killing each other.  Instead of being given access to commands such as'kill', TinyMUD players were encouraged to centre their play aroundcommunication and world creation.  Although none of the features ofTinyMUD were new to the growing MUD genre, it was the first system tocombine them in a fashion that stressed cooperation and interactionrather than competition and mastery.>From 1990 onward the number of MUD programs in circulation increasedrapidly.  There are, among others, COOLMUDs, ColdMUDs, DikuMUDs, DUMs,LP-MUDs, MAGEs, MOOs, MUCKs, MUSEs, MUSHes, TeenyMUDs, TinyMUDs,UberMUDs, UnterMUDs, UriMUDs and YAMUDs (the latter being an acronymfor 'yet another MUD').  Each program offers its own technicaladvantages and disadvantages, such as the amount of computer hard diskspace or memory needed to run the program.  The environments portrayedon MUDs have become far more varied.  The Tolkienesque fantasy worldsare still the most common, closely followed by science fiction worlds,but MUD environments based on actual or historical places--such asMoscow, the ante-bellum South, the Wild West, the prehistoric era, ora medieval village--have appeared.  The meaning of the term 'MUD'has changed to reflect this.  The original acronym 'Multi-UserDungeon' has been joined by 'Multi-User Dimension' and 'Multi-UserDomain', and the term has come to refer not to the original programwritten by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw but to the entire programgenre.[12]  Many of today's MUD systems are not games, but are beingused for academic purposes.  The first of these academic systems wasMediaMOO, run by Amy Bruckman of the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, which provides a virtual meeting place for students andacademics working in the area of media and communications.  Severalmore such systems have followed in MediaMOO's steps, includingPMCMOO, which serves literary and cultural theorists, and BioMOO,which serves biologists.[13]  These systems use the virtualenvironments created by MUD programs to collapse the distances betweenacademics from around the world, and to provide materials such ascourse outlines, papers and conference information in an easilyaccessed form.Nevertheless, the majority of MUD systems run on the Internet areintended to be used for social or entertainment purposes, and it isthese systems with which I am concerned.  These MUDs tend to fall intoone of two categories, commonly referred to by MUD players as'adventure' and 'social' MUDs.  The first category--the adventure-style MUDs--refers to MUD programs that descended directly from Bartleand Trubshaw's MUD; the second--the social MUDs--refers to systemsthat were inspired by TinyMUD.  Whether a particular MUD programbelongs in either category is dependant not purely on any technicalconsiderations of its programming or implementation, but on the styleof play which it encourages.On adventure-style MUDs, such as those based on the LPMUD and DikuMUDprograms, there exists a strict hierarchy of privileges.  The personwith the most control over the system is the one running the MUDprogram.  He, or she, has access to every computer file in theprogram, and can modify any of them.  This person is commonly known asthe God of the MUD, and he or she has complete control over theelements of the virtual world.  Gods may create or destroy virtualareas and objects, and destroy or protect players' characters.  Theplayers, on the other hand, have very little control over the system.They cannot cannot build new objects or areas, and have no power overthose that already exist.  They can only interact with the MUDenvironment.  They can kill monsters, collect treasure and solvepuzzles, and communicate with one another.  By doing these thingsplayers on adventure MUDs gain points, and once a player has a certainnumber of points they gain certain privileges.  Once a player hascollected enough points he or she may be elevated to the rank ofWizard.[14]  Wizards do not have the complete degree of control whichis available to the God of the MUD.  They cannot alter the MUDsoftware itself, but they do have the ability to create and controlobjects and places within the MUD universe.Social MUDs, many of which are based on the MUSH or MUCK software, arenot so evidently hierarchical.  Early versions of Bartle andTrubshaw's MUD allowed players to add items and rooms to the gamedatabase, an idea that was incorporated into the TinyMUD program.This feature is common to all social MUDs.  While social MUDs haveGods as do adventure MUDs, who control the actual software, andWizards who have privileged powers, these powers in the game universeare not unique in kind but only in degree.  Players do not have tofight to gain points and levels before they can build simple objectsand create new areas of the game universe.  Novice players on a socialMUD are able to do these things.  They do not have access to theactual computer files of the game program, but they have access to alibrary of commands that allow them to create and describe objects andareas, and make them behave in certain ways in response to input fromother players.  The rank of Wizard is not dependant upon gainingpoints, and elevation to this rank is at the discretion of the Gods.Players of these MUDs are, as were the original players of TinyMUD,encouraged to interact with and extend the virtual environment ratherthan compete within it.In this thesis I have chosen to concentrate on four MUDs representingfour different environments and the two different styles of MUD,although I shall refer briefly to other systems.  These four MUDs areknown as LambdaMOO, FurryMUCK, Revenge of the End of the Line andJennyMUSH.[15]  The first is a social-style MUD, set in a ramblingmansion.  The second, also a social MUD, involves players in a worldin which each individual adopts the persona of an anthropomorphisedanimal.  Revenge of the End of the Line (or EOTL as its players referto it) is an adventure-style MUD, and JennyMUSH is a social MUD usedas a virtual support centre by survivors of sexual assault.  I havechosen to concentrate on these MUDs because each lends itself to adiscussion of virtual reality from a different perspective.LambdaMOO, which of the three most nearly attempts to recreate realityinside virtuality--the core of the LambdaMOO mansion is a virtualrecreation of the God's actual home--provides an insight into changedcommunicative and cultural practices.  EOTL, with its competitive andhierarchical structures, shows the evolution of power and socialcontrol in cyberspatial environments, as does a painful episode onJennyMUSH.  FurryMUCK, with its emphasis on anthropomorphic characterslends itself to an exploration of the fate of the human body and humanidentity inside virtual realities.---FOOTNOTES TO BACKGROUND---[1]  The story presented in this chapter is based, unless otherwise     noted, on information contained in Tracey L. Laquey, _The_User's_     _Directory_of_Computer_Networks_ (Massachusetts: Digital Press,     1990), Steven Levy, _Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution_     (New York: Dell, 1984), and Timothy Trainor and Diane Krasnewich,     _Computers!_ (New York: Mitchell, 1989), as well as on anecdotes     related to me by some of the 'hackers' in the Computer Science     Department and Electrical Engineering Faculty at Melbourne     University.  This history is by no means perfect--many of my     sources, and the memories of the people who lived through these     times, contradict each other.  In writing this section I have     tried to reconcile these differences and produce a narrative that     accounts as far as possible for the differences amongst my     sources.[2]  The Tech Model Railroad Club featured heavily in Levy,     particularly in Chapter One.[3]  The invention of Spacewar is detailed in Chapter Three of Levy.[4]  This history of computer networking and the Internet is based on:     Philip Leverton and Ross Millward, _Technical_note_82:_Using_     _the_UNIX_ _Mail_System_ (Melbourne: Melbourne University     Computing Services, 1989); a USENET article on the history of     UNIX written by Pierre Lewis (Newsgroup: comp.unix.questions,     Subject: A very brief look at Unix history, From: "Pierre (P.)     Lewis" <lew@bnr.ca> Date: Fri Jan  8 14:56:22 EST 1993); "The     Strange History of the Internet," an article by Bruce Sterling     published in the _!mindgun_ 'zine produced by the Society for     Digital Redistribution (originally published in the February 1993     issue of _The_Magazine_of_Fantasy_and_Science_Fiction_); and     information in the works by Laquey and Levy detailed above.[5]  This paragraph is based on information contained in Sterling.[6]  Information on the early development of USENET has been taken     from articles by Gene Spafford and Brian Reid which are regularly     posted to the USENET group news.answers.[7]  My sources for this history include first-hand accounts related     to me in electronic mail by Richard Bartle, Alan Klietz, Alan     Cox, Jim Aspnes and Jim Finnis, information included in Levy     (especially Chapters Three and Seven), user documentation     included with the AberMUD, TinyMUD and LPMUD programs, and     postings made to the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.mud in response     to a query from Amy Bruckman.[8]  Levy, 141.[9]  See Levy, 138-144 for more details on the invention of Adventure.[10] This anecdote has been taken from a USENET article with the     following headers: From: alberti@mudhoney.micro.umn.edu     (Albatross); Newsgroups: rec.games.mud; Subject: Re: history: VMS     Monster, Sceptre of Goth; Date: 23 Mar 92 22:01:55 GMT.[11] The operating system under which DUNGEN ran only allowed     filenames to be a maximum of six letters long, thus the     particular spelling of the name.[12] Some would insist that MUD has come to stand for Multi     Undergraduate Destroyer, in recognition of the number of students     who may have failed their classes due to too much time spent     MUDding.[13] PMCMOO is an off-shoot of the electronic journal _Postmodern_     _Culture_.[14] The titles given to those who run and administrate the MUD vary     from system to system. Since they are by far the most commonly     used of all titles, I have chosen to use the term 'God' to refer     to the person running the MUD program, and 'Wizard' to refer to     those players who have been given administrative powers by the     God.[15] These MUDs may be connected to from any computer on the Internet     by using the 'telnet' command or program.  The Internet address     for LambdaMOO is lambda.parc.xerox.com (or 192.216.54.2) and the     port number is 8888.  The address for FurryMUCK is sncils.snc.edu     (138.74.0.10), port number 8888.  Revenge of the End of the Line     can be found at mud.stanford.edu (36.21.0.99), port 2010.     JennyMUSH's administrator has asked me to withhold information on     how to connect to that MUD.     -----------------------------------------------     CHAPTER ONE: COMMUNICATION AND CULTURAL CONTEXT     -----------------------------------------------For words to have a shared meaning they must be given a context.Stripped of the historical, environmental and social contexts in whichthey have evolved and in which they are used, words have littlemeaning.  It is context that creates meaning and allows us to act.The information on which we decide which aspects of our systems ofsocial conduct are appropriate to our circumstances lie in culturalcontexts rather than in the shape and sound of words alone.  Ininteracting with other people, we rely on non-verbal information todelineate a context for our own contributions.  "Being cultured,"says Greg Dening, "we are experts in our semiotics... we read signand symbol [and] codify a thousand words in a gesture".[1]  We donot need to be told that we are at a wedding, and should be quietduring the ceremony, in order to enact the code of etiquette that ourculture reserves for such an occasion.  Words alone do not express ordefine the full extent of our cultural and interpersonal play.  Thegreater part of our interaction is expressed through signs andsymbols--in tone and nuance, in styles of dress and handwriting, inpostures and facial expressions, in appeals to rules and traditions.The words themselves tell only half the story--it is theirpresentation that completes the picture.Human communication is never merely a matter of words, much less so ishuman culture.  This is something that we all take for granted--yetthe virtual environments that are the subject of this study are aproduct of words, of pure text.  Because of this, these virtual placessubvert many of our assumptions about the practice of interactivecommunication.  MUD players are unable to rely on conventions ofgesture and nuances of tone to make sense of one another.Nevertheless, despite the absence of these familiar channels ofinterpersonal meaning, players do not fail to make sense of eachother.  On the contrary, MUD environments are extremely culturallyrich, and communication between MUD players is often highlyemotionally charged.  Although they cannot see, hear or touch oneanother, MUD players have developed ways to convey shades ofexpression that would usually be transmitted through these senses.Their means of expression are severely limited by the technology onwhich MUDs are based, but instead of allowing that to restrict thecontent of their communication they have devised methods ofincorporating socio-emotional context cues into pure text.  They usetext, seemingly such a restrictive medium, to make up for what theylack in physical presence.  On MUDs, social presence is divorced fromphysical presence, a phenomenon that refutes many of the assumptionsthat have in the past been made about the ideal richness of face-to-face interaction.  On MUDs, text replaces gesture, and even becomes