Abstract
“On-line communities” (and especially MUDs—“multiuser domains”) are a popular, growing Internet phenomenon. This paper provides an overview of a project designed to provide a careful characterization of what “life” is like in LambdaMOO—a classic social MUD—for most, or at least many, members. A “convergent-methodologies” approach embracing qualitative and quantitative, subjective and objective methods was used to generate a large and rich database on this on-line community in terms of four general categories: (1) users and use, (2) sociality, (3) identity, and (4) spatiality. The evidence thus far appears to debunk some of the more provocative claims of widespread MUD addiction and rampant identity fragmentation on line. While supporting the primary importance of sociality in the MUD, the results also demonstrate the strong prevalence of personal, one-on-one social interactions over larger social gatherings. Finally, some close correspondences between patterns of spatial behavior and spatial cognition “in real life” and in LambdaMOO were found.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, C. (1996).Virtual identities: The social construction of cyberselves. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University.
American Psychological Association (1992). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct.American Psychologist,47, 1597–1611.
Cherny, L. (1995).The MUD register: Conversational modes of action in a text-based virtual reality. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University.
Curtis, P., (1992). MUDding: Social phenomenon in text-based virtual realities.Intertrek,3 (3), 26–34.
Curtis, P. &Nichols, D. (1993, May).MUDs grow up: Social virtual reality in the real world. Paper presented at the meeting of the Third International Conference on Cyberspace, Austin, TX.
Dalaimo, D. M. (1995).The simulation of selfhood in cyberspace. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Rheingold, H. (1993).The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. New York: Addison-Wesley.
Schiano, D. J. (1996, November).Mental models of “MUDs”: Just like being … where?” Paper presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago.
Turkle, S. (1994). Constructions and reconstructions of self in virtual reality: Playing in MUDs.Mind, Culture & Activity,1 (3), 158–167.
Turkle, S. (1995).Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Contributors to this project include: Ellen Bewersdorff, Herb Colston, Becky Fuson, Josh Loftus, Scott Mainwaring, and Sean White. Special thanks go to Pavel Curtis and to the many members of Lamb-daMOO, whose generous help made this project possible.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schiano, D.J. Convergent methodologies in cyber-psychology: A case study. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 29, 270–273 (1997). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204825
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03204825