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

Investigating the Communicative Phenomena in Multi-User DimensionsCHAPTER 1Rationale and literary works ReviewMagnafix says, Have you figured out the secret entrance toKahn Draxens castling?Newtrik sighs deeply.Newtrik says, I think so, but I shake offnt found the stone tonality yetMagnafix grins mischievously.Magnafix gives a stone key to Newtrik.Newtrik smiles happily.Newtrik shakes hands with Magnafix.Newtrik says, ThanksMagnafix grins by and large 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 approximately learning institutions, as come up as anyone with a computer and amodem. Though the term virtual reality has become connected for more withvisions of fancy headgear and million dollar gloves, MUDs require no such(prenom inal)hardware. They are, however, 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 implicit in(p)form 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 that are characterized by a lack of regulating feedback,dramaturgical weakness, fewer status cues, and social anonymity, as Kiesler andher colleagues have suggested (Kiesler, Siegal, & McGuire, 1984). While thesecharacteristics may be readily attributable to the majority of interactionswit hin experiments on computer conferencing and electronic mail, such is not thecase for MUDs, as each (there are hundreds) is a rich culture unto itself, aswill be shown. This thesis is meant to look for the modalities by which MUD usersavoid the drawbacks mentioned above, specifically, how nonverbal communicationtakes place in a virtual world composed solely of words.Background fib of network computingThe first computer network was created in the latish 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 disabled or destroyed. erstwhile the hardware was installed, the militaryallowed educational institutions to take advantage of the research resources indwelling in multiple site networking. This interlaced network of computerconnections riddle quickly, and in the early 1980s, the network was dividedinto MILNET, for strictly military uses, and ARPANET, w hich, with the advent of