Digital Convergence" is a straightforward extension of a traditional
dialogue about power. But I certainly wouldn't mistake it for first-hand
experience on a MUD.
> Consequently,the gratifications and excitement of upward mobility have
> slowly abandoned us (or so it would seem) to the unraveling inner spaces
of
> our own psychic rootlessness. As this squemish electro-'culture of bits'
> threatens to absorb the space where we take place. And this disappearance
> towards the invisible for all intensive purposes--has already happened.
This has been going on ever since the "global village" and "tune in, turn
on, drop out" of the 60's. It is hardly new, and in that sense, hardly
threatening. Except insofar as each generation re-invents the threats of
previous generations, lacking a basis of experience. Put another way, if I
had a dime for every 20-something year old woman (my age) that has asked me
"what my sign" is, I'd be a rich guy.
> To speak of, or even attempt to visualize form now, one must contemplate
> its antithesis. Meta-attributes have replaced physical attributes,
> meta-query, meta-content and meta-place.
Again, media-speak, not the reality of participating in either a MUD or a
VR environment.
In particular, modern-day VR environments are so boring, that the
media-speak is required to move any $$$$ forwards! Text-based MUDs are at
least psychologically compelling in their own right.
> We are wrapped in an invisible electronic blanket, where it is no longer
> even possible to get lost.
Have you tried using Alta Vista lately? Maybe people who subscribe to a
centralized service such as America Online have such a unified, directed
narrative experience. The rest of us perceive the Internet as this giant,
unwieldy soup from which it is difficult to extract useful information, and
hence it is very easy to become lost. At least, when searching for
something.
Cheers,
Brandon J. Van Every <vanevery@blarg.net> DEC Commodity Graphics
http://www.blarg.net/~vanevery Windows NT Alpha OpenGL
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