The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games - Michael J. Tresca [81]
Second, because a user cannot suffer immediate physical harm and cannot be held legally or socially responsible for his actions, inflammatory disinhibition is a much more appealing recourse. There is no immediate accountability for any damage inflicted upon another user except verbal, and even then that may be limited if a user is capable of ignoring or ending the conversation. While a face-to-face communication may be forced to continue because one person is screaming and the other cannot help but listen, a computer-mediated communication can be immediately ended. Some MUDs have “ignore” functions that allow another character to be ignored entirely, providing the player much more control over the communication channel.
Informational disinhibition can lead to a tight-knit community, as players share information much more intimately and quickly than they would in a similar face-to-face setting. RetroMUD’s community is so tight-knit that it’s been responsible for some marriages. At least three couples met and were later married as a result of playing on RetroMUD. This isn’t unique to RetroMUD either; 8.7 percent of male players and 23.2 percent of female players have had an in-game wedding (Glenday 2008: 184). And of course, I met my wife over a MUD. The online sitcom The Guild has spun entire seasons of webisodes around precisely this topic (Day 2010).
Players
In Beck and Wade’s survey of gamers (2004:127), they discovered that the most experienced gamers chose a leadership style that solicited input from a group but ultimately made the decision. This style, commensurate with a party leader, lends itself well to disparate adventurers trying to survive in a hostile environment. It is a flexible approach that allows them to both draw upon the experience of the group and act quickly on it. In fact, this style of group consensus balanced with action-taking is reflective of more experienced business managers.
Indeed, the reality factor, the media richness that may be lacking in certain games, is not necessarily a barrier to immersion. According to Castronova, “Our apparatus for sensing the environment is adapted to the environment in which humans evolved,” an environment that did not have media in it. The default assumption is that everything perceived is real. Thus, immersion happens quickly because it is impractical to do otherwise; the player must engage in a constant stream of rejecting the experience (and thereby stop playing the game) or submit to it.
This immersion is further reinforced by the population playing the game. When a large group believes something, it becomes more expedient to believe along with them. When a “dragon” “kills” another player’s character, the group acts as if the character died (even temporarily). No one shrugs it off and says, “The dragon’s not real” (Castronova 2005:75).
Character Roles
RetroMUD has many races and primary, secondary, and tertiary classes, similar to Dungeons & Dragons’ prestige classes.
Races
RetroMUD has nearly sixty races covering a dizzying variety of character types. Practically every humanoid creature is represented, including some that aren’t humanoid at all, like the multi-eyed argus. RetroMUD includes additional statistics that other CRPGs later implemented, including maximum age, diet requirements, heartbeat speed, vision, available equipment slots, advantages and disadvantages, resistances and vulnerabilities.
Classes
Traditional Dungeons & Dragons classes have transitioned to MUDs largely intact with one exception: the thief. In a free-flow narrative where the Dungeon Master describes the environment, consistent definitions of a wall, a door, or a trap are all mutable. A thief