[MUD-Dev] Trouble Makers or Regular Citizens

[Zak Jarvis]

> From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf =
Of
> Jon Lambert
> Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2000 10:34 PM
=20
> I've always thought that diversity is antithetical to community =
building.
> Strong communities form because of commonly held values.  The more=20
> diverse a community is the less commonly held values it has.  The less =


I could easily go off on any number of tangents about the semantics of =
Community, Value, Productivity and Diversity. One of my failings is an =
excessive tendency towards precise language, and in actively thwarting =
my tendency to do that, I might occasionally be less precise than I'd =
like. So if I tend to spiral off into word meanings, it's not =
necessarily anyone's fault but my own.  But I digress.

While I do believe the quoted argument can be made successfully, it =
strikes me that the utility of it is less in understanding the =
overarching social group of a MUD than understanding individual groups =
within it. I've seen very few places where people congregate in groups =
larger than 3 where more than one community didn't form.

Most functioning communities have specialized organs for specific tasks =
that face it and often those organs can be quite separate. Chimney =
sweeps, shamen, clothes washers, sociologists, game designers, =
fishermen, teachers, mummers, troubadours -- each often represents its =
own micro-community, yet is still linked to the larger community, which =
in turn is perhaps linked to a larger one still. The chain can become =
fascinatingly long and eventually encompass radically diverse groups.

As Ola pointed out, as a species, we're not fond of change, and =
diversity, change and the sense of 'other' are inextricably bound up =
together. The flipside of that, however, is that change has talismanic =
power over us and we have an innate interest -- regardless how =
sublimated -- in seeing change. We protect ourselves against it by =
making ourselves voyeurs to change. Disaster movies, car wrecks, Fox =
specials (sorry non-Americans, you're not missing much in that =
reference, trust me), they're all popular because they let us see =
choices, decisions or happenstance that we didn't take part in -- to =
vicariously experience them. Car wreck psychology has (I'm sure) been =
discussed elsewhere and no doubt a good deal more informatively and =
eloquently than I am now, but it's illustrative of a point I've been =
wending my way towards.

Very often, MUDs (and I use that in the broadest, most general sense) =
play host to vicarious entertainment. There is a fundamental crisis of =
structure, cohesion and social harmony because the environment is =
*virtual*. My sense is that trying ever harder to impose order is going =
to push the designer more and more towards the role of despot. Sure, =
he's a local folk-hero to this day, but history has painted Vlad Tepes =
as something of a monster, regardless of how effectively he governed his =
country. A better approach is to recognize, augment and direct the =
natural processes that happen in virtual environments.

Ehh. I've probably rambled well and truly enough for one night. =
Hopefully I got to what I meant to say.

-Zak Jarvis
 http://www.voidmonster.com




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