[MUD-Dev] Guilds & Politics [was Affecting the World]

[Stephen Zepp]

>> > There are lots of papers on "psychological disinhibition" in a virtual 
>> > setting that offer great insight here.
[snip]

>As a sidenote. Are there more genuine misunderstandings and bad 
>feelings generated between persons on a mud than in RL "because of the 
>medium" in addition to anonymity. 
>
>In particular:
>Does the lack of visual perception of the person communicating via text
>cause misinterpretation?
>Does the increased chance of being overheard cause gossip to be more
>rampant?
>Do mistakes in text communication cause more conflict than normal
>would?
>
>--
>Jon A. Lambert
>"Everything that deceives may be said to enchant" - Plato
>
>
Now that is an interesting topic.  I agree to all, but most especially the
inability to express emotion and "tone of voice" in text causing severe
misunderstandings and hurt feelings that can cause a lot more problems than
that!  I have spent the last 2 years workin in the text media ( mudding,
etc. ) and have become extremely sensitive to my communications' phrasings
and moods to try to keep that from happening.  One of the things that I've
noticed most is that you have to be _more_ cheerful typing that you would
normally via voice to maintain a "neutral" conversation.  For whatever
reason, it always seems to me at least that the emotional tones of
conversations seem to spiral down into misunderstandings or hurt feelings
if concious effort isn't made to keep that from happening.  But then again,
maybe I just have that affect on people!

Zoran, who thinks he's posting way too much on a list he's brand new to :)