Alice no país do espelho: o MUD - jogo e realidade virtual baseado em texto

Abstract

This dissertation is about a game and virtual reality called MUD (Multi user Dungeon). The game is based on medieval style adventure, where the user is conftonted with virtual monsters, and the search of treasures. This program works by textual descriptions, and itallows communication among several players that are connected in the program. Due to the communication among the users, it is possible to form a group of players around MUD. So, the proposal of this research is to do a virtual ethnography, to know the players that are part of this program and to know which are the reasons that attract the players to participate in it, once many players spend plenty of time in the program. Therefore, in the first part of the dissertation, the MUD is presented, its origin and operation. In the second part of the research, we try to know who the players are; and information were obtained about them (age, sex, location, etc) and their habits when playing MUD (access type, number of access hours ). In the third part, we try to understand the players' motivations. The motivations were obtained by the ftequency of answers in the questionnaire of the research and they were characterized in falir items : the Game, Virtual Reality, Adventure and Sociability, being these the most common reasons for which the users be present at MUD. In the chapter Game, we examined why the youngsters are attracted to this electronic game, with its own space and time, and we verified which type of game is MUD. MUD is also a Virtual Reality, therefore the players can use it in two ways: as a Psychological Space, or a space to live an Adventure. In chapter Sociability, we discuss how MUD propitiates new friendships among its users, and also how we can consider MUD as a virtual community. Finally, we concludethat a parallel can be drawn between MUD and the tale "Alice through the looking glass", by Lewis Carrol, considering the MUD player as Alice, who venture in a magic world, available through a glass, which we consider in this thesis an analogous to the computer screen. The players of MUD, like Alice, are going to a virtual world, they venture and they wake up again to their ordinary daily life, with the difference that they bring friends ftom the magic world to their lives