copyright 1996 by Jen Clodius
This is a draft, originally written for
a graduate seminar on the Anthropology of Performance.
The original disagreement was personal, not professional. Nonetheless, when Shar decided to step down from the ranks of DragonMud's administration in November, 1993, he stepped all the way down. He erased his popular hang-out, Shar's Tavern, from the database. He redescribed himself, writing, "To those I have known and those I have loved, goodbye. I cannot stay. Other worlds call, and other dreams beckon. Until we meet again in a better world. - Shar". Then he closed his eyes and, slapping his keyboard with his hands, wrote a new password that he'd never be able to duplicate, thereby removing the possibility that he'd ever be able to log back on.
He didn't exactly fall out of my life though; Shar logged into the "guest" character occasionally to let me know that he was on-line, although on a different MU*. I'd duck over to the alternate site to chat, catch him up on DragonMud gossip, and compare the agonies of being a first-year law student to the miseries of being a graduate student in anthropology. Slightly more than a year after leaving DragonMud, Shar begin to entertain the idea of returning.
Returning was not, and could not be, a matter of simply logging on to his old character; Shar had removed that possibility when he'd blindly typed a new password. Moreover, while the disagreement that had originally caused him to leave DragonMud was personal, it was with the "owner" [1] of DragonMud. Additionally, coming back, especially if he were to come back in a position of power, would require an explanation to the DragonMud community.
This paper, then, is an attempt to understand and explain the negotiation and performance of Shar's return, not only as a player, but as a returned administrator. I argue that his return was facilitated by the conscious use of themes understood by the larger community, and by the awareness that this performance had to engage the attention and appreciation of the intended audience. I write from a bifurcated stance of "hybridity" and "native", as an anthropologist who is a member of the community, as an anthropologist who actively studies this community, and whose participation within the community informs and recreates my anthropology (Limon 1991, Narayan 1993).
Parenthetically, I have no ethical issues about writing about a community in which I'm an active participant; I am overt about my research, I am scrupulously conscientious about getting explicit permissions to use quotes and private materials, and anyone with access to a web-browser can read what I have written about DragonMud and DragonMudders. Where I do have some personal issues, however, is in the awareness that (following Dwyer, against Geertz) I am not merely eavesdropping; my presence necessarily influences what I am told, which, in turn, influences my interpretations [2] (Dwyer 1982, 262).
MUD (short for Multi-User Dungeon, originally) was the name of a game written in 1979 by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle when they were students at Essex University in the UK. Initially written in MACRO-10, the machine code for the university's DEC-10, Bartle describes it as being "little more than a series of inter-connected locations where you could move and chat" (1990, 7). Rewriting the entire code twice, it eventually developed into a multi-user adventure game available to subscribers to commercial networks in England.
MUDs (which came to stand, generically, for Multi-User Domain) took on a different aspect in the US, much to Bartle's dismay. Fearing the loss of his commercial advantage, he warned (using the term MUA (Multi-User Adventure), lest readers confuse the generic code with his particular game) that
at present, the best games are the top-notch UK professional MUAs, but with the huge number of US academics presently engaged in MUA activity, it is only a matter of time before players over there [in the US] start writing their own versions and marketing them commercially. Unless the UK can maintain the lead that history has given it, these American MUAs will doubtless come to dominate the scene over the coming years (1990, 7).
The first American version of the game code was TinyMUD, written in 1989 by James Aspnes, then a graduate student at Carnegie-Mellon University. Bartle especially objects to the TinyMUD code, stating
TinyMUD is not so much a MUA as a forum for conversation where participants have pinned short pieces of prose on the wall for the benefit of anyone with the inclination to read them. If this kind of MUA gets a strong hold in the USA, it could set the [interactive game] industry back several years (1990, 80).
TinyMUD code didn't merely "set the industry back", for the most part it killed most commercial applications of Bartle's code. The very nature of the Internet makes most MU* code available to anyone who wishes to download it.
It is the flexibility of TinyMUD code, and the ease of real-time communications it affords, that attracts most of its users. Text is an information-dense medium; the ability to use the same language forms we use in everyday speech with minimal interference from the underlying code makes this medium a powerful narrative tool. As Howard Rheingold, one of the few people who have actually written about virtual communities, writes,
narrative is the stuff of which MUDworlds are made. Everyone and everything and every place has a story. Every object in a MUD, from your character's identity to the chair your character is sitting in, has a written description that is revealed when you choose to look at the object (1993, 155).
Currently, there are several hundred MU*s being operated on the Internet. MU*s are, simply, text-based real-time multi-person interactions occurring within nodes of computers. Generally, MU*s have some sort of over-arching "theme", ranging from fantasy to futuristic. Some are rather large, with more than 100 people logged in at any time from anywhere in the world; others are restricted to participants at a specific campus. Some are combat-oriented, others are known as being "intellectual" MU*s.
Unlike "chat" systems, a MU* creates a sense of "space" which allows player-movement between "rooms" [4]. Users have the ability to change and modify the database. Unlike Email, interactions occur in real time; the conversation "scrolls up on the participant's screen looking like a play script" (Riner and Clodius 1995, 99), or as "a communication soup in real time, with a flavor of improvisatory theater" (Rheingold 1993, 149).
In the same way that there is a recognized difference between "VR" (virtual reality) and "RL" (real life [5]), mudders distinguish between the "character" or "avatar" they role-play and themselves; the human being is the "player" or "operator". This nomenclature is not firmly established, though the concept is universally accepted. The "style", attitudes, physical description, quirks and idiosyncrasies of the character are all generated by the player. While some people play roles, generally "characters" who have been around DragonMud for a while closely represent their "players" - that is, "players" "play" themselves.
When John Crane (whose tangled initials JO.hn P. C.rane are the basis for the name by which he is known on DragonMud, "Jopsy") was a student at Northern Arizona University (NAU), he wrote an interactive, user-alterable game called "The Playground" in the late 1980s. Written in Fortran77, PL6, and SPITBOL!, it ran on NAU's Honeywell DPS-6. He chose that particular machine, he explains, because it was the most popular mainframe on the campus, giving him the widest possible cross-section of players. Crane states that wrote this implementation because he was frustrated with the lack of elegance in the University BBS code, the maintenance for which he was responsible. Originally designed as a 10x10 grid through which players could move, The Playground grew a then-monstrous 800 objects. (Crane 1989, 1; personal communication 1/5/94)
When the Honeywell mainframe was scheduled to be retired, Crane started to rewrite the code in C, intending to transfer it to NAU's UNIX system. When James Aspnes released his TinyMUD code at Carnegie-Mellon, Crane realized that most of what he was trying to do was included in Aspnes's code. Since then, the original TinyMUD code has been heavily modified by Crane to increase the ease with which players use it, to increase player privacy, and to add features to make it more enjoyable (personal communication 1/5/94).
DragonMud is the oldest continuously-running implementation of the TinyMUD family [6]. Originally put up in December 1989, it became accessible to non-local players when NAU went on the Internet in March of 1990. While many people initially log on for the recreational [7] aspects of DragonMud, those who continue to log on are integrated into the community. Many MU*s are predicated on playing a fantasy "role"; DragonMud is not. Players are informed when they log in that "In DragonMud, mudders play themselves in 18th century London." or, as The Dragon [8] puts it, "We don't have strange people in a familiar place, we have real people in a strange place." The sense that the people with whom one is interacting are "real (though, of course, there are issues of anonymity on the net) facilitates the formation of a true "imagined community", one in which people come together to support and care for each other (Anderson 1983).
Players generally begin to form friendships by asking other players about solutions to quests [9], then gradually become involved in conversations. For many, Dragonmud becomes a "third place", a place they can just hang out apart from work (or school) and home (Oldenburg 1991, 14). Discussions cover a wide range; a single recent evening's topics included installation problems with Microsoft's Windows95(tm), the federal budget, possible responses to emailed chain letters, an up-coming DragonMud gathering on the east coast, legislating morality versus legislating behavior, the liturgical origin of the magical incantation "hocus pocus", writing actions for database objects, and marriage law. Because people log on to DragonMud from all over the world, it is noteworthy, but not unusual, to find a conversation occurring in Town Square in a language other than English.
DragonMud has a current population of over 5000 players, with a "core" community of between 700 and 900 people [10]. Many are college students, but, compared to other MU*s, an unusually high percentage are post-docs and professional people (O'Brien 1992) [11]. The youngest regular player (who logs in through his professorial father's university account) is 13, the oldest (the author of a programming language) is in his mid-70s. These core players define themselves as a "community", or even as "family". They share a common history, and assume a common future. Within the community there are social and political hierarchies, systems of exchange (albeit non-monetary), fictive kinships, ritual processes, factions and friendships. As Randall put it, "We have everything a RL community has except agriculture... but we grow ideas instead."
When an individual initially logs onto a MU*, the first thing s/he does is "create" themselves. While this creation is literal, in the sense that the individual must first create a character with which to move around DragonMoveMud's landscape, it is also figurative. As Abu-Lughod points out, "the self is always a construction, never a natural or found entity" (1991, 140). Players describe themselves, and act in a manner consistent with the image they wish to project. People play with various facets of their personalities and, I would suggest, even those facets that feel unfamiliar to the player initially are in some way the product of the player's personality, either through prior exposure to those traits or as products of the individual's imagination. Some players are quite overt about using DragonMud as a Goffmanesque "backstage", using it to practice characteristics they want to carry over into their lives away from the keyboard [12].
DragonMud's inhabitants, the spaces in which they dwell, and the objects they create and manipulate all exist within a realm comprised solely of text (Clodius 1994, 12). Participation in a MUD is recreational; people log on by choice. Encounters between specific individuals may be happenstance, but everyone who logs on does so expecting to interact with other people on some level.
Players report that they log on to DragonMud for a variety of reasons, most commonly relating to friendship and levels of comfort. Recently I walked into Town Square and said, "I need a few pithy comments from ya'll -- Why DragonMud? Of all the MU*s around, why do ya'll log on here?" and got the following responses:
wapini grins..easy..it's home. [13]
Czhorat says "dammit..that was my answer."
Wilhelm points at the above conversation. [about legislating "moral"
behavior]
Czhorat says "In all seriousness, I hang around here because, very early
in my virtual life here, I met people who made me feel a part of the
community..."
Czhorat says "..and I think that this place strikes a good balance between
being real people and enjoying each others' company and questing and
role-playing and such."
Dryad says "I come here because I have found more intelligent conversation
here than any other mud. The city itself is well thought out and simple
enough to not get lost and because people are courteous and friendly."
Wilhelm can disagree, and not be castigated.
Dryad says "and because there's not much in the way of hierarchy, and what
there is, is based entirely on experience and contribution to the
community"
X'zquala hmms.. Yep, this place definitely has a community feeling to it..
We are all very unique.. very different people here.. Yet we all accept,
support and genuinely love each other. This place has a great warmth to
it
Naibu says "I come here because the people I like come here consistently
and have formed a community -- part of that community is that it manages
to squeeze out a lot of the jerk-y-ness that seems to be around elsewhere
online."
Dryad says "and people aren't all obsessed with 'hit points' or killing
evil creatures. [14]"
Czhorat says "Although one of the other things I like about this place is
that there is an occasional [verbal] 'fight' for me..."
Czhorat says "and that the combatants will still love each other the next
day."
wapini says "Maybe it is the season..but there's little contentiousness
here tonight."
wapini nods..Cz [15] and I couldn't be more different..but we agree..
Wilhelm notes to Bedo [16] and Jopsy that another attraction DragonMUD has is
that its format isn't particularly attractive to adolescents, except
for the more
thoughtful ones.
Bedouin logs on 'cause she can walk into TS [17], ask a non-sequitur of a
question, and get straight answers :-) (You guys are terrific!
Thanks! :-)
As Appadurai suggests would occur in his commentary on "ethnoscapes", people form friendships across a multiplicity of boundaries, broadening their perspectives and expanding their horizons (1991). Naibu recently commented, "I'm not all that antisocial... it's just that in my life, everyone I know is just like me! This mud has made me able to meet people from backgrounds that I never would have met otherwise."
"Performance", then, is a means of communication on DragonMud. The ability to spontaneously understand and create interactions is valued. In the following example, for instance, Bedouin is being plagued by "lag", best defined as the unpredictable interval between typing something and actually having the message wend its way through the net and into DragonMud's host computer before appearing on other players' screens. Lag is sometimes felt by a number of players when the entire Internet is affected by heavy computer traffic, at other times it can be local to the machine through which an individual player is logged on. In this instance [18] (which took place while the Academy Awards were being broadcast, driving the primary topic of conversation), Wilhelm announces that he's leaving for the evening (line 1), pauses a moment to allow other players to say goodnight (lines 2-4) [19], then leaves (lines 5-6). Bedouin, who has typed her message before Wilhelm's departure, sees that her message is lagged and not delivered until after Wilhelm has left (line 7). She comments on her lack of success (line 9), and the following interchange occurs spontaneously.
1 Wilhelm says "Ah, well. Time to sleep. Goodnight folks! Have a hug or wave, whatever suits ya." 2 Aegean says "Nite, Wil!" 3 Ganna says "Night, Wilhelm! Sleep well." 4 Myxolydian waves to Wilhelm. 5 Wilhelm wanders over to the Announcement Wall. 6 Wilhelm has left. 7 Bedouin hugs Wilhelm g'night! 8 Aegean says "too late" 9 Bedouin unsuccessfully leaps that lag-wall! 10 Ganna throws Bedo a rope 11 Aegean offers a shoulder as a boost 12 Ganna applauds. "Nice form. 9.7" 13 Aegean grins 14 Myxolydian grins. 15 Bedouin needs to point her toes more :-/ 16 Ganna nods "You'll get it in practice:) <hehehe> 17 Aegean says "Hey..she gets two passes :-)" 18 Bedouin says "D'ja like the little hand-flip on the dismount though?" 19 Ganna smiles. "Nice touch! I liked:)" 20 Bedouin whews. (Y'never know what the judges will think beforehand... ;-) 21 Ganna wonders why anyone would want to go over the lag-wall twice??? 22 Aegean suddenly feels like he became a 'pommel horse'...or is that "pummel" ;-) 23 Ganna hands Bedo a towel..."true..:)" 24 Bedouin mops her face, then realizes her coach is too far away to hug gratuitously. 25 Ganna awwws "how nice:)"
Ganna and Bedouin play off of each other's comments spontaneously, with Ganna taking the role of gymnastic judge (lines 12, 16, 19, 23) and Bedouin taking the role of gymnast (lines 15, 18, 20, 24). Except for Ganna's almost parenthetical comment in line 21, Aegean's attempt to participate (lines 11, 17, 22) is largely ignored [20]. After this brief interchange, the conversation returns to the Kirk Douglas's award for Lifetime Achievement.
Shar's return, however, presented other problems. Once he and Jopsy had talked through their differences (or, as Shar put it, "We've gotten through most of the boot-scuffing and uhm-ing and ^U-ing [21] over the touchy stuff"), the problem of how to re-introduce Shar into the community remained.
As it happened, DragonMud's fifth anniversary celebration was scheduled to occur the next evening, on December 1, 1994. Jopsy had written an elaborate scenario in which anyone who logged on would be able to participate [22]. London (the main city in DragonMud) would be attacked by the French, citizens would help defend the walls, Napoleon would crash the gates of the city and would only be defeated when he was squashed by the town's cab falling out of the sky and carrying the "guest" character who would declaim one of the most horrific puns ever perpetrated on a crowd of unsuspecting computer geeks [23].
This scenario was written explicitly and intentionally as a gift to DragonMud's citizens from the administrators, as well as to celebrate DragonMud's longevity. While most MU*s have relatively short life-spans (some can be measured in hours, though most last for several months before they lose their host machine and/or their administrators realize that they haven't developed a population-base large enough to warrant further efforts on their part), DragonMud was not only celebrating its fifth anniversary, but was (and continues to be) the oldest MU* in continuous operation.
Jopsy, Bedouin, and Shar decided that this opportunity was too good to ignore, and began working on extending the already-written script. The end of the script called for Jopsy (using his "Dragon" avatar, dusted off and animated primarily for State Occasions) to gather the evening's participants in Town Square to thank them for saving London. Shar suggests, "Should I have to buy my ass with Bedouin's soul [24] tomorrow? Or would that require a major rewrite?" In spite of the fact that it was already past midnight for Shar (on the east coast) and Bedouin (in the mid-west), there was much to be done to have anything ready for the following evening. (Jopsy (on the west coast) eventually commented on the time, causing much teasing from Shar and Bedouin, who were in time-zones three and two hours, respectively, ahead of him.)
Not only were plot lines negotiated and produced, but characterizations were also refined as script-specific roles and attitudes were developed. For example:
Bedouin hides her face in the Dragon's side, quivering with rage. Bedouin says "Fear? Terror?" Jopsy says "Embarrassment?" Bedouin nods -- she can do embarrassed.
Bedouin suggests opening with:
From the Tower of the Magi, Bedo reaches a long arm toward the boats. Grasping Shar by the scruff of the neck, she deposits him in the middle of TS, where he stands, cowering before The Dragon.
This prompts Jopsy to respond, "Well, maybe not cowering..." and Bedouin agrees, "Okay, defiantly." The familiarity with each other's styles (and possibly the lateness of the hour) provided occasional moments of comic relief. Following the above lines, the interchange (which never made it into the final script) continued:
Shar says "Yeah... Not cowering. Thumbing my nose, maybe..." Jopsy says "glowring?" Jopsy says "glowering." Bedouin checks with Jopsy. "Do I have to deposit him feet down?" Shar says "Yes, you do!" Shar hrmphs. Bedouin didn't ask you ;-) Shar pouts. Bedouin oppses -- you still have her soul. Feet down, it is. Jopsy laughs!!!! Shar will make note to wear his boots, then. (in case she decides feet down in that pile of horseshit would be appropriate...) Bedouin says "Dragon-shit, Shar -- let's be realistic ;-)" Shar chuckles. "Oh yes. Dragonshit... (but doesn't that corrode boot-leather pretty badly...?) Bedouin fehs at Shar. Then laughs. "Frightening, isn't it, how easily it comes back ;-)"
This familiarity with each other's styles and personalities facilitated the occasional ad libbing that was necessary during the actual performance, when commentary from an aware audience changed the intended pacing of the plot.
One interesting aspect of the process of writing this additional script [25], (and perhaps, one of the reasons why it went over so well,) was the authors' demonstrated awareness that there was an audience to consider. When one plot-point got somewhat convoluted, Jopsy pointed out that "We'll be pretty pressed for time. The masses will only stay put for a very short period of time." When, during the second run-through, Shar wondered what had happened to one of his cues, Bedouin noted, "I can't imagine us not doing SOME improvisation -- there're sure to be mortal-comments interjected." Moreover, Shar intended to play to the audience, albeit by glaring at them and calling them maggots, but that action was consistent with the role he was playing.
Once the plot was in motion the following evening, the participation of the audience caused all three actors to change and rework portions of the script to include and account for audience comments. The first noteworthy change was a long pause in the action, necessitated by the commentary following the revelation that "Henri" was actually Shar. Thirty-one players commented before the plot began to get back on course, with further occasional commentary for eighteen more lines. In a momentarily futile attempt to get the action rolling again, the Dragon shushed people twice, and Shar eventually said (after glaring and swatting at the crowd) "Be *S*I*L*E*N*T*, you TWITS!!!!"
Things continued as planned (with additional running commentary from the audience about the goings-on) until the moment when Shar began to reveal his secret weapon -- his possession of Bedouin's soul.
Shar snarls in Bedouin's direction. "Alright! Fine, then! Fire away, Dragon. Blow me to bits. Just remember that by condemning me, you condemn your precious Consort with me!" Shar spits at Bedouin's feet. Bedouin gasps! Dragon says "What?!" Star uhohs. Dirk OOOOs! Bedouin flinches and hides her face in the Dragon's side. Foolsbane says "Her soul!" Shar smiles triumphantly. Shar says "HAH! You forget, dear Dragon. Bedouin made a bargain, long ago. A rather hasty bargain. But it gave me something which you can *never* retake, and which no evil who succeeds me would EVER surrender to you!"
Foolsbane's comment, "Her soul!", caused commentary from several other players [26]:
Dirk says "He's right!" auliya says "Her soul, you twit!" Star says "He holds her SOUL!" Moose cheers? Dragon says "Damn!" Tierlyn says "Oops."
Rather than his next intended line, Shar improvised, including the audience. He smiled and said, "Your subjects know the case better than you, Dragon. I have her soul."
The final major departure from the intended script occurred when Shar offered to compromise and take the restoration of his powers and control of the Tower of the Magi in return for Bedouin's soul. Rather than simply agree, the Dragon opened the decision to the audience (causing some momentary consternation on Bedouin's part) and said, "Gods? Wizards? Citizens? What say you?", garnering the following responses:
Star thinks it's worth it! Hawk-Royal says "no" Foolsbane says "Sure, why not." auliya says "Do it! Do it!" Naibu says "Save Bedouin!" OliverJones says "@nuke him. Bedouin will understand." Lorrick says "SAVE BEDO!" Ozzy says "Sounds okay to me." Topher would like Dragon & Bedo to stay. "If that's what it takes, do it." Dybs thinks Bedouin is worth more than half of all MUDcode! Druid says "@nuke Shar. Rosminah will be back shortly. She'll make a nice replacement consort."Comments continued in a similar vein, with some players worried that the Dragon might actually sacrifice Bedouin, but most realizing that Shar was back for good and used the opportunity to tease both Shar and Bedouin. (Bedouin would like it noted that she allowed Hawk-Royal, OliverJones, and Druid (and others who suggested that she wouldn't mind being sacrificed) to live.) Eventually, Shar got his powers back, Bedouin got her soul back, the Dragon gave Shar control of the Tower of the Magi, all was right in the realm again, and there was much rejoicing.
More than a year after Shar's return [27], people still talk about the event. Moreover, player commentary indicates that they not only remember the larger occasion (DragonMud's fifth anniversary celebration), but the specific scenario which reintroduced Shar into the community.
Following Flores (1995), I would argue that this performance, although situationally unusual, accentuated the social relations which produced it. Moreover, because Shar's return was situated within an already unusual framework (the anniversary celebration) these social relations were further heightened.
The larger framework of the anniversary celebration was, as previously mentioned, intended to be a gift to the community. It was written to create participation and moreover, to unite the community in action against a fictitious antagonist. (Obviously, there are substantial ludic aspects inherent in the community's willingness to participate.) A threat to the community was perceived, the community united to take action against the threat and, eventually, overcame it. The ensuing sense of community cohesiveness set the stage for Shar's reentry.
Parenthetically, it is worth repeating that, due to the non-geographic space that the community inhabits, systems of exchange are non-monetary. Rather, what is exchanged are intangibles: time, attention, information. The medium of exchange, then, is text. DragonMudders gift each other with words.
Audience appreciation of the enactment of Shar's return was demonstrated throughout the performance. Players got involved; they chuckled, they commented, they argued with each other (occasionally to the distraction of the performers), they cheered. The performers, too, demonstrated responsibility to the audience, not only in the time spent making sure that they'd crafted a script that would amuse the community, but also in their sensitivity to the audience's responses and in their occasional departure from that script to react to audience comments.
DragonMud's social organization, while it does exist, is fairly loose and fluid. Nonetheless, these relationships informed and were reproduced within the performance. The most obvious demonstration is the fact that the action was driven by DragonMud's two chief administrators, Jopsy (the Dragon) and Bedouin. The fluidity of the social structure, however, was also demonstrated by the frequency of player comments during the performance. Moreover, the long-established players tended to be the ones who teasingly suggested that Bedouin would understand if she were sacrificed, and who proposed alternate consorts for the Dragon [28].
Finally, I would argue that this performance succeeded because, just as the best gifts are purchased or made with the recipient in mind, it was scripted with the audience in mind. The jokes, the sarcastic asides, even the technical language used were readily accessible to the community and, in fact, most are internal to this specific community. The pacing, the plot lines, the timing of revelations, and the climax were all crafted and reworked before the actual performance, specifically to amuse and involve the audience. It was a labor of love, a gift.
It was 4:30 in the morning, and I had just gotten knocked off-line when the control system for the entire university modem pool crashed. I couldn't get back through the net to tell Jopsy and Shar that I would pull together a rough script, weeding through lines and hours of text to extract the parts we'd decided to keep, and then Email it to them in time for the performance in sixteen hours.
The phone rang.
"We gave up for the night," Jopsy said. I told him that I thought that was probably just as well, and that I'd mail him a script.
"Thanks," he responded. "That'll help a lot. Oh, but don't you have Arabic in a couple of hours?"
"Y'know," Bedouin mused, "for the first time in my academic career, I think I'm gonna ditch a class. I'm gonna shut down my system, go to bed, and sleep until I wake up."
And that's exactly what I did.
SCRIPT (as planned, not as played) Shar says "Where are you going to 'find' me? In TS? Is that where the shit will be hitting the fan?" Bedouin assumes so - once Napoleon is killed she figures she'll come out of the tower, and tug on Dragon's elbow. Dragon says "The final shit will hit in the Waterloo station." Dragon says "#4" Shar says "The station. Gotcha."
Dragon says "Splat... napoleon is dead... " Dragon says "The French soldiers start to flee... " Bedouin points a quavering finger at the back of one of the fleeing soldiers. "Dragon, darlin'... I think... I THINK..." She sputters a moment. "Isn't that..." Dragon says "where...?" Henri says "Oh damn...." Dragon says "Him?" Henri types --> out Bedouin tugs harder. "There! Dragon... that's... that's..." Dragon says "Hey you!" Henri
Dragon shouts "Not so fast there..." Dragon types --> @tele *henri = here Dragon types --> @lock out = !henri ;-) Bedouin peers through Henri's disguise. "Dragon... I think it IS!" Dragon says "Drop this phony disguise... " Henri says "What disguise?! Sacre bleu! We are defeated, let me leave and I shall never trouble you again!" Dragon types --> @truename HENRI * Henri has changed their name to Shar. ( * Shar's @desc macros here? *) Bedouin cowers behind the Dragon's wing. Shar arghs! Shar says "Blast you, Dragon!" Bedouin says "WHY have you come back?? How DARE you support the insurrectionists?" Bedouin glares. "Dragon, DO something!" Shar says "How DARE I?! Why WOULDN'T I? I spent *years* chafing under this scaly twit's rule, and what did I get? NOTHING! So I leave. I bide my time. I find someone I think might have a *chance* of putting him off his throne, and I go for it. While YOU sit there hooked to him by a chain, thinking you're free and his 'Consort'! *SNORT*" Bedouin fehs. "You left, so of course I helped him out. Chain? What chain? *I* know which side my bread is buttered on!" Shar yells "Your bread? YOUR bread?! Woman, you're the *butter*, for the gods' sakes! I got tired of being his patsy! What's YOUR excuse?!" Bedouin glares at Shar. "Easy for YOU to talk. I CARE about this place! Where were you, when we moved? Where were you, when we fought off the Evil TinyTimmers? Where were YOU when the HelpFiles needed to be rewritten??" Dragon says "So... it IS you... " Shar says "Yes, Dragon. It's me." Dragon says "Give me one reason why I shouldn't throw you out on your rump for this..." Shar scowls at the crowd. "What're YOU looking at?! Maggots!" Bedouin hmphs. Returning, after all of this time. The very nerve! Shar says "One good reason? Because I'm SHAR, you nitwit! What other reason is there?!" Bedouin leans a little closer. "Make him *bounce* when you throw him out!" she whispers. Shar glares at Bedouin. "YOU watch your tongue!" Dragon warms up his @boot finger... Shar scowls at Dragon. "What? You can't do that to me!" Bedouin says "@boot? Oh, @nuke him!" Bedouin whispers "Do it! Send him away!" to Dragon. Dragon whispers to Bedouin, "He's not an anachronism.. no wait... he's out of his time... he's been gone for over a year... yeah... anachronism! Dragon warms up his @NUKE finger instead... Shar looks confused... "Dragon... You can't get rid of me. I've been here forever! I'm part of the realm! You NEED me!" Dragon says "Oh yeah? Why's that?" Bedouin hangs on the Dragon's arm and bats her eyelashes upward. "Do it, darlin'. DO it!" Shar splutters... "Because.... because....." Dragon can't imagine why he shouldn't. Shar says "I... I.... You can't do that to me! I'm SHAR!!" Dragon says "Enough! The fact remains that you betrayed the realm, and the punishment for it... since you're bringing in an alien influence... is dismemberment with the @NUKE command... " Bedouin murmurs "He'd be so easy to dispense with... Do it for me, please?" Shar snarls in Bedouin's direction. "Dammit! Fine, then! Fire away, Dragon. Blow me to bits. Just remember that by condemning me you condemn your precious Consort with me!" Shar spits at Bedouin's feet. Bedouin gasps! Shar smiles triumphantly. Dragon bellows "WHAT?! Bedouin flinches and hides her face in the Dragon's side. Shar says "HAH! You forget, dear Dragon. Bedouin made a bargain, long ago. A rather hasty bargain. But it gave me something which you can never retake, and which no evil who succeeds me here would EVER surrender to you!" Bedouin says "Oh my... Oh my... He still has it." Dragon says "Has what?" Dragon says "What's going on here?" Bedouin says "Dragon, dear... when I was new, I was very hasty..." Bedouin looks mortified, and scuffs her toe into the cobblestones. Shar chuckles. "Oh yes, my darling dearest. I still have it. Still have the one thing that's greater than any immortal powers I had before, Dragon." Dragon says "Yes... ?" Shar says "I have her soul." Bedouin sobs quietly. Dragon groans! Dragon fumes. Dragon whispers "Why didn't you Tell me!" to Bedouin. Shar chuckles quietly. "So go ahead, Dragon. @NUKE away..." Bedouin didn't think it was important... after all, You were here to protect her... Dragon says "Not so fast... " Shar says "Come, come, Dragon. Decide. What's it going to be? Righteous vengeance? Or the salvation of your precious Consort...." Shar says "...at the price of your realm!" Dragon says "And failing to snatch the realm from my grasp by invasion.. " Dragon says "You now turn to blackmail.. " Shar snorts. "Damn right, Old Snake!" Dragon says "So... " Shar chuckles to himself, smiling broadly. Dragon says "You give me the soul... which I'll then give back to Bedouin... " Dragon says "and we leave... we leave the realm unmolested... and leave you with The Dragon Password... " Shar says "Exactly." Bedouin collapses into a heap at the Dragon's feet. "Don't do it, Dragon! Think of the population! I'm not *sob* worth it." Dragon scratches his chin. Dragon grins maliciously... Bedouin tugs at the hem of The Dragon's robe. "No! Don't sacrifice the realm to HIM!" Dragon says "You're SURE you don't want something less... encumbering... " Shar says "Oh no, Dragon. You'll not weasel out of this one. I want it ALL." Dragon says "The duties and responsibilities can weigh heavily on a soul... and you do have one..." Shar says "get on with it, Dragon.... The deal is on the table!" Dragon says "Deal!" Shar blinks. Bedouin winces. "Deal? Oh NO, Dragon!!" Shar's smile slips into a straight-lipped scowl... Shar says "You're serious?" Dragon says "Of course I'm serious... but you do realize... of course, that once you're #1... " Dragon says "Your soul becomes the soul of the realm... " Shar says "Of course." Dragon says "And it would be a terrible shame to have your soul trapped in a realm... " Dragon says "That you can't REBOOT." Dragon says "For ALL ETERNITY... " Dragon says "But you've made the deal... and I'm finally free..." Shar says "I... er... Now wait a moment, Dragon. Are you *sure* you want to do this?" Dragon says "Unless of course... You'd like to renegotiate..." Dragon says "I was leaving anyway, until you fouled things up..." Dragon says "Deals among Dragons and Daemons are binding of course... unless both parties agree to renegotiate... " Dragon says "It'd be too ironic to have the Former God of Chaos trapped in a neat quiet clean orderly box for the rest of time... don't you think?" Shar blanches. "Ye gods... Uhm. I think we can cut a more... reasonable deal, don't you, Dragon?" Dragon says "What did you have in mind... " Dragon says "We appear to be at somewhat of an impasse... " Shar says "I mean, you've been a fairly decent administrator thus far... And I'd just get bored with all that trivial paperwork you have to deal with." Shar says "True. I have no power, but something you want very badly. You have all the power, but no way to save your Consort with it." Dragon nods. "True." Dragon says "and I find, now that it's time to leave... that I'm not quite as eager as I was before... " Dragon says "Make an offer daemon." Shar says "So what say we... compromise? I'll give you her soul back, in exchange for what was before. I want my powers back. I spent them all propping up that idiot Frenchman! And I want o grudges! We start with a clean slate from here on!" Shar says "And ONE more thing!" Shar says "Just to keep you honest..." Bedouin uh-ohs... Dragon says "and that is..?" Shar says "I want the Tower." Shar says "The Magi's Tower." Shar says "Forever." Dragon says "Preposterous..." Bedouin says "Oh, no!" Shar says "Oh, yes." Dragon frowns contemplatively... Bedouin rethinks. Her soul... and the Dragon still running the realm... versus a silly old Tower... Shar says "That's the deal, Dragon. One little piece of your realm, and the restoration of my power. I compromise no further." Bedouin umms... "Dragon?" Shar says "Or, you could watch it all disintegrate in my hands. All that you've worked for. You can still give it all up...." Dragon scowls. "Very well, then. That tower has been a magnet for Chaos and I've never been able to impose any sense of order upon it. You're welcome to it!" Bedouin looks eager. "My soul? Now make him give back my soul, Dragon. Please?" Shar laughs. "DONE!" Dragon extends a taloned hand. Shar says "My power first, Dragon. Then the soul. Then the tower. Without my power, I have no way of holding you to the deal once I give up the soul." Dragon, knowing full well he can take it back when he chooses... Dragon types --> @set shar = g ( * later note - Shar offers the soul to Dragon, Dragon declines and points to Bedouin * ) Shar smiles at the rust of power, his form shifting back to what he was. He extends a taloned hand, and in a wisp of smoke a tiny iron box appears. He pries open the lid, and a sprinkling of dust slips out, catching on the air and catching fire as it flies. It floats through the space between the box and Bedouin, then surrounds her, flaring like the sun. And then the light is gone. And all is right with the realm, again. Dragon types --> @chown +TowerOfMagi = Shar Dragon says "There." Shar smiles.
Footnotes
[1] To whatever extent anyone can be said to "own" the product of several thousand people's imaginations created over the course of (at that time) five years, DragonMud is "owned" by Jopsy (more about whom, shortly), who wrote and maintains DragonMud's code.
[2] My co-administrator's response to my occasional angst about the potential effects of my anthropological presence on the community is generally, "Yeah, so? You're a good influence."
[3] The genre, as a whole, is frequently referred to as "MU*". This usage is in response to the variety of Multi-User code variants currently available, including MUDs, MUCKs, MUSHs, MOOs and so on. The use of the asterisk is UNIX nomenclature, denoting a "wildcard" letter or symbol.
[4} A map of tinyLondon (available to anyone who picks one up in Town Square) looks like this:
~~~~
~~~ ||
(O)########=====###||################(O) TS - Town Square
# ~~~ || # ST - The Carriage Station
# SH===NW ~~~ N2 WA===EA==NEC # BZ - Bazaar
# || ~~~ || || # DO - Docks
# NF SW ~~~ N1 NR # SH - Soho
# || || ~~~ || || # TF - Trafalgar Sqr
(M)=W3===W2===W1===TS===E1===E2===E3====
# || || ~~~ ST||BZ || #
# SF BS ~~~ S1 `-+-. -. SR #
# || || ~~~ || -| `-+-' || # nw n ne
# CS===TF=~~DO===S2----+- `- SEC # \ | /
# ~~~ || alleys # w - * - e
(O)########======####################(O) / | \
~~~ sw s se
~~~~~~~
(note: the ~~ represent the Thames, ## indicate town walls, == and || are
streets, other letters indicated space-names: SEC is the SouthEast
Courtyard, NF
is North Firemarch Road, N2 is North Narthat Street, and so on.
[5] Even "real life" is problematized on DragonMud, as many players would contend that what happens on-line is every bit as "real" as what happens off-line. The generally accepted definition of "RL", then, is merely time spent away from the keyboard.
[6] Of the seven TinyMUDs that Bartle ranked "first rate" in 1990, DragonMud is the only one still up and running (1990, 102).
[7] See Huizinga (1949, 7).
[8] The only "dragon" in DragonMud is The Dragon, player #1. As has been noted by several players over the years, "DragonMud" would be more appropriately named "Dragon's Mud".
[9] "Quests" are the puzzles and text-adventures that form a large portion of the DragonMud landscape; solving specific quests earns rank and eventually, permissions to change the database by creating objects and potentially adding one's own quest to the realm.
[10] DragonMud's social system is hierarchical, comprising of "mortals", who control themselves and the objects that they have created, "wizards", who act as "junior administrators" and can see, but not affect, most things regardless of ownership, and "gods" or "senior administrators", who can see and control anything.
[11] I've had to rely on players' self-reported ages, genders, and professions in my research; coming up with actual statistics of how the population breaks out in these areas isn't be possible without face-to-face interviews.
[12] See Riner and Clodius, for further discussion.
[13] As I cite logs, surveys, and email, I've taken the liberty of cleaning up spelling and punctuation except when characteristic of a player's personality or typing patterns. The original logs, surveys, and email all remain intact, of course. Additionally, I should note that text taken directly from the screen is, by Internet convention, left in Courier font as it is the one font all computer systems read and format the same way.
[14] A large number of MU*s on the net allow (and even encourage) the "killing" of other players by causing their characters to disconnect from the system. DragonMud's code does not allow player-killing, and new players who are looking for "killing MU*s" are encouraged to look elsewhere.
[15] Czhorat
[16] Bedouin
[17] Town Square, the central point in DragonMud.
[18] March 24, 1996, in Town Square.
[19] See Clodius 1993 for discussion of greeting and departure rituals.
[20] This happens fairly frequently to Aegean. He has successfully annoyed
so
many people so often that many deal with his presence by ignoring him.
[21] Typing
[22] At one point, there were 108 people logged on, a record number for
DragonMud.
[23] Specifically (and I include this without explanation): The Guest looks
at
her dog. "Goto... I don't think we're in Kansas.edu anymore!"
[24] Shar "owning" Bedouin's soul had been a running joke since April 1991,
based
on a trivial (at the time) conversation. At that point, Bedouin held the
rank
of "Wizard", but, being only a month old, was still learning how to be a
wizard
and was chafing a bit at players' expectations of how she should behave:
While Bedouin never specifically agreed to this deal, it nevertheless
became on
on-going joke.
[25] The full intended script
is appended, rife with in-jokes and
references.
(Explanations are far beyond the scope of this paper.) Of course, with
108
people logged on and interjecting their own comments, it didn't play
exactly as
scripted. My log of the anniversary celebration is 170 single-spaced
pages. An
edited log of the evening's events is on the web, at
http://tinylondon.ucsd.edu/~jen/
[26] I'm told by other players that there was some background whispering,
where
older players explained to newer players the significance of Foolsbane's
comment
on Bedouin's soul. Whispers only appear on the screen of the typist and
the
person to whom the whisper is directed, not to all of the room's
occupants.
[27] The turnover of peripheral players is such that, 13 months after Shar
left,
one player said "Who?" when his identity was revealed. Memory of (and
commentary about) an incident that took place more than a year ago is
noteworthy.
[28] It is also worth noting that these players tended to be people who
Jopsy and
Bedouin know RL.
Bedouin gets tired of being good sometimes...
Shar sidles over to Bedouin. "Wanna be a daemon?"
Shar can get you a pair of wings and your very own castle in hell real
cheap...!
Shar says "Only cost you a tiny little price. A little soul. A tiny
little thing. You'll never even miss it. No big worry. All you ever
dreamed of, for just one little soul..."
Bedouin says "Real wings?"
Shar says "Yep. Real as the ones I have now..."