What can you do?

WHAT CAN YOU DO IN A MOO?

This section examines the nature of MOO and addresses some common misconceptions.

A MOO [Multi User Domain – Object Oriented] is a type of MUD [Multi User Domain (or Multi User Dungeon)]. MUDs were originally developed in 1979 to allow for role-playing games to occur across networks Curtis and Nichols (1993) described MUDs as being “unlike the kind of virtual realities that one usually hears about in three important ways” which they characterized follows:

Communication with others is solely text-based. This is why MUDs are often referred to as ‘text-based virtual realities’.

MUDs “are extensible from within.” – users can add new objects to them and endow these objects with “unique virtual behaviors, using an embedded programming language.”

There are usually many users connected to a MUD at any one time. These users “can encounter other users and their newly-created objects.”

MOOs were an offshoot of the original MUDs and have increasingly been used for educational purposes. They share the features of MUD as described by Curtis and Nichols.

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A MOO IS A TEXT-BASED VIRTUAL REALITY

All interactions in a MOO take place via text:

The world in which members of a text-based virtual reality interact is built from words, and it is a world where sentences, words and letters are the sum total of the “places” people meet, where they tell and listen to stories, create stories in tandem, play, work, and live (for some) significant portions of their lives with friends, colleagues and virtual strangers
Kolko, 1995

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A MOO IS EXTENSIBLE BY ITS USERS

A MOO is an object-oriented database housed on a (remote) server. The database responds in real time to commands entered by its users who thus dynamically create, modify and develop its content themselves. The object-oriented nature of such a database (each entity - ‘room’, item or even character - in a MOO is, in programming terms, a separate ‘object’) allows more advanced users of a MOO to employ the built-in programming language to add new, text-based objects. Even the least technically-able MOO user can, however, extend the database by providing descriptions of her/his character, or persona, or of her/his own virtual space or ‘room’. All members of a MOO community are thus able to build, shape and take control of their own environment:

The linguistic and conceptual maze that is the construction of text-based virtual worlds is… is also about creating a space where one's words really do create reality, where the only world available is what members have chosen to describe.
Kolko ref cit

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MANY USERS CAN CONNECT TO A MOO AT ANY ONE TIME

When connecting to an educational MOO, it is not unusual to encounter up to forty other users at any one time, although the average is around twelve to fifteen. Users can communicate in real time with all users who are logged into the MOO concurrently with them.

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SOME MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MOO

There are two widespread misconceptions about the nature of MOO and its users.

Firstly, because of its antecedents, MOO is often believed to be related to gaming and many who do not use the technology perceive it to be concerned with competitive role-playing. The terminology of MOO – its users are referred to as ‘players’ and ‘wizards’ - have added to this belief. However, this is, as Marvin (1995) stresses, a misperception. Although there are MOOs which require users to collect points and compete against each other whilst role-playing, many do not.

Secondly, MOO is thought to be a ‘chat’ forum like Internet Relay Chat [IRC]. While a MOO can be used simply as a text-based chat medium, in much the same way as a ‘chat room’ or channel, it has distinct advantages over bare chat; which is, essentially, an Internet-based, real time, conferencing system. Each MOO is a living organism: new users are 'born', socialized and integrated into the community, contributing to its special character by creating, describing and defining new objects. And users also 'die' – if they do not log into the MOO for a certain time (which varies from MOO to MOO) their characters are reabsorbed into the database.

MOO allows its users to interact with the virtual environment as well as with each other, thus adding a further dimension to the types of learning activity possible. Examples of typical activities and interactions with the MOO environment include, amongst other things, the ability of players to pursue a virtual treasure hunt, play the word game Boggle (with each other or against the system), frequent a virtual bar and order virtual drinks, play virtual darts, plant virtual flowers in a virtual garden and add virtual graffiti to a virtual graffiti wall.

What is more, unlike chat channels which are only brought into being when users log on to the system, the MOO environment exists independently of its users. In other words, the objects – personae, ‘rooms’ and things – which go to make up the virtual world of the MOO exist until their owners destroy or ‘recycle’ them.. Learners may also interact with the many language learning games and puzzles available, should they log in either when no other user is available, or choose not to communicate with them.

The following sections provide suggestions about using existing MOO resources and offer some ideas about how to use MOO for tandem and group-based learning activities.

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Last updated 30th January 1999
Authors: Lesley Shield and Markus J.Weininger