Real-time publications begin at the "cyphertext interfaces of online multiuser systems like MOOs and MUDs" (225). In other words, synchronous publications can be "read" only via "active participation" in an online environment. Readers become "players, active explorers of a text that is highly interactive and that may feature rich multimedia content that may include graphical illustrations, sound, music, or animations and film." Cyphertexts not only challenge the boundaries of what goes by the name "text," they also necessarily redefine the possibilities for the publication, presentation, delivery, and deciphering of those texts (225). One of the many interesting effects of engaging in cyphertextual interaction/publication in a MU* is the intensified "sense of community" this engagement sparks, both a sense of community with the text itself and with the other readers/players who are also engaged. According to Haynes and Holmevik, this effect is a function of "élekcriture—something like identity software for the next millennium" (228).

-ddd