Dragon Media

Players: This thesis has primarily been concerned with the SvenskMud administrators and the work to make SvenskMud work. I have thus looked “behind the scenes”, at a world that is worlds away from what the SvenskMud players see and experience. An obvious direction in which to extend this work would be to look at SvenskMud from the point of view of the players, and, with a focus on SvenskMud as a game.

We do know some of the characteristics of the SvenskMud players (see chapter 5) although the second of the two surveys was conducted two years ago as I write this. Who plays SvenskMud today? How do they treat and think of fellow SvenskMud players and magicians? How do they understand and make sense of the SvenskMud world and its content? What is the role of SvenskMud in their lives and how does SvenskMud affect them in their off-line activities? (more…)

I claim that SvenskMud is a virtual community. This conclusion should not come as a surprise to anyone who has read the previous nine chapters of this Ph.D. thesis. Judged by the six criteria for community that I have suggested, SvenskMud is a more central member of the community category than most other virtual communities that have been described in the research literature. However it is still obviously a less central member than presentday rural communities with their long time horizons and many tight ties between members. Created in a society that is moving from  Gemeinschaft and towards  Gesellschaft, SvenskMud represents an attempt to recreate  Gemeinschaft in cyberspace. It simultaneously recreates both a place and a type of relationship that was typical of such places:

•  The SvenskMud world is created in the image of a former, simpler age. It is based on a medieval/pre-modern world, incorporating traditional symbols of pre-modern communities such as guilds, churches, chapels, village pubs and so on. Symptomatically, there is only one town in the SvenskMud world, Eriksros, and (more…)