Oracle Layza's Tales from Fujitsu Habitat

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

http://www.communities.com/company/papers/layza.html 


           Oracle Layza's Tales

               from Fujitsu Habitat

            As lived by Tomoko Tsuchiya

               and re-told by F. Randall Farmer
                   Electric Communities

                     November 1990

Tomoko Tsuchiya AKA 'Oracle Layza' has collected these stories over
the past year. An Oracle is a system operator, an employee of Fujitsu
that acts as a liaison between the operators, programmers and the
participants in Habitat. Unlike the original 'Oracle' in U.S. Habitat,
she had no special 'powers' to create or destroy objects or events.
Fujitsu Habitat Oracles are a special breed, existing partially in a
fantasy world and the 'practical world'. As you'll see in her stories
below, it is a difficult line to walk.

Program Bugs and People Who Care

Habitat money is the 'token'. All of the tokens you are carrying are
represented as a single coin with a denomination that changes with
each transaction. The teleport booths charge 2 tokens for a ride. It
seems there was a bug in the host program. It allowed you to take a
ride with only 1 token. This caused the token carried to have a value
of negative one and because of the way computers work, -1 = 65535!
Yep! Use the teleport under certain conditions and you could produce
all the wealth you ever wanted!

This 'bug' was not reported right away. One night, a brash avatar
"Boowy", who was known for his pranks, bragged to Oracle Layza about
this bug. She didn't believe him so she contacted a few reliable
friends to confirm this bug. It was confirmed a short while later.
Layza scrambled to get the programmers to fix the bug. The bug was
repaired in a matter of hours, but the economic damage was another
problem. The programmers were unable to determine who had this
bug-created wealth and who were actually legitimately rich. The
Oracles were in a quandary.

The avatars (customers) were divided. Many thought that those who
exploited this bug had gained their wealth in an 'unfair' way. Others
saw the bug like winning the Lottery; They could now finance their own
events, open a business, or hust purchase the most valuable objects.
What should they do?

There was a decision made by the people: They would turn in their
tokens! They were under no compulsion by the Oracles or any other
Fujitsu Employee to do this. The money was collected by the Habitat
Police, and turned over to the Oracles. Over 250,000 tokens were
collected. The programmers redistributed the returned cash to everyone
and that amounted to about 200 tokens per person.

I don't think this would have worked out quite the same way in Club
Caribe. A voluntary redistribution of wealth is a foreign concept in
America[1].

When you wish upon a star...

'TANABATA' is a Japanese Star Festival. To celebrate, the operators
held a Haiku poetry contest. The theme of the poem was to be a 'Wish
Upon a Star'. There were over 50 entries (out of a potential customer
base of only 1000) and five winners. The prize was the granting of the
wishes from the winning poems. A tombstone, a Budda statue, A racoon
and a giant dinosaur egg. This giant egg is 1/2 the size of the
screen, and several times larger than an avatar! 

What is so interesting about these prizes is what the winners did with
them. Since these objects were one-of-a-kinds, they had real value as
collectors items. The winners had special parties at their turfs
(private Habitat homes) to show them off. They used them for
hide-and-seek. But the most special thing to happen was that the owner
of the giant egg decided to give it to a close friend, and that person
gave it to another... and that person to another... The egg now is a
legendary status symbol. "Have you carried the Giant Egg?"[2].

The Side Effects of Women in Habitat
Politics...

MICKEY and JULIE had a big Habitat wedding last spring. They were very
happy.

In October, when JULIE decided she would run for mayor of her Habitat
village, MICKEY instantly requested a divorce because "I don't want a
wife more popular than I am! I don't want to be Mr. JULIE, I want her
to be Mrs. MICKEY!". JULIE refused, she wanted to stay married to
MICKEY.

The elections were in early November and JULIE won. MICKEY is
frustrated, and the latest rumor is that MICKEY will remarry even if
Mayor JULIE doesn't give him a divorce!

It seems that traditional roles are not necessarily the same in
Habitat as in the real world, even if some would like! Men watch out!
(smile!)

The Performing Arts

There is quite a bit of theater going on in Habitat. (Tomoko has a
background in dinner theater I am told). The known groups as of now
(2000 customer base) are The N-PA New Comedies Group, the Red Shirt
Troop, and The Candies (an all girl band). There is enough competition
between these groups that the First Academy Awards were held in
November!

One of the nominated productions is named "A Head-Thief Comes to
Town", and performances of this play have been attended by as many as
50 at the one time!

The Red Shirt Troop all dress exactly the same, from head to toe. They
run around screaming "KEKEKE" and perform a synchronized parade
through downtown Populopolis. It started as a 2 man troop, and after
10 days the ranks swelled to 29! If you are ever on around town at
10:30pm, head down to the the parade starting point: Gallery J and
check it out. This group was organized by, and run solely by the
avatars[3].

The YAKUZA

I saved the best story for last.

The YAKUZA are Japanese gangs. Fujitsu Habitat has YAKUZA[4]. The
largest this week is the IZUMI Family. Current IZUMI membership is
around 30. It is even rumored that the Prime Minister of Habitat is a
secret member of a Family! These YAKUZA are formed and run 100% by the
customers and receive no special support from Fujitsu or the Oracles.
They are turning a tidy profit by running gambling casinos, and
selling 'H-memos'.

H-memos are erotic stories and other 'dirty' publications. They sell
for a hefty 50 tokens each! As of November hundreds have been sold!

The 'Casinos' are are run in a very strange way. There is a type of
magic wand that will inflict the victim with a disgusting curse: Every
time he tries to 'talk' what comes out is one of 10 randomly selected
phases of the type "Have a nice day"[5], "Oh gosh!", and "I seem to be
having problems expressing myself.". The curse is meant as a way to
make your friends look silly, but the YAKUZA see it as a random number
generator, like spinning a ten pocket roulette wheel. One of the
members gets zapped with this magic wand and each person bets on what
the 'wheel' will say next! Of course, you can probably see how such a
contest can be 'rigged', if the 'wheel' is very very careful, and
types very carefully!

Conclusions:

The similarities in these stories and the American versions are
striking:

1) People forming spontaneous social groups including 'Gangs' and
'Police'.

2) Early attempts at self-government 'Mayors' and 'Sheriffs'.

3) The most popular group activities being based on customer-created
team events.

4) Gender and role confusion with some wanting the status quo, and
others wanting change.

And the differences are just as interesting:

1) Gangs as thugs vs. Gangs as business.

2) Individual profit vs. Voluntary redistribution of accidental wealth

3) Completely different languages and cultures.

One can't help but wonder what will happen when Habitat or some other
Cyberspace like it is truly international. So many similarities, but
differences that technology alone may not be able to bridge. I can't
wait to visit!



[1] See the story about The Great Token Scam in my other Habitat
Anecdotes and The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat.

[2] This is much like the original Habitat's Tome of Wealth and Fame
see 'Habitat Anecdotes'

[3] This is much like 'The Wave' competitions that take place in Club
Caribe.

[4] Club Caribe has its own gang, the Club Caribe Mafia, but instead
of running it like a business, the 'Mafia' were more like thugs,
existing mostly as a loose collection of thieves. 

[5] Read more about the original "Have a nice day" curse in 'Habitat
Anecdotes'.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...