The Life of a DragonMudder

I first joined DragonMUD on December 1, 1992. A MUD is a Multi-User Domain, and is basically a text-based chat-room of sorts, which has the additional capacity of providing a sense of virtual space, rooms, descriptions, and characters. You can modify your character’s descriptions, use commands to talk and pose body language, and even build rooms in the virtual space. DragonMUD uses its rooms both for socializing and to present Quests, or brain-teaser-like challenges, to the characters.

DragonMUD has been my home mud for many years, and I have been a wizard there since 1994. What I like best about DragonMUD is its sense of community. I have personally hosted several real-life MUD gatherings, and there are semi-annual gatherings in San Diego, or elsewhere in the country.

I highly recommend checking out DragonMUD if you have an interest in virtual communities. Jen Clodius (Bedouin) is the main expert on DragonMUD as a community from an anthropological standpoint.

DragonMUD sites:

The DragonMUD homepage

Bedouin's Research Papers on DragonMUD

Here's a nifty one: the "DragonMUD blues" as recorded at kat's DragonFest98

Here are a couple of DragonMUD-oriented photos. I have more but haven’t developed them yet.

I swear I have 20 rolls of undeveloped film lying around.

	Me as a sweet young thing at my first DragonMUD gathering in Washington, D.C., summer of 1993.
	This is dEw and I in our garb, probably at a Strange Boutique concert. This picture best fits my old Dancer in Red description on DragonMUD.
	+The Graiae, a group of three women friends who met on DragonMUD: wapini, me, and dEw. This is at MemDay 1994, where I was made +Wizard.