----------------------------------------------------------- CULTURAL FORMATIONS IN TEXT-BASED VIRTUAL REALITIES -----------------------------------------------------------                           By                     ELIZABETH REID                    emr@ee.mu.oz.au                    emr@rmit.edu.au                   A thesis submitted           in fulfillment of the requirements            for the degree of Master of Arts                Cultural Studies Program                 Department of English                University of Melbourne                      January 1994Copyright (C) 1994 by Elizabeth Reid, all rights reserved.  This textmay be freely redistributed among individuals in any medium so long asit remains unedited and appears with this notice.  Any commercial useor republication requires the written permission of the author.     --------     ABSTRACT     --------Beginning with an understanding of virtual reality as an imaginativeexperience and thus a cultural construct rather than a technicalconstruction, this thesis discusses cultural and social issues raisedby interaction on 'MUDs', which are text-based virtual realitysystems run on the international computer network known as theInternet.  MUD usage forces users to deconstruct many of the culturaltools and understandings that form the basis of more conventionalsystems of interaction.  Unable to rely on physical cues as a channelof meaning, users of MUDs have developed ways of substituting for orby-passing them, resulting in novel methods of textualising the non-verbal.  The nature of the body and sexuality are problematised inthese virtual environments, since the physical is never fixed andgender is a self-selected attribute.  In coming to terms with theseaspects of virtual interaction, new systems of significance have beendeveloped by users, along with methods of enforcing that culturalhegemony through power structures dependant upon manipulation of thevirtual environment.  These new systems of meaning and social controldefine those who use MUDs as constituting a distinct cultural group.     ---------------     ACKNOWLEDGMENTS     ---------------First and foremost, my thanks go to Chris Healy, my supervisor, forhis support, encouragement and advice, all of which have beeninvaluable.  Secondly, I would like to thank the English Departmentfor sponsoring my use of the University of Melbourne's computing andnetwork facilities, which enabled me to undertake this research.  Iwould also like to thank Richard Oxbrow of the Department ofElectrical and Electronic Engineering for allowing me to use thecomputing facilities of that department, and Lochard EnvironmentSystems Pty. Ltd. for providing the printer used to produce the finalversion of this thesis.  To Pavel Curtis and Kerstin Carosone go mythanks for help with proof-reading and 'beta-testing', and to DanielCarosone goes my especial thanks for emotional, technical and culinarysupport.  Lastly, I should like thank all the people who have madethis thesis possible by allowing me to join them in their virtual playand especially for allowing me to quote from examples of this play andfrom their reflections upon it.     -------     PREFACE     -------Parts of this thesis have been published in "Electronic Chat:Communication and Community on Internet Relay Chat" in _Media__Information_Australia_ No. 67 (February 1993) 61-70.  The previouslypublished excerpts are spread throughout this thesis, and amount intotal to approximately 2000 words.     --------     CONTENTS     --------Introduction: Virtual Reality--Imagined SpaceBackground: A History of Interactive and Networked Computing and theEvolution of MUDs     Interactive Computing     Networked Computing     Interactive Networking     MUDs: Networked, Interactive Virtual RealitiesChapter One: Communication and Cultural Context     Making Sense of the World     Making Sense of Each Other     Disinhibition and Social ExperienceChapter Two: Power, Social Structure and Social Cohesion     Hierarchies of Power on MUDs     Adventure MUDs: Survival of the Fittest     Social MUDs: Cooperative Appreciation     Social Cohesion on MUDsChapter Three: Identity and the Cyborg Body     Self-Made People     Ungrounding Gender     Cyborg Sexuality     The Cyborg SelfConclusion: Cultural Formations in Text-Based Virtual RealitiesBibliographyAppendices     Appendix One: The Vanishing Room     Appendix Two: The Double Bluff     Appendix Three: The First Case of Cross-Gendered MUD Playing     Appendix Four: The Evolution of Communication     ... Amongst Players     ... and Wizards     Appendix Five: The Expression of Feelings on 'Nemesis'     Appendix Six: The LambdaMOO Player Survey     Appendix Seven: Character Generation...     ...Complex     ...Or Simple     --------------------------------------------     INTRODUCTION: VIRTUAL REALITY--IMAGINED SPACE     --------------------------------------------     Cyberspace.... A graphic representation of data     abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human     system.  Unthinkable complexity.  Lines of light ranged     in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations     of data.  Like city lights, receding...[1]     Virtual Reality, or "cyberspace"... takes alternate     reality a step further [beyond books and movies] by     introducing a computer as mediator, or imagination     enhancer.[2]     Cyberspace: A new universe, a parallel universe created     and sustained by the world's computers and communication     lines... a new stage, a new and irresistible development     in the elaboration of human culture and business under     the sign of technology.[3]Since William Gibson coined the term in his best-selling novelNeuromancer, cyberspace' and virtual reality have been part of latetwentieth century culture, and have been infused with a variety ofcultural and emotional meanings.  Gibson himself envisaged a directneural connection between humans and computers against a background ofurban decay and personal alienation.  The film The Lawnmower Mandepicted a meld of mind-altering drugs and computer-controlled sensorystimulation which offered a new stage for the evolution of mankind,either toward godlike wisdom or satanic evil.  The popular media haveposed cyberspace as the new frontier and the new promise of thetwentieth century.  Gibson's 'console cowboys'--virtuoso cyberspaceusers hacking at the edges of the law--have been incarnated in mediacoverage of groups such as the infamous 'Legion of Doom'.  Arcadegames incorporating datagloves and headsets have become the latest fadin entertainment.  Business Week filled its October 5 '92 issue withspecial features introducing virtual reality technologies andapplications to its readers.  Clifford Stoll's best-seller_The_Cuckoo's_Egg_ promoted cyberspace as the site of new levels ofinternational espionage, betrayal and tyranny, inhabited by glamorousforeign spies and dedicated heroes.Technically speaking, the term 'virtual reality' is most commonlyused to refer to systems that offer users visual, auditory and tactileinformation about an environment which exists as data in a computersystem rather than as physical objects and locations.  This is thevirtual reality depicted in "The Lawnmower Man" and approximatedby the 'Virtuality' arcade games marketed by Horizon Entertainment.This thesis is not about these kinds of virtual reality.  I do notwish to talk about cyberspace or virtual reality as technologicalconstructions but as cultural constructs.  In common with HowardRheingold I do not see virtual reality as a set of technologies, butas an experience.[4]  More than that, I believe that it is primarilyan imaginative rather than a sensory experience.  I wish to shift thefocus of attention away from the gadgets used to represent a virtualworld, and concentrate on the nature of the user's experience of suchworlds.  I contend that technical definitions of VR beg the questionof what it is about such systems that sustains the illusion of realityin the mind of the user.  A list of technical components does notexplain why it is that users are prepared to accept a simulated worldas a valid site for emotional and social response.The systems that I will describe in examining virtual reality as acultural environment are technically simple.  I have chosen to referto a family of computer programs known as MUDs.  MUDs are networked,multi-participant, user-extensible systems which are most commonlyfound on the Internet, the international network that connects manythousands of educational, research and commercial institutions.  Usinga MUD does not require any of the paraphernalia commonly associatedwith virtual reality.  There is no special hardware to sense theposition and orientation of the user's real-world body, and nospecial clothes allowing users to see the virtual world throughgoggles and touch it through 'datagloves'.  The MUD interface isentirely textual; all commands are typed in by the user and allfeedback is displayed as text on a monitor.  A simple PC can act as agateway into this kind of virtual world.Instead of using sophisticated tools to see, touch and hear thevirtual environment, users of MUD systems are presented with textualdescriptions of virtual locations.  Technically, a MUD softwareprogram consists of a database of  'rooms', 'exits', and otherobjects.  The program accepts connections from users on a computernetwork, and provides each user with access to that database.  AsPavel Curtis describes, users are presented with textual informationdescribing them as being situated in an artificially constructed placewhich also contains those other participants who are connected to theMUD program.[5]  There are many hundreds of MUD programs running onthe Internet, each with its own unique database of descriptions oflocalities and objects.  Within each of these systems users caninteract with each other and with the virtual environment which theMUD presents to them.As Curtis has commented, the virtual worlds within MUD systems havemany of the social attributes of physical places, and many of theusual social mechanisms apply.[6]  Users treat the worlds depicted byMUD programs as if they were real.  However, it is not thetechnological interface itself that sustains the willingness of usersto treat this simulated environment as if it were real.  Rather it isthe degree to which MUDs act not only as a tool for the expression ofeach user's imagination, but mediate between the users' imaginationand their communication to others of what they have imagined.Cyberspace--the realm of electronic impulses and high-speed datahighways where MUDs exist--may be a technological artefact, butvirtual reality is a construct within the mind of a human being.Within this construct a  representation of a person can be manipulatedwithin a representation of a real or imagined environment, both ofwhich can be manifested through the use of various technologies,