This is the story of one user's experience at a virtual-reality community called LambdaMOO. A MOO--short for multiuser dungeon, object oriented--is a virtual place where participants can construct human-like graphical representations of themselves to interact in a simulated world. Author Julian Dibbell begins by relating the facts surrounding the case of Mr. Bungle, a character who committed the crime of "virtual rape" in this fantastic electronic world, shocking LambdaMOO's members. However, the thread of discussion about this case is minimal and the book ultimately becomes Dibbell's diary of his "research" of this virtual world, which grows gradually more obsessive, and how it affects his RL (real life). Dibbell offers glimpses of his RL between rich, colorful, and entertaining chapters describing the online community's gossip, his interactions and relationships with the other members, and his first experience with cybersex. What is interesting is that the brief snatches of RL are bland and boring, written in a kind of script format with little more than stage directions for descriptions. This device, plus Dibbell's discussions of his dreams about the MOO, show the reader how deeply involved Dibbell becomes in this community. The turning point comes when Dibbell's membership at LambdaMOO threatens to ruin one of his closest RL relationships. --Cristina Vaamonde
From Library Journal
The existence of crime and passion in a virtual world may seem no more meaningful than the existence of virtual worlds themselves, but Village Voice editor Dibbell's novelistic rendering of the affairs of cybersociety LambdaMOO is important?and even a bit chilling?in regard to the real-life set of social norms it so effectively manages to challenge. Dibbell's own intervention online with other real people who were acting with him under assumed identities caused a crisis in his real-life relationship, comment enough on the power and danger of any extracurricular activity in the online world. Fascinating in a disturbing way, this book is recommended for patrons of larger libraries interested in a heavy-duty dose of sociological order, eclectic paranoia, and good old garden-variety mayhem.?Geoff Rotunno, "Valley Voice" Newspaper, Goleta, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
An account that is part case study, part straight reporting, and part personal memoir of a virtual reality site called LambdaMOO. Portrayed here are the occupants of a MUD, or a multi-user domain, where one can simulate the experience of traveling through space via a computer. In the case of LambdaMOO, male and female users log on and construct their own characters. It was in this world, in 1993, that a user calling himself ``Mr. Bungle'' ``raped'' two other usersa crime that left the users rattled, prompting them to mete out their own justice. Dibbell first reported on the case for the Village Voice (where he is a columnist and editor), using it as an illustration of what seemed, in days before the rapid expansion of the information highway, to be the endless possibilities of cyberspace. He argues that the ``Bungle Affair'' cries out for close examination because ``it asks us [to] look without illusion upon the present possibilities for building in the online spaces of this world societies more decent and free than those mapped onto dirt and concrete and capital.'' A noble objectivebut in this book too soon lost sight of. Instead, Dibbells chronicle disintegrates into various musings and anecdotes about his own adventures in LambdaMOO, starting with the authors first experience of cybersex, and all told in a style that lunges from breathless intellectual posturing to a folksy, talking-to-the-camera tone. The book is divided into sections demarcated as ``VL'' (virtual life) and ``RL'' (real life''), but rather than providing ironic contrast between a virtual world and a physical one, Dibbell mostly uses the ``RL'' sections merely to divulge details about his personal relationships. Moreover, the interest of his book leans too heavily on early prognostications of the new-media gurus, who five years ago forecast the future dominance of virtual communities, expecting them to sprout all over cyberspace. They havent, at least not yet. Sometimes fascinating, seldom enlightening. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
“Dibbell's story is why I teach cyberlaw.” ―Professor Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School"
About the Author
Julian Dibbell is an editor at the The Village Voice, where he writes a column on cyberculture. He has written about music and computer culture for many publications, including Time, Spin, Mademoiselle, and Request. He lives in New York City.
