<1> Additional organizing principles or frameworks could be used in analyzing these interactive environments. A few questions guide several sets of variables: first, what remains stable and what is changed or contingent in these virtual environments? Is the MUD program in a stable environment, on a machine with administrators who can assure the program will remain online? The programming would seem to be stable, yet upgrades alter its capabilities. Should characters be viewed as permanent, temporarily stable, or perpetually changing? That which changes is also related to what hasn't been built or said in the environment or what might be, as opposed to everything that has already been built and said.

<2> Another variable relates to the quality of existing in real-time: which elements in this environment are dependent on real-time occurrence, and which are not?

<3> One more set of variables relates to precisely which relationships are being described: is the interaction being described between the characters of multiple players, between the characters and the environment, between more than one subjectivity of a character, or between one player's subjectivities and an environment?

<4> Finally, whose point of view is being used to define key terms such as roleplaying, acting, in-character, out-of-character and interface? For instance, are these terms defined by people who consider themselves part of a MUD community, by an individual about herself or himself, or by someone interacting with the individual?

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