The Gamer Position: Protected or Vulnerable?

I thought LambdaMoo and the article “A Rape in Cyperspace” were very interesting. Initially, I was a little surprised how seriously the LambdaMoo community took the virtual rape. But this led me to think about how online games and networked media facilitate a kind of unique interactive experience in which there can be a melding of a person’s identity in the physical world and the person’s digital representation. This was a concept I wrestled with when working on my group project about surveillance of virtual worlds. In that project, we recorded a video from Second Life of a gamer called Nova being sexually harassed by another gamer called Day. Day, a complete stranger, constantly declared his love for Nova and asked her why she didn’t love him back. Eventually, Nova was disturbed enough to temporarily leave the game and come back as an alternate avatar. This encounter shares some similarities to the Bungle affair in LambdaMoo. Thus, these online games seem to offer two totally different relationships between the gamer and the media. On the one hand, the anonymity they give the user can serve to remove inhibitions that are active during normal societal interactions. The gamer is hidden behind a protective screen, and his/her newfound freedom can be put to nefarious purposes.

In cyberspace, there rarely are consequences for being an asshole, and thus many people use these games to unleash their perverse fantasies and sadistic side. When playing online games, especially shooters, I’ve witnessed gamers viciously bullying other gamers (especially newbies or younger kids) for little or no reason at all except that they can get away with it. This is regulated to a certain extent on private servers where “admins” set behavioral rules and enforce them with their power to kick or ban players from the game. These “virtual laws” are very reminiscent of LamdaMoo, where, upon entering, you are confronted with a long list of conduct regulations.

The presence of these rules hints at the existence of an alternate mode of online interaction. Dedicated players often become invested in their virtual persona and reputation as an extension of the self---thus negating the protection of anonymity and making the gamer more vulnerable. The gamer partially disavows the mediation of the screen and comes to associate himself/herself with his/her digital representation. Interestingly, unlike in modern computer games, one’s digital representation in LambdaMoo is entirely literary, but nonetheless, the virtual rape victims still identified intensely with their virtual character. Thus, the identification is not based on an actual visual representation (except perhaps a mental one). It is probably also significant that the LambdaMoo rape victims were LambdaMoo veterans. Their investment in their characters was most likely built up over time. I wonder if Mr. Bungle’s antics would have had the same impact on a LambdaMoo newbie.
I think the dual and seemingly paradoxical experiences of protection and vulnerability offered by online games are fascinating and deserving of more analysis.