PROGRAMMED OBJECTS AND MUD CULTURE
Because most people on BlueSky have known each other for years, the group has developed a rich culture of relationships, standards of behavior, injokes, and norms. They use particular features of the mud program to express these traditions. BlueSky norms reflect the social history and technological development of muds: participants compensate for the limitations of text-only communication through repetition, manipulation of mud technology, and traditions of information exchange.
Mud servers are in part databases of the various rooms, characters, and other objects that form the environment. As Jennifer Smith (1998) explains: “A server is a program which accepts connections, receives data, mulls it over, and sends out some output. In the MUD world, the server
Characters are one type of object within the mud program; rooms are another. Objects that participants create within the mud can be used to imitate objects that might be found in analogous spaces in real life, to enhance the experience of the mud as a virtual space and to communicate information to each other. Once an object has been created, it generally responds to text that participants type by outputting text of its own. In this way, objects add to the experience of the mud as a “virtual space” through their quasi-autonomous reactions to stimuli.
Many of the objects on BlueSky function as information exchanges. For instance, a job-listing object allows people to type in jobs that might be of interest to others or to read the list for job information. A login object records weekly active time of all characters, allowing people to find out how often someone else has been on recently. Some commands are also built into the mud program itself, allowing participants to display additional information about themselves if they wish, including e-mail addresses, “snail-mail” addresses, birth dates, and so forth.
Other objects function more as toys, which participants play with when conversation flags, when they are bored, or just for fun. For instance, one of the bars on BlueSky contains a “diving platform” (written by elflord). The command up, when typed in the bar, causes the character to climb “bravely up the ladder to the platform.” Once at the top, a special help command informs the participant of actions possible from the platform:
Help for diving platform commands:dive—execute controlled dive
jump—leap wildly from platform
yell <msg>—yell message down to bar
push <person>—attempt to throw person from platform You can also set visible “myjump” and “mydive” attributes on yourself. To test them, “give jumper = 100” and “give diver = 100” respectively.
In the example below, several BlueSky participants show off by executing silly preprogrammed “dives” (using the “mydive” attribute). Episodes of play like this are common on BlueSky, but in this case the tomfoolery was probably sparked by a discussion of my research project and was essentially a demonstration of an element of BlueSky culture for my
Jet DEMONSTRATE YOUR MYDIVE ROLL CALL
Jet climbs bravely up the ladder to the platform.
Jet has left.
Jet executes a perfect swan dive into the tub of water.
Jet has arrived.
Locutus has no mydive
Locutus weeps
Gravity climbs bravely up the ladder to the platform.
Gravity has left.
Gravity shouts, “I HAVE NO MYDIVE!” and does a bellyflop into the tub. Water SPRAYS throughout the bar.
Gravity has arrived.
Roger Pollack gets soaked
Roger Pollack says “hey, watch it with the no mydive there
”Jet HOWLS
henri climbs bravely up the ladder to the platform.
henri has left.
henri shouts “AIEEE A SPIDER” and HURLS himself from the platform, SMACKING into a table. He sits up groggily and mutters, “or was that a piece of lint”
henri has arrived.
Roger Pollack giggles at henri
henri grins
Roger Pollack laughs
Locutus climbs bravely up the ladder to the platform.
Locutus has left.
Locutus shouts “RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED! and falls off the platform.
Locutus has arrived.
After watching the fun, I attempt to join in as well. henri joins me and unsuccessfully attempts to push me off, after which I use the dive command. The text below starting with “Copperhead attempts” was generated as a default dive by the diving platform in response to my typing the command dive. (I was unable to figure out quickly how to set a “mydive” attribute.)
You boldly climb the spindly ladder, up, up, up …
Atop the platform
This small platform teeters high above the Falcon. You may attempt to “dive” into the bucket of water far below, or simply “jump” and hope for the best. It's a long way to the bottom—better not look down!
henri climbs bravely up the ladder to the platform.
henri has arrived.
Ichi yells up from below, “Jump Jump Jump
”henri tries to push Copperhead over the edge, but Copperhead manages to shove henri over instead!
henri has left.
henri yells up from below, “AUUUGH”
Copperhead attempts the Double Boontit with a Half Twist, from the handstand position. The crowd grows quiet, then exclaims “AWWW” as Copperhead WHAPS into the rim of the tub.
Play with objects on the mud can generate large amounts of text in a short period of time, as this example shows. This quickly moving text also has a relatively low level of intrinsically useful content, so it is referred to, on BlueSky and elsewhere on the net, as spam. (The term derives from the canned meat of the same name, particularly as referred to in a Monty Python skit in which the listed menu items in a breakfast cafe include increasing amounts of Spam.) Spamming with objects is considered objectionable during busy times, when it disrupts ongoing conversations.[3]
Objects used in play can serve as repositories of culture and history, particularly of stories told by participants or jokes about them. For instance, in one of the BlueSky bars, a “bartender” object (written by henri) reacts to “spoken” names of drinks or food. Several of these names derive from media references, such as “Spam,” “tranya” (Star Trek), and “pangalactic gargle-blaster” (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Others refer to specific participants. For instance, “shub” refers to the character Shub's interest in guns and his tendency to use the kill command frequently:
Copperhead says “shub”
The bartender suddenly produces a .45 and shoots Copperhead. *BLAM*
Whenever a participant says “shub,” the bartender interprets this as a drink order and “kills” the character who requested the drink. The kill command can be used by objects such as the bartender or by one character against others. On some gaming muds, kills occur in the course of battles with other characters, usually governed by intricate rules of the game. In some cases, these sorts of kills actually delete the character from the database. However, on most social muds (some of which have eliminated the kill command entirely), kill merely sends a character back to its “home base” (usually either the entrance room to the mud or a location built by the participant). Several of the bartender's drinks kill the person ordering the drink.
Other menu items have much more benign effects and serve mainly to transmit various in-jokes. For instance, one drink order, “Mountain Dew,” refers to Corwin's reputed fondness for the soft drink of that name:
Copperhead says “mountain dew”
The bartender shakes its metallic head, “Corwin drank it all.”
The restroom in the bar (also created by henri) pokes fun at the virtual reality aspects of muds by playing off the character gender designation. henri and Bob, noticing that I have failed to set my character's gender, encourage me to try it out.
henri says “ch has no gender”
Copperhead says “New Gender-Free Copperhead”
Bob says “Try the restroom, Ch.”
henri says “ch you must go into the restroom and type ‘pee’”
Restroom
You're in a green-tiled room with fluorescent lights in the ceiling. There seems to be some sort of complex plumbing apparatus over in the corner.
When I type the command pee in this room, the room takes note of the gender setting of my character and displays a message accordingly.
With character setting of female:
You lower the seat, but before you can do anything else, a couple of robotic arms grab you by the shoulders, lift you into the air, and squeeze you completely dry. A light comes on over the plumbing apparatus which reads, “THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE”
With character setting of male:
You unzip, but before you can get any farther, a hose descends from the ceiling, making an ominous sucking sound. To your horror, it attaches itself
― 51 ―to your crotch and drains your bladder dry. A metallic voice announces:“THANK YOU FOR USING AUTO-POT”
With character setting of neuter (or plural):
The plumbing apparatus seems to go crazy, and a red light starts flashing and you hear a mechanical voice say “GENDER UNKNOWN GENDER UNKNOWN.” You just pee on the whole thing.
In addition to its in-joke wink about character attributes, this object's responses also play with ideas about gender. Much of the humor in the final response to a neuter gender derives from ideas about the connection between gender and genitals and the difficulty people have in imagining their way out of the gender binary.
Familiarity with objects and the stories to which they allude marks one as an insider to the culture (Fine 1987b). The ability to program objects that people enjoy also gives a measure of status within the group. henri enjoys a high level of respect on BlueSky in part because of the humorous and interesting objects he creates. Similarly, Beryl has written both useful objects, such as the login object that records people's online time, and several fun objects, most of which allow people to add customized messages, a particularly popular form of toy.
The use and creation of mud objects, similar to that of artifacts in offline cultures, become part of the production of culture, and the objects themselves embody and perpetuate that culture. As seen above, people's practices with mud objects become part of the culture. These objects also transmit and repeat aspects of the group's culture, such as people's likes (e.g., Mountain Dew) and hobbies (e.g., gun collecting). Although mud objects are merely programmed textual descriptions, their similarity to physical objects lies in their ability to embody cultural meanings that can be perpetuated or changed through manipulation of the object. Objects also serve as avenues of information exchange between participants.
Two of BlueSky's objects also provide important ways of managing online interactions. The first, a “lom lever,” exists in some form in each of the BlueSky bars. This object allows certain participants (who must be approved by the owner of the object) to expel others from the room using the command lom, which is sometimes done to express annoyance and is particularly used to harass newbies, who cannot similarly retaliate.
Lom differs from the kill command in a couple of important ways. First, all participants (except guest characters) have access to the kill command, but the lom command works with an object associated with a particular
Also, the lom command does not cost the character anything, whereas using the kill command costs participants a certain number of “credits,” some of which must be paid to the killed character. Credits are a form of mud money. Each character receives a certain number upon creation and gradually receives more from the mud program as the participant spends more time on the mud. Credits are “spent” through the use of cpuintensive commands, that is, mud commands that place a heavy burden on the computer on which the mud is operating. Charging the character credit for these commands discourages profligate use and helps protect the mud program from crashing. All building commands are so taxed, meaning that anyone who wants to build his or her own room or objects needs to acquire a certain number of credits and is presumably discouraged from “wasting” it killing characters. Because lom does not cost credits, its capability is desirable to whatever extent that a participant also values building.
On BlueSky, not many people build, and many people amass far more credits than they use. But people still use lom more often than they kill. Both commands can be used to indicate displeasure with someone or to tease or harass them. BlueSky participants view kill as somewhat more extreme than lom, rather analogous to using a harsher swear word.
The following example demonstrates the use of a couple of different objects, including lom and the jack-in-the-box. First, Mender activates the jack-in-the-box (built by Beryl), which serves as a repository for joke objects that various other participants program and add to it. (Six-Foot Tall Hello Kitty was inspired by a display of the popular Japanese cartoon character Hello Kitty in a San Francisco Sanrio store.) After I imitate the Six-Foot Tall Hello Kitty, RaveMage suggests I'm participating too fully and loms me.[4] Since I am not yet on the lom list, I am unable to lom him back, and I receive the command failure message, “a humongous buzzer goes off.” Mender chivalrously steps in to lom RaveMage for me. Roger Pollack also attempts to do so and finds he is not on the lom list. Meanwhile, Bob loms George just for being a newbie.
Mender cranks the jack-in-the-box.
Six-Foot Tall Hello Kitty comes ROCKETING out of the jack in the box!
Six-Foot Tall Hello Kitty shouts “I WILL EAT YOU LIKE A SAUSAGE!”
Six-Foot Tall Hello Kitty is shooped back into the box!
― 53 ―Copperhead says “yay! Six-Foot Tall Hello Kitty!”
Copperhead makes big eyes and runs around the room, “I WILL EAT YOU LIKE A SAUSAGE!”
George says “THAT's NOT A SAUSAGE”
Rostopovich says “hey, George, I haven't seen you before, are you just a infrequent visitor?”
George is a NEWBIE SWINE.
RaveMage says “whoa, CH, you're getting too much into the spirit of things … TIME TO COOL DOWN”
RaveMage pulls a large lever, and a trapdoor opens right underneath Copperhead!
Copperhead SHOOTS out into the sky!
The Eyrie [my new location after being lommed]
There is nothing around you save clouds. [description of the Eyrie]
@tel #288 [my command to return to the Falcon]
The Falcon
This spacious chamber is furnished with myriad tables and chairs of every conceivable material, height, and design, as though a used furniture store had exploded. Booths tucked against the walls offer a modicum of privacy. Panels in the curving walls provide diffuse lighting for the patrons who sit about drinking and talking. At the far end of the chamber, a vertical extension provides room for a very tall high-diving platform.
Mender says “NEWBIE SWINE MUST BE DESTROYED”
lom RaveMage [here I use the command to attempt to lom RaveMage]
Copperhead pulls a large lever, and a humongous buzzer goes off!
Copperhead hmphs
Mender says “ALLOW ME”
RaveMage says “hee hee:)”
Bob pulls a large lever, and a trapdoor opens right underneath George!
George has left. Mender pulls a large lever, and a trapdoor opens right underneath RaveMage!
RaveMage has left.
Copperhead bows and says thanks
Roger Pollack says “no, please, i insist”
Roger Pollack pulls a large lever, and a humongous buzzer goes off!
Roger Pollack pulls a large lever, and a humongous buzzer goes off!
Roger Pollack says “well fine”
henri originated both the object and the term “lom.” He told me that in previous versions of this object, everyone theoretically could use the object, but the command was changed periodically to different nonsense
A second important object, the “magic recording device,” or “mrd,” stores up to a hundred lines of public text (i.e., excluding whispers and pages) for rereading. The mrd serves several useful social functions. It provides conversational context for people who have just entered the room. It also guards against “spoofing,” since it precedes each line of text with the name of the originating character.
Spoofing is a way of transmitting text to others on the mud without that text being attributed to your character. Most commands that generate text, such as say and pose, precede each line of text with the character name. Spoofing uses a command to generate text that does not include one's character's name. On BlueSky this command is usually used for joke effect, particularly since all participants are aware that others present will immediately make use of the mrd to check the identity of the spoofer. Some muds have made spoofing more difficult by restricting the use of such commands. Others have altered the commands to include the name after the line of text, enabling such commands to be used for joke or other effect without giving up character accountability.
Like many of the objects on BlueSky, the mrd demonstrates the importance of identity and continuity for BlueSky participants. In its protection against spoofing (which occurs very rarely on BlueSky), it guards against misrepresentation of identity. Its function as a context provider also supports a social environment in which people are expected not to disrupt conversations already in progress. The ability of others to read the last hundred lines also tends to discourage negative speech about participants not present, lest that participant suddenly appear and read the comments just uttered. (On the other hand, anyone who wants to “clear” the mrd of such speech can easily create enough spam with other objects to do so.)