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Virtual communities comprise a large section of the virtual world, presenting users with constructed environments that offer a multitude of experiences. Most recognised in the format of MUDs, otherwise known as Multi User Dungeons/Dimensions, these worlds are entirely designed by users who determine the functioning and physical environment of each world. The difference between Dungeons and Dimensions is simply that while Multi User Dungeons are represented entirely through text, Multi User Dimensions also incorporate computer graphics to further visually display scenes and players (Author Unknown, 2004, p. 1).
It is believed that MUDs first arose in the early 1980s, reflecting a similar approach to that of the popular fantasy games such as Dungeons and Dragons. Allowing players to adopt new identities and roles, these games soon became a more realistic representation of life where relationships and friendships could be established. With the continual advancements in technology and the increasing popularity of broadband Internet, MUDs have become vastly popular and users now have the choice of thousands of different worlds, each offering diverse opportunities and communities.
MUD environments are often perceived as real communities with each providing a unique approach to communication, activities, and undertakings in the online world. Most importantly, MUDs allow users to determine their identity, how they are represented in these communities, and whether they will assume an entirely different personality to that of their real world life. It is this ability to transcend social boundaries and societal assumptions that appeals to many MUD users. Specifically many participants argue that it is this very idea of freedom from social constraints that allows MUD communications to be completely open and judgement free. As argued in an essay available in the MAS 963 OLT,
“MUD characters need not be of any fixed gender or appearance, where gender, sexuality, identity and corperality are placed beyond the plane of certainty.�
By removing such constraints, users can release themselves from the restrictions and inhibitions that are associated with the real world body.
The debate about online identity has been rife since the Internet’s launch and continues today. Many raise the concern of online identity and its ability to push boundaries never possible before. While one cannot easily change sex, race or ethnicity in the real world, in the virtual state of MUDs, possibilities are endless. As Porter (1997, p. xii) states,
“As participants adjust to the prevailing conditions of anonymity and to the potentially disconcerting experience of being reduced to a detached voice floating in an amorphous electronic void, they become adept as well at reconstituting the faceless words around them into bodies, histories, lives: an imaginative engagement by which they become fully vested co-producers of the virtual worlds that they inhabit, and the boundaries distinguishing “real� from “virtual� experience begin to fade.�
MUDs can be seen as the virtual equivalent of the wide ranging communities that exist in the real world. Offering a multitude of experiences and interactions, they enable users to access individual interests and curiosities without fear of persecution and judgement. However, as the line between real and online life begins to blur, it is important to research the effects this has on communication.
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