Stepping out of the MUD

Ass Hat

Not long ago I listened to an interview with Dr. Richard Bartle as the guest. He spoke of when he and Roy Trubshaw created MUD, the multiuser text based game that was to serve as one of the bases of all that would come later in the world of MMOs.  Dr. Bartle spoke of how he “saw the power” in what they had created. What stood out to me the most where the following words:

 “We had a way to make places where people could go and become themselves. For me it was always a thing about freedom. I always wanted people to be able to be free to be themselves.” – Dr.Richard Bartle on the creation of MUD

The monkey wrench that we have all, as gamers, thrown into this particular utopia is a little thing called a global village.  It is a concept engendered by author Marshal McLuhan describing how the world has become small village, brought about by electronic media, facilitated by the instantaneous movement of  information about the globe. Now consider that he made the concept popular back in 1962, long before the internet, and you have a man who was a bit of a prophet.  Yet, as with any case where you bring people in to close proximity to one another for any length of time, even if it is virtually, you will end up with a classic case of “familiarity breeds contempt.”  Add in the perceived anonymity of the internet (and here I say perceived because much of our lives is on the internet) and you have a situation where that contempt will come much sooner than it normally would have. We have stepped out of the mud and simply “stepped in it”.

Enter the “asshats.”

If Diogenes’ “Hermit” was looking for an American retailer that enforced the ESRB rating instead of an honest man, he would still be looking. In an era when the internet has replaced the television as an “electronic babysitter” the age restriction of who should be allowed to play a game has little to do with reality.

Unfortunately the ESRB rating for Aion Online is only “teen” – barely a week into the game and I would pay real money for NCSoft to have thrown enough violence into the game to have it merit a higher rating. The unfortunate side effect of the aging of generation that was around at the birth of the mmo (mine) is that a younger generation has moved in behind us. Now I am not saying that it is unfortunate in all cases; far from it in fact.  But put together enough virtual citizens of enough virtual countries and you will have a great big barrel that will hold more than just a few bad apples. 

I may be free to be myself – free of judgments based on race (other than ones in game faction of course), nationality, religion and what have you.  However, at the same time, others are free to be themselves. This means they are free to have guilds named “We crap on children” and fulfill juvenile fantasies by naming their characters “yourwhore” and “Grabmyrod” (all too common during these, Aion Online’s opening weeks). It’s a bit hard to enjoy a game developer’s well crafted lore, when someone’s 14 year old is crafting names for their character that belong on the stall of a men’s room and not flashed across my computer screen.

Still, any utopian society, virtual or no, is likely to have its problems.  As much as I enjoy Aion Online (especially the visceral, as NCSoft describes it, combat animations) I can only hope the second month of the game holds true to the course of that of most other mmos.  Once the first free month is up my great hope is that the virtual tourists will have moved on to whatever the next “it” game out there will be.  And that, my friends, really will be freedom. 

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather