The article in "A Rape in Cyberspace" discusses the uncanny realm where people set up separate identities for themselves and play through them. I don't think anyone's played a MUD or MOO since the turn of the century. MMORPGs have long replaced the text based games with enticing graphics and customization. I tried a MUD a few years ago, but I didn't know any of the text commands and was mostly pissing people off. I didn't know how to keep conversations private and kept interrupting people with my questions. It was kind of like going into a coffee shop, and yelling over everyone "WHAT KIND OF COFFEE DO YOU HAVE AND HOW DO I ORDER?!" I found forums to be a bit friendlier and I didn't have to type as fast to keep up.
As for the case of Mr. Bungle, there is a name for him now: troll. Trolls are abundant on the internet and find their way into about every sort of online medium. Trolls are usually sociopathic and seem to exist for the sole purpose of ruining everyone's online experience. A troll will post obscene material, harass people and just generally make you feel like humanity is lost. Generally, it's best to ignore a troll. Openly challenging them (without the backing of an online authority or community) will make you a target for harassment. The worst kind of troll is one with technical experience because they can retaliate with worms or viruses. If banned the more stubborn troll will merely find a new way to come back online and attack using a new profile.
Most forums and high-profile online games will have a police of online administrators or filter that will prevent direct offenses like cursing and spam. This is good because if trolling finds a support bad things can happen. 4-chan is a website that will forum of trolls where bad behavior is actually encouraged and exploited. For example if a member has a problem with a person or website they can post their information online and the "community" will attack them. And a lot of them know how to hack... Websites have had to been shutdown and girls have committed suicide due to the onslaught of horrible things posted on the site. Trolls can be anything from a mild annoyance or a destructive force and are a blight on people who are just trying to have an enjoyable time online.
Works Cited
Dibbell, Julian. "A Rape in Cyberspace." JulianDibbell.com. 1998. Web. 12 Feb. 2011. .
