"Advanced" use of virtual worlds? (Re: [MUD-Dev] MMORPGs & MUDs)

[Jon Lambert]

Matt Mihaly wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Feb 2002, Travis Casey wrote:
 
>> Of course, we can go to this level with any ideas.  Do horses
>> exist?  I have a specific idea in mind when I talk about a
>> "horse", which is not exactly the same as your idea of a "horse".
>> We can argue, then, that there is no such thing as a horses.
 
[snip]

> I'm actually going to bow out of this real vs. virtual discussion
> now, mainly because (and I mean no offence to anyone) there
> doesn't appear to be enough people with sufficient
> ontological/epistemelogical backgrounds on the list to make it a
> discussion as opposed to a lecture. Sorry if that seems like a
> cop-out, but I feel (again, NO offence meant) like JC trying to
> discuss coding with, say, me. I don't have the background
> knowledge to contribute usefully to a productive discussion on
> coding.

Thank God.  Maybe we can discuss roleplaying now, and other
practical and substantial things like dragons even, instead of this
nonsense about how many player's characters can fit on the head of a
pin.  Now at first I was rather dubious about the thread title, and
you had almost convinced me by sheer force of superior intellect
that role-playing itself did not really exist.  I think it's rather
obvious now that these role-players must surely be participating in
a truly advanced and complex form of game play or ritual.  This is a
very strange game where your average human (who in all likelyhood
gibbers, drools, thinks plato is silly putty, and has vermin and
dirt behind his ears), being almost totally oblivious to the
ontological and epistimelogical consequences, and relying on nothing
more than blind faith, constructs elaborate belief systems and
worlds predicated on the existence of non-existent beings.  Beliefs
that are on the best of occasions (according to role-players) so
convincingly real that they actually feel emotion and lose
themselves in the connection to the trials and tribulations of these
non-existent beings.  It's awesome methinks.  They make Descartes
look like an unimaginative munchkin unable to do much character
development beyond a boring brain in a vat.  It's too bad really.
If he was able to grok role-playing he could have been soaring on
the backs of dragons instead.

--
--* Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD        Email:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com *--
--* Mud Server Developer's Page <http://tychomud.home.netcom.com> *--
--* If I had known it was harmless, I would have killed it myself.*--
 
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