virtual reality: n.

1. Computer simulations that use 3-D graphics and devices such as the Dataglove to allow the user to interact with the simulation. See cyberspace.

2. A form of network interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing games, interactive theater, improvisational comedy, and ‘true confessions’ magazines. In a virtual reality forum (such as Usenet’s alt.callahans newsgroup or the MUD experiments on Internet), interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel complete with scenery, foreground characters that may be personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common background characters manipulable by all parties. The one iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a character without the consent of the person who ‘owns’ it. Otherwise anything goes. See bamf, cyberspace, teledildonics.