The final chapter of the book has a couple sections dedicated to the Internet, including one on how it can be a global village, with communities dedicated to certain areas of interest. It even goes on to discuss how the relative anonymity of the online world can lead to deceptive and harmful behavior. It's impossible for me to even think about this subject without being reminded of the two and a half years I spent in the TSRP community.
TSRP, or The Specialists Role-Play is a mod of a mod. A team of coders and artists created a modification of the first-person shooter Half-Life, creating an alternate game inspired by, among other influences, The Matrix. Originally the game was a simple deathmatch-type game, the twist of course being able to do impressive stunts and slow down time to kill other players as stylistically as possible for the most points, in locales including a replica of the lobby shootout scene in the original Matrix.
Eventually, though, a sub-community formed. These people were role-players that redefined the way the game was to be played. Instead of running the around the map, doing impossible stunts and killing everything in sight using names such as "l33T aZn SnIpEr", these players created characters with personalities and walked around newly created city-like places conversing with other characters, spontaneously creating story lines while using realistic first and last names. In addition, people created forums to keep track of the events that went on in each server, as well as to talk to the players behind the characters about the game or other topics. Eventually (and keep in mind that almost everyone involved was in their early to mid teens) people learned to code for the game, creating role-play modifications like economies with money, items and property and the all-important TalkArea that only displayed chat messages within certain ranges (narrative "/me" statements, normal talking, shouting, whispering, and phones)--useful not only for realism, but for reducing the inevitable spam of 32 players talking simultaneously. As a major figure in the development and administration of most of the successful TSRP communities, there's much history I'd like to share (especially events in-game and on the forums) but if I get started, I won't stop. As a side note, it's a shame how the
Wikipedia article doesn't mention anything about how each community shaped the game and led to the creation of other communities.
But yeah, back to the whole anonymity thing, with the deceptive and harmful behavior. With this, I'm in total agreement. Since people are interacting online using such methods as text in a forum or in-game chat or through actions in a video game, it's very easy to forget that you are dealing with other human beings. The lack of face-to-face interaction makes it easy to ignore the consequences of one's actions.
Therefore, it's
real easy to be a dick to others, considering how the people you're pissing off can't retaliate in any real way.
In my experience with TSRP, most of the griefers I had to deal with were DMers, who blatantly ignored the role-play rules and ventured into our servers with the sole purpose of intentionally disrupting the gameplay of others by killing them repeatedly in a Deathmatch-like fashion.
But that's just easy in-game asshole stuff that can be remedied with a quick slap of the banstick. The really interesting problems come from people who
have problems. Such people confirm French philosopher Paul Virilio's (some dude in the chapter) opinion that "there is a serious social problem afoot when able-bodied people assume a home-bound existence to conduct their social life online and through media." Yes, I know what the RP in TSRP stands for; does it really mean that it's OK to roleplay
everything? I've seen many screenshots and demos of people who have caught other members having cyber sex. The indefensible part is that these weren't in-character relationships that have been developing over a relatively long period of time--it always seemed to be the same set of people whose sole purpose seemed to get together online using random names, find a place on the map where they think no one can hear them, and amaze each other with how fast they can type with one hand. The LOL-worthiest part of it all was how, since I knew everyone pretty well and used administrative software to keep track of peoples' Steam IDs, IP addresses and character names, I noticed that the female character in the cybering sessions was always controlled by a dude and as far as I could tell, the other player had no idea--
--which reminds me some more things about deception. Lying about your gender in-game isn't very hard at all. What I found to be most impressive was this one guy (with whom I later led a community) who created and used over a dozen forum accounts simultaneously, each with a unique personality. Eventually he was outed by someone, and I confirmed his trickery by matching the IP addresses of the posts. He had so many names that in the thread debating his actions, no one knew what to call him. Don't get me wrong, Scar (if you ever read this): you're a great guy and have done a lot for the community, but with this debacle plus your long rap sheet of cybering as both a guy
and a girl, there's something not quite right with you (or maybe you are, as Turkle suggests, a person whose self is "multiple, fragmentary and complex").
Oh, man. Looking back, it's hilarious how many people were caught cybering. I think the most controversial cybering-related event involved one of the server owners and one of the other administrators, who he conveniently replaced me with as top admin. Everyone knew what was going on, but considering the powers admins had, no one got close enough to get any proof. All I did was publically ask "Hey, isn't cybering with a minor illegal?" and bam--permabanned, admin stripped. Funniest. Shit. Ever. I'd link to it, but I'm trying to distance myself from anything related to TSRP--including contributing to its Wikipedia article.
Although TSRP was an online community and had the unique symptoms of anonymity-inspired assholishness, it's also almost exactly like real life. Sure, deceptive and harmful behavior may be more common, but that's only because getting caught has no real repercussions; people still do them IRL. As an admin I had all the responsibilities one could expect in an actual business environment, with each day testing my managerial and people skills, as well as my judgment and morals with each problem that arose or decision that had to be made. I also had to deal with incompetent and abusive coworkers, dumbass customers and office politics, including people who sleep their way to the top.
It's funny how a game can be so much like real life. It's probably because to some people, it is.
