We can draw all kinds of unusual connections between things that seem miles apart, but here’s an example of how such things work in the world of domains. Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands, formally known as the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Its internet top level domain is .gg, which was created by Nigel Roberts and Laurie Brown in 1996. They also created .je for Jersey at the same time.
Plenty can happen over the space of a few years though, particularly in the world of the internet. Gamers have adopted the .gg extension because of an internet slang term known as ‘good game’ – a term used to credit someone who has great skill participating in multiplayer video games. It seems many people choose the .gg extension not because of its connection to Guernsey but because of its link to the world of gaming.
And in a neat bit of dovetailing, Dr Nigel Roberts, as he is now known, created more than just the .gg TLD. He was also one of several students at Essex University responsible for developing a game known as Multi-User Dungeon – or MUD1 – back in the late Seventies. This game was one of the first of its kind, where players could participate in the game and interact with other players at the same time.
The game was successful enough to spawn a sequel – MUD2 – but more than that, it spawned a whole new way of playing video games. Nowadays, we’re familiar with using an avatar as our online character in such games. A multi-user dungeon doesn’t always take place in a dungeon – it can be any virtual world, a factor that has likely seen MUDs success well into the 2000s. As technology improves, this is likely to progress further – and we might well see more use of the .gg domain too, thanks to its ‘good game’ connotations.
It seems fitting, therefore, that the man who helped create MUD1 should go on to create the .gg domain for Guernsey years later. He could never have guessed that the .gg extension would end up being used to credit anyone who put in a good performance in a MUD game years later. It’s a nice connection, for sure, and one that shows a TLD can play more than one role.
Many TLDs relate to countries, but there are some that play different roles. The .edu TLD is for education, for example, and .biz is still used for businesses, although it is seen as a little more casual than it ought to be.
However, .gg must surely be unique in that it was created to represent an island – Guernsey – and ended up being better known as an abbreviation for a gaming phrase. And to have a connection between its creator and the group who came up with the first multi-user dungeon game… that makes it so much sweeter. It’s a nice piece of history that also drives traffic toward Guernsey, since many people want to know more about this island when they come across the .gg TLD.