[MUD-Dev] Teaching ethics in MUDs (was Re: "An essay on d00dism and the MMORPG")

[Tess Lowe]

John Buehler wrote:

> Having children play these games is inherently dangerous.  The games
> cause children to adopt the mantle of adulthood before they are
> adults.

[snip]

> Only those families that are actively sheltering their children will
> have any hope of letting their children slowly develop the traits
> that our society at large does not foster.  Popular society is
> dominated by merchandising, which is based in marketing, which is
> controlled by a need to get people to buy stuff.

[snip]

> In short, we shouldn't be using games like these to present moral
> dilemmas to children.  It is far too caustic a mechanism.

John,

This is a fascinating subject and one that I've been putting a lot of
thought into lately, not least because my closest friend is writing
her MA thesis on methods and motivations for ethical 'training',
looking particularly at how ethical development can occur in online
environments, communities and worlds.

I've also had a personal experience of my own ethical/spiritual growth
while playing online games. For example, my experience of playing Dark
Ages had a radical effect on my worldview. I learned the perils and
deep frustrations of struggling to change everyone in the world, and I
learned the pain associated with being judgemental and
self-righteous. I underwent a value-shift as a result of playing. I
consider this to have been a vitally important component of my
personal development.

Usually a small shift in the values that one holds to be important is
sufficient to begin a long period of self-change. As many wise people
have noted, we naturally and without effort develop towards whatever
we place our attention on, or ask questions about. In other words, we
dont need to be constantly lectured by online worlds in order to learn
new ways of relating to other people. All communities cause their
members to change. Complex Systems (which is what online worlds are)
evolve and create disequilibrium for the participants who, after
struggling to change everyone and everything else, must eventually
realise that the only way to resolve the disequilibrium they feel is
to change themselves.

My conclusion from this is that online environments can in fact be a
potent force for ethical development, without any particular
value-system being pushed at (or forced on) the participants.

Now, the question becomes "Can online worlds still encourage positive
ethical development if the participants are mostly emotionally and
psychologically immature people, such as children?" Now, I remember
the horror of my schooldays all too clearly. I remember the cruelty of
the schoolyard 'complex system' as it taught me to conform to its
norms. This is not something I would wish on anyone. And yet, this is
the sort of environment that many online worlds resemble. There is
bullying, egotism, selfishness and cruelty a-plenty.

So I can well understand your desire, John, to protect children from
that suffering, long enough so that they can develop some sort of
psychological strength to cope with it. Is it possible to learn such
wisdom without enduring the very pain we seek to be able to cope with?

I feel that MUD social environments differ from their playground
equivalents in some striking ways. Most importantly, there is a much
wider range of emotional maturity present among MUD players. Bullies
will often encounter people who are more than capable of turning the
situation on its head, showing the bully that their way of relating
doesn't always 'win' and can in fact lead to painful humiliation. And
those who tend to be victims have mentors around who can experience
the 'playground' with them, and teach better ways to deal with or
avoid conflicts.

I also tend to feel that the relative 'unreality' of the internet
experience means that the pain people endure can be more easily left
behind and forgotten than the experiences of 'real life'. The lessons
one learns, however, stick around, and are as useful outside the
virtual world as inside it.

Added to this is the exaggerated intensity of online communities. All
interactions seem more powerful, more meaningful, more intense. The
disequilibrium between one's own behaviour and the expectations
(whether good or bad) of the community develops far quicker online -
and self-awareness and self-change develop much more quickly too.

Like you, John, I find it distressing and heartbreaking that our
real-life society forces children to be adults so quickly, focussing
education on the skills needed to be a consumer and wage-slave. Where
I differ from you is that I feel that in the absence of a wise,
harmonious and compassionate world from which to learn powerful and
empathic ways to deal with egotism, aggression and oppression, MUDs
and other online worlds are actually not at all bad at helping people
become more psychologically mature. We certainly dont need to use MUDs
to *teach* ethics, because the very nature of an online world is that
of a complex system which creates feedback loops to spontaneously
develop and evolve itself. Wisdom self-organises. Eventually.

> Also, whose morality do we present?  Buddha's?  Christ's?
> Mohammed's?  America's?  Mine?  Yours?

Well, quite.

regards,
~Tess


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