[MUD-Dev] Otherland

[Steve {Bloo} Daniels]

Richard A. Bartle wrote:

> In other words, he did indeed mean it.
 
> As my daughter said when I told her this, "cool!".
 
> Isn't it nice when the real world has something positive to say
> about virtual worlds, instead of making them out to be
> suicide-inducing havens of bad porn and devil worship?

Hehe.  You said "Real World".  They still shelve Williams in the
Sci-Fi and Fantasy sections with good reason.

Also, the series has quite a lot of bad things to say about virtual
worlds and losing yourself in one (or several as the case may be).
Particularly that they can be very dangerous, even fatal.

I think a person not familiar with virtual worlds and role-playing
could more easily draw the conclusion that these are bad things,
rather than good things, from his novels (assuming they can stay
interested past the first few hundred pages).

The entire Otherland series closely parallels a two-book series from
the late 80s/early 90s, whose name escapes me at the moment.
Perhaps someone on the list will recall.  Virtual World engineer,
and fantasy mud creator has to enter his world to rescue someone
else who is trapped.  The previously non-sentient AI has made the
leap to sentience, but has split into an Id, Ego and Superego
personas.  The protagonist reclaims his "Wand of Xagyg", which is
behind glass that says "Open only for Emergencies".  He cuts deals
with Orcus.  Its better than it might sound from that, but I don't
want to give anything away.

The more I recall about it, the closer it is to William's story.
Guess I'm headed up to the attic.

-bloo



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