Open Access(Dis-)integrative Effects of MUD-Usage as Seen by the Players
Author(s) -
Susanne Keuneke
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
eludamos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1866-6124
DOI - 10.7557/23.5960
Subject(s) - judgement , german , perspective (graphical) , psychology , qualitative property , social psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , epistemology , history , philosophy , archaeology , machine learning
Most studies on social relationships in Multi-User-Dungeons (MUDs) focus on the online development of the relationships or on their trans¬fer from Virtual Reality (VR) to Real Life (RL). The perspective of my study is broader: 50 players of the German MUD Avalon were questioned in an online survey about the relationships they had gained or lost by playing online – and for their own judgement on the effects the MUD had on their social network. Of these 50, 20 participated in qualitative online interviews; their answers allow a better under¬standing of the quantitative data. The main results of the quantitative survey are that most of the players gained new relationships – in¬cluding an amazingly high number of couples – and only one player lost a friend; nevertheless nearly half of the players had neglected their RL relationships for some time. The interviewees judged these effects according to their RL experiences: Highest ratings were re-ported by those who gained closer relationships in VR than they were used to in RL – even though this might mean that they had simply found acquaintances rather than real friends.