Sunshine Skyways

I find myself thinking about the December 21, 1993, Village Voice article, "A Rape in Cyberspace." At first, the author seems surprised by the physical effects that imaginary play can have. She seems to believe an isomorphism of sites and practices exists: the real world is the world of the body, of physical practices (real actions and effects), whereas a MUD is of the mind, of imaginary practices (unreal actions and effects). So, she is surprised that some authors/players of LamdaMoo felt violated when their virtual characters were assaulted in that virtual world. However, such thinking seems very naive to me. Written and spoken words have emotional impacts; just ask someone who has been the victim of emotional abuse. In the virtual world of LamdaMoo, it was the norm that authors/players owned and controlled their own characters. However, one author/player broke the social contract by taking control of some other authors'/players' characters. The violator had one woman's character disembowel herself and another player's character "sexually service" the violator's character, Mr. Bungle. On the one hand, one could dismiss the actions of the violator and devalue the feelings of the victims by saying that "It was just a game, and the creator of Mr. Bungle was just being an innovative player. No one really got hurt. The offended players were oversensitive." On the other hand, a social rule of the community that had been created in LamdaMoo was that authors/players owned and controlled their own characters: no one's character acted against the will of its author. The person who took control of others' characters violated that rule. Just as rape forces a person to act against her/his will, the creator of Mr. Bungle forced others' characters to act against the wills of their creators. If rape is not acceptable in the real world, why should it be acceptable in LamdaMoo? I heard, but could not find in an Internet search, that in Japan a person murdered another person in retiliation for a theft that had occurred in a MUD. Althought the theft was imaginary, the rage and murder were not. If any of you know of that event of Japan, please send more information through a comment.