Investigating the Communicative Phenomena in Multi-User Dimensions :: Internet Computers Technology MUDs Essays

Investigating the Communicative Phenomena in Multi-User DimensionsCHAPTER 1Rationale and lit ReviewMagnafix says, Have you figured out the secret entrance toKahn Draxens castle?Newtrik sighs deeply.Newtrik says, I think so, but I havent launch the st matchless key soon enoughMagnafix grins mischievously.Magnafix gives a stone key to Newtrik.Newtrik smiles happily.Newtrik shakes hands with Magnafix.Newtrik says, ThanksMagnafix grins broadly and says, No problem...Newtrik leaves west.IntroductionPurposeThe purpose of this thesis is to investigate the communicative phenomena to befound in those environments known as Internet MUDs, or Multi-User Dimensions.These text-based virtual realities are presently available to students andfaculty at most learning institutions, as easily as anyone with a estimator and amodem. Though the term virtual reality has become connected for many withvisions of fancy headgear and million dollar bill gloves, MUDs require no suchhardware. They are, howeve r, a form of virtual reality, because they constructenduring places, objects, and user identities. These objects havecharacteristics that define and constrain how users can interact with them,(Holmes & Dishman, 1994, p. 6). Having been created in their most rudimentaryform nearly two decades ago, the technology that supports MUD interaction iswell developed and has spawned a new variety of communicative environment, onethat thousands if not millions of users have found fiercely compelling.Since MUDs are generally restricted to text-based interaction (some support ANSIcodes, and the graphical MUDs are gaining popularity), one might expect that theinteractions in this are characterized by a lack of regulating feedback,dramaturgical weakness, few status cues, and social anonymity, as Kiesler andher colleagues have suggested (Kiesler, Siegal, & McGuire, 1984). While thesecharacteristics may be promptly attributable to the majority of interactionswithin experiments on computer conferen cing and electronic mail, such is not thecase for MUDs, as each (there are hundreds) is a rich ending unto itself, aswill be shown. This thesis is meant to explore the modalities by which MUD usersavoid the drawbacks mentioned above, specifically, how nonverbal communicationtakes place in a virtual world composed solely of words.BackgroundHistory of network computingThe first computer network was created in the late 1960s in an effort by theDepartment of Defense to link multiple command sites to one another, thusensuring that central command could be carried on remotely, if one or severalwere change or destroyed. Once the hardware was installed, the militaryallowed educational institutions to take advantage of the research resourcesinherent in multiple site networking. This interlaced network of computerconnections spread quickly, and in the early 1980s, the network was dividedinto MILNET, for strictly military uses, and ARPANET, which, with the advent of