LambdaMOO

Massive Multi-player Online (MMO) games that have drastically changed the scope of the gaming culture. Online gaming was developed from forums and college mainframes. These original games were called MUDs, and they evolved to provide a competitive environment but limited users geographically. Over time with the use of the Internet MMOs were established from the same concept. MMOs broke the barrier of geographic location and had gamers from all over the world play together and develop their own virtual community. Like any community people develop their own culture over time. This concept stands true with the gaming world.

I thought that it would be best to start my journey into MMOs, by starting with something simple. I started with LambdaMOO, I was first introduced to the game by our discussions in class about the article "A Rape in Cyberspace. LambdaMOO is a text-based game that is considered a MOO. MOO stands for MUD, Object Oriented. MUD games are interactive text-based games, MOOs are the same but with the ability to program or create interactive objects.

After reading Dibbel's article I was nervous about what the environment and the people that I was going to interact with, was going to be like. After the first couple of days, I noticed that the population of people in the world was never anything beyond 60-70 people. Because I was using a guest log in, I would have to start from the beginning every time I would play, making it more difficult to find people. Over sometime I would find someone, I found that everyone was very cordial and willing to talk. I found their willingness to talk was primarily because the game is entirely text based. Also I found that they were very relax and wanting to have conversations.

I noticed that the few times that I would try to act out and see what the peoples reactions were. I would almost always find that I would either be ignored or at times asked to keep it affable. Everyone seemed to be casual gamers, they play from time to time. But use the LambdaMOO more to socialize and read.

A Rape in Cyberspace