[MUD-Dev] Re: WIRED: Kilers have more fun

[Mike Sellers]

At 12:58 AM 7/8/98 +00-05, Jon A. Lambert wrote:
>On 29 Jun 98, Koster, Raph wrote:
>> > From:	Mike Sellers [SMTP:mike at bignetwork.com]
>> >  The topic of wholly created societies
>> > does not exist in the literature in any form that speaks to online
>> > communities (beyond the level of the likes of Howard Rheingold and
>> > Sherry
>> > Turkle, which doesn't take us very far).  Given that, it's not
>> > surprising
>> > that a bunch of (here I go again) young white mostly-unmarried male
>> > suburbanite refugee designers haven't been able to do it either.
>
>The youth argument is rational and understandable and as a=20
>consequence of youth those that are married would be less common. =20
>
>I can't quite grasp the logic that being white and male would be
>disadvantageous to creating online societies.  Are you postulating=20
>that black females will have more success at creating online=20
>societies?  =20

Well, there have been days when I would have killed for a designer who was
a thoughful, creative, gregarious, well-travelled woman in her 30s or 40s
from something other than a dominant white culture, and preferably one with
a couple of teen-agers at home. :-)  The point is that overall, many (too
many -- I consider this list something of a happy exception) designers draw
from a pretty narrow base of life experience.  This clearly shows up in the
kinds of worlds they create, the kinds of fiction, character, setting,
plot, and theme they consider, the maturity of their resolution, their
understanding of structure and catharsis, and in particular their
understanding of and desire to control others' actions.  FWIW, this is a
major beef I have with the computer game industry as a whole; I'm not sure
I can remember seeing a single non-white, non-Asian person at CGDC, for
example. =20

>> I think we have to share the blame. For that matter, I don't consider it
>> "blame" as such as a plain old recognition of facts. I do not think the
>> average Internet gamer who plays a mud is ready for self-governance. I
>> also do not think the average real world citizen is fully engaged with
>> their local community or participates in THEIR governance either. Did
>> you vote in your last local election? I didn't, and thus I am pointing a
>> finger at myself as well.  I am not saying that I have all the answers.
>
>How do you both define self-governance on muds?
>The absence of administration interference?  Or something else?

Something else. :-)  Ultimately, I believe self-governance will (in some
games, not all) encompass everything that is "in game".  I don't think this
needs to extend to keeping the servers running, though there is an
interesting argument to be made for that.  But everything within "the
holodeck walls" you might say, everything "real" in the virtual world,
should be governable by the individuals inhabiting it.  This puts me on the
edge of a lengthy essay that I don't have the time to write... maybe
someone else will pick up the ball.=20


--

Mike Sellers=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 Chief Creative Officer=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 The=
 Big Network
mike at bignetwork.com=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0
<http://www.bignetwork.com/>http://www.bignetwork.com

             =A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 Fun=A0=A0 Is=A0=A0 Good =20