Preface

Most MUDs can trace their lineage directly back to Trubshaw's 1978 game (Bartle, 1990b; Burka, 1995) and, perhaps because of this heritage, the vast majority are regarded as "games" by their "players." For the convenience of its readers, this paper continues to view MUDs in this tradition; however, it should be noted that MUDs can be of considerable value in non-game (i.e., "serious") applications (Bruckman, 1994a; Kort, 1991; Bruckman & Resnick, 1993; Curtis & Nichols, 1993; Evard, 1993; Fanderclai, 1995; Riner & Clodius, 1995; Moock, 1996). Indeed, the thrust of this paper emphasizes those factors which should be borne in mind when attempting to create a stable MUD in general, whatever the application; it is only the terminology which is that of "fun" MUDs, not the subject matter. In any case, even those MUDs that are built, from the ground up, to be absolutely straight are still treated by users as if they were games in some respects, e.g., by choosing whimsical names rather than using their real ones (Roush, 1993).

It is worthwhile considering for a moment whether MUDs (as they are generally played ) really are games, or whether they're something else. People have many recreational activities available to them, and perhaps MUDs fit some other category better. Looking up the word "game" in a dictionary of synonyms (Urdang and Manser, 1980) elicits three related nouns: "pastime," "sport," and "entertainment" (a fourth, " amusement ," is the general class of which the others are all examples). So it might be useful to ask "Are MUDs":

• Games? Like chess, tennis, AD&D ?

• Pastimes? Like reading, gardening , cooking?

• Sports? Like huntin', shootin', fishin'?

• Entertainments? Like nightclubs, TV, concerts?

Or are they a combination of all four? Perhaps individual players even see the same MUD differently from each other.

These questions will be returned to at the end of this paper, along with some proposed answers.