Clio Wired (History 696)

1. She chose the wrong Trek! "Voyager" was by far the worst of the post-Roddenberry series. ST:TNG may have had its goofy episodes (Bev Crusher falling in love with a Scottish ghost, anyone?), and ST:DS9 walked a little too close to moral relativism to hold true to Roddenberry's socialist utopia, but ST:V was just ridiculous. The characters were unlikable, the military discipline even more non-existent than in previous shows, and Janeway can't hold a candle to Picard, let alone Kirk. Of course, we won't speak of ST:Enterprise. It is not to be named.

2. In a discussion of deconstructivist narrative, how could she possibly fail to mention Choose Your Own Adventure books? The narrative was already divorced from the linear arrangement of the pages, requiring the interactor to select from certain actions/responses. My favorite was "Space Patrol."

3. Why the preoccupation with MUDs? I remember when they were hot stuff back in the late 1980s, in the bad old days of 2400bps modems and local BBSs you actually had to dial up and log into. From what I recall, the NoVA area had quite to BBS scene - I was a member of several prominent boards, mostly Metaconcert, the Time Zone, and The Flat Earth as Quantum Man and Johnny Realityseed. But MUDs were a very collegiate experience, which may explain Murray's obsession with them. They usually required a better network connection, and so university students had an easier time. They also demanded more programming skill than a kid with a little PASCAL and LOGO under his belt could muster.

4. I'm not sure Murray has a solid grasp of the difference between tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs, such as Dungeons & Dragons or Shadowrun) and Live Action Role-playing Games (LARPs or LRPGs, such as Mind's Eye Theatre, which is itself a spin-off from a TRPG called Vampire: The Masquerade.) Now, I'll be honest - after comics books, my second biggest hobby is the collection of TRPGs. I have over 250 pieces taking up an entire bookshelf, a collection worth almost $3000. I've even written a short scenario booklet (soon to be published) for the GODLIKE RPG from Arc Dream Studios. Thus, Murray's backhanded attack on RPGs on page 82 took me off guard. How can she argue that reading about being locked into the subterranean world world of Zork is a more immersive experience than either a TRPG or LARP? I would guess that Murray has never been involved in a tense session of Cyberpunk:2020, with nothing between her netrunner character and the goons from the Arasaka Corporation but the cruel imagination of her gamemaster. Not immersive, my eye.

5. Finally, Murray blows whatever geek cred she may have earned by misspelling the name of the planet Hoth on page 265. I'm not sure where "Hath" is, but I know for a fact that Han Solo rescued Princess Leia from the ice-planet Hoth while Luke Skywalker led Rogue Squadron in battle against the Imperial AT-ATs.