Shattered Kingdoms

When it comes to MUDs, according to Richard Bartle, "People go there as part of a hero's journey—a means of self-discovery". Richard Bartle is also known for his taxonomy of gamer types.

Do you agree with this quote? Have you noticed things in yourself influenced by your characters that you might not have uncovered otherwise? Archetypal even?

Has the experience been overall positive or negative for you? Or is it impossible to summarize... yet?

I'll keep the opening short and sweet. Overall positive!

That said, there have been ups and downs over the years. There were days I'd go in as a hero or villain and self discover all the time! Less so now, but still figuring life out at 39.

Think next year may have a jerk YOLO necro!

Impossible to adequately summarize.

I believe that any type of rpg game allows for some element of self discovery. MUDs perhaps more so than others due in part to the facelessness of the person behind the curtain that you get with a MUD vs a traditional tabletop RPG, MUDs allow for far more flexibility of physical form than MMORPGs as well and the typing and reading aspect of a MUD uses different parts of the brain.

When I build a character I choose a part of myself to imbue within it to allow me to have both a connection to this new creature and also to allow me to see what the extremes of that aspect can be. It is an interesting exercise.

MUDs are a positive experience for me less for the notion of self discovery and more for the adventure of it.

I am curious where in his works that quote came from. I'd like to see the context, do you have a citation?

I might agree but you never know

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/interv ... ginal-mud/" target="_BLANK
He says much the same as you do, the discovery adventure aspect.

https://mud.co.uk/richard/DesigningVirtualWorlds.pdf" target="_BLANK" target="_BLANK
p. 577

The celebration of identity is the fundamental, critical, absolutely core point of virtual worlds. People go into these as part of a hero’s journey — a means of self-discovery. Everything that players do ultimately concerns the development of their own identity. — Richard Bartle

I love Joseph Campbell but indeed the hero’s journey as monomyth has received due criticism.

I absolutely love the cited sources and putting yourself out there for conversation. A+.

As far as whether the experience has been positive/negative for me, it's been a net positive - no reservations. I made lifelong friends/acquaintances, and unintentionally exercised improvisational muscles to a point I couldn't forget them if I tried. There were definitely some negative periods, some wild stories... but overall I still think a positive. I also think roleplaying can help a person practice jumping into someone else's shoes in a low-stakes way, if they're in the right place for it - a general positive for empathy.

I think there's two critical points I'll jump on - first of which is to echo the criticism of the monomyth you spoke to. I think it's an example of being so reductive of a thing as to remove any meaningful definition from it. It gets really easy to plug square pegs into round holes when you give yourself that much slop in the size of the round hole.

The other critical point I'll latch on to is that...sometimes a cloud is just a cloud. Asserting people go to MUDs as part of their own hero's journey feels like apophenia. People can just bored creatures looking to play a game, and some of what Bartlet wrote/said feels like getting over-wrought with what it all means. Though I'll admit I skimmed, because by god that #$@* is 1,000 pages. I just don't got the patience anymore.

Case in point: I've chatted with a non-zero amount of people who've played this game and couldn't find facts about themselves with two hands and a flashlight. I'm sure you have. Jen definitely has, and agrees.

That does bring to mind to a more interesting question to me - is there something you've learned about yourself you feel was facilitated by SK? "You" being stepped back from stratford to anyone reading this.

I think for me, I knew but had more concrete examples of my predisposition to being a 'burn bright then burn out' kind of presence with games (and probably other things, too)

I love the open question Stratford! Is it a hero's journey? Of self discovery? I think it depends on why you're playing. I like creating characters! I don't know of many other games where you can fully describe and be kind of whatever you want. And then that character gets tested and there's conflict, and the question is still, why are you playing, why resolve this conflict? For me it's to see my character be there for his friends, it's about the team. I think even a lone ranger type would need at least some friendship going on, maybe not a tribunal or cabal, but at least someone to experience the game with. Not just the mechanical parts but the silly rp. So I don't know if it has anything to do with being a hero. And honestly I do not know if I am playing the same game as everyone else! But you let me stay here so I'm still here. That is my cents.