Howard Rheingold's "Multi-User Dungeons and Alternate Identities"

In the article Multi-User Dungeons and Alternate Identities, the author, Howard Rheingold, discusses multi-user dungeons or “MUDs”. He describes “MUDs” as “imaginary worlds in computer databases where people use words and programming languages to improvise melodramas, build worlds and all objects in them, solve problems, invent amusements and tools, compete for prestige and power, gain wisdom, seek revenge, indulge greed and lust and violent impulses”. In the article Rheingold discusses the many ways these “MUDs” are used, but one of the main reasons he believes that these programs are being used is to help individuals escape reality or change their identity to become a whole different person. Rheingold states, “Similar to the way previous media dissolved social boundaries related to time and space, the latest computer-mediated communication media seem to dissolve boundaries of identity as well…( people) pretending to be somebody else”.

When thinking about Rheingold’s article in relation to something that is more commonly known among the general population, the idea of chat lines comes to mind. When someone calls a chat line they are calling to speak to a complete stranger, neither the caller nor the called has any idea of the other persons true identity. This means either person can become anyone they want, a teacher can become a millionaire entrepreneur or a housewife can become a sexy model. This is very similar to Rheingold’s definition of MUD’s, both of these things help people escape the reality of their day to day lives without truly leaving that life.