i think that the fact that you automatically assume that all people use MUDs to have dates and have cybersex is totally wrong. In my three years of MUDing (and yes, i did play as male as well as female characters), I encountered romantic scandals, political intrigue, fantasy drama, science-fiction of all sorts, dragons, magic, and imagination. Though it’s true that people use these sort of things for cybersex, the idea that a) everyone does it and b) everyone is OKAY with it are incorrect assumptions, I believe. The first is that, well, not everyone does it. I’m an example of that, at least, and all the people in the MUD i played in (one called Feudal Realms) that had been active for five and a half years (now inactive, D:) had seen maybe one or two incidents of this manner, and they were swiftly punished by banning all the players involved.

Yes, there are MUDs where this sort of thing is encouraged, and I’m sorry to say they make the MUDing community look so poorly to the outside world. Not everyone is down with it, obviously. If I had a spouse, and their character was in a relationship with someone else’s character, that would be one thing, becuase it’s fantasy. The characters do not exist. The romance does not exist. If they were having cybersex, that’s another circumstance entirely, and it’s uncool.

What’s so wrong with being on a MUD? In my MUDing years (and I continue to roleplay outside of MUDs), I’ve been a female mage with multiple personality disorder, an emo dude necromancer, a noble knight, an elitist elf snob, a witty pickpocket, and more. My characters have served Dukes, dark gods, and fanatic religious leaders.

The point is, I think, that when you’re in a MUD – or any type of roleplay enviroment of that nature – your character is a different person from you, and more importantly, it isn’t real. If my character (let’s say, my pickpocket Felene) has a brother named Bram, I do not have a brother named Bram. If Felene is in a relationship with a man named Adon, I am not in this relationship with a man named Adon. Becuase Adon does not exist. I, as a person, have no feelings for Adon, becuase Adon isn’t feel. And Felene isn’t real. Problems arise when people feel they /are/ their characters, both in character and out of it.

As you can tell, I’m very passionate about not being misunderstood, or the MUDing community, or the roleplaying community as a whole. See me in class for more information if you’d like.