My First Internet Experience ...

When I first started using the internet, Metallica were still the kings of Napster (despite their hotly disputed "rock-n-roll-worthiness" due to their "dramatic" change in hairstyle) and AOL reigned supreme. My parents bought into the internet service provider giant's demands of $25 a month, and it is from this medium that I first launched a campaign to dominate chat rooms everywhere. More specifically, role playing chat rooms. No, I'm not talking about the kind of role playing where you dress up like a dog and pretend to play fetch with strangers at a convention in the desert. I'm talking about online fantasy role playing. And what, exactly, is that, besides a part of my past I'm not hugely proud of? Allow me to explain.

Online fantasy role playing (“RPGing” for short), was something kids like me (and many adults) did in their down time to escape the “real world” in a virtual place made of text and heavy descriptions, and connect to others of like-minds. Essentially, it was World of Warcraft or Everquest without any visual stimulation besides the words on the screen. So even though, in my case, I was running AOL on an IBM computer with Windows 95 and probably 16Mb of RAM (at most), the only thing slow and frustrating was the time it took to connect.

To give an example of what the “real world” might look like as an RPG, I will demonstrate using a typical day in the classroom.

Joel: *He saunters in, knowing full well he has arrived five minutes late, book bag slung over one shoulder, and looks to the projection on the wall*

DJStanovsky: *with his usual vigor and enthusiasm, he continues explaining the Double Rainbow phenomenon sweeping the nation, with a quick glance to the newcomer*

DJStanovsky: Hello there.

Joel: Hey. *he offers a small nod then takes his seat toward the back of the classroom*

The amazing thing to me was that not only was this type of online chatting popular, but providers like AOL had set up official chat rooms specifically for us imaginative-minded dorks to play in. Not only that, but they paid people they called “moderators” to keep the “riff raff” out of the chats (I would guess to keep the regulars happy, and thus paying, dorks).

Despite the profitability factor, I believe Bush would find this level of creative interaction progressive. It certainly is a platform for shared ideas, and ties in nicely to his take on science as “communication between individuals” which provides “a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.” I believe he is addressing the social interaction that allows ideas to flow, which, even in a “normal” virtual chat setting, occurs as a rule. In fact throughout the life of any given chat room, there are “regulars”, and friendships (if you believe friends can be made through a texting platform) that forge small “communities” of those with like-minds.

The source of inspiration for the nerds like me who participated in role playing chats can not be ignored, as it played a large role in their online interactions. Bush spoke of the memex, a self-invented idea of knowledge including pictures, books and all other manner of media. Of course, though he did not realize it, Bush was describing the internet in its most rudimentary terms. What struck me as more relevant to chatting, however, was his description of how the human mind works. That it “operates by association”. What was the purpose of RPG chatting if not to communicate with others by way of common association? In this case, I believe the way we associated was two-fold. For one, there was the basic human need to interact with those sharing a common interest. And secondly, on a more cerebral level, we associated what we were typing with our knowledge and experiences with the fantasy genre. I would not go so far as to call RPG chatting “a great lost art that will be sorely missed”, but it was enjoyable at the time, and while it was popular, it fueled the imagination of thousands. Though I doubt it will ever make a comeback (those same geeks who participated are now being spoiled by a slew of MMORPG games), I believe it was crucial in showing the world that people still loved fantasy, and perhaps was partially responsible for the huge market for it that exists today. Bush described the detail of mental pictures as “awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.” I would have to agree, because with the help of just a few words in the window of a chat room, it once created worlds.