BEFORE
YOU MOO
This section provides an overview
of the skills and concepts
and software you will need before you begin to
MOO.
SKILLS
MOO, or text-based
virtual reality [TBVR], is mediated via the keyboard. This
means that in order to use MOO successfully, it is preferable that users
should have at least some rudimentary keyboard skills. While
it is not necessary to be a touch typist, it is useful to know where the
Enter,
Spacebar
and Delete keys are located.
Slow typing
should not be a barrier to successful MOOing - regular MOOers soon learn
to type more quickly, and often develop a 'shorthand' to speed up exchanges.
It is important
to remember that although low typing speed slows down an exchange, for
language learning purposes this may, in any case, be desirable in some
instances.
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CONCEPTS
Every item in a MOO database is an object.
Each object can have attributes, such as a description, attached to it.
Common objects within a MOO environment are:
Rooms
One of the most common metaphors in MOO is
that of the room. A room is a virtual space or area.
It may be public and usable by any player, or it may be private
and belong to a specific player. As in real rooms, in a MOO all players
who are in the same room at a given moment will be able to "hear" all the
others' contributions and "see" whenever somebody else enters or leaves
the room. Those outside the room will not.
MOO users can "move" from room to room
within the MOO, although it is usually considered to be a breach of MOOtiquette
to invade another player's private space without an invitation.
Players may describe their room-objects
in any way they wish. Exits from any room are automatically added
to the description by the database program:
BAMBURGH
-------------------------------------------------
You are in a small Northumbrian Village
dominated by the huge, red edifice of Bamburgh Castle. Opposite the shops
on the village green, is a Victorian church, standing on the windswept
headland. The church and the castle are separated by a row of houses
built of the same red stone as the castle. Between the houses and
the cricket pitch is a narrow opening, the Wynding, which leads to the
beach, from where there is a very good view of the Farne Islands.
If you look very carefully, you can see a dark alley beside the tearooms.
If you need more help, type <help
here>
-------------------------------------------------
Obvious exits: Causeway <cw> and
Alley <al>
The geography of some MOOs is so sophisticated
that users can - and often need to - access a plan of the virtual space
by typing <map>.
[Concepts]
Players
Each MOO-user owns a virtual representation
or player object, which is a metaphor of her/himself. It is
to this object that the user attaches the description of her/himself that
s/he wishes other players to see when they "look" at that object.
The description may be a true representation, in words, of the owner of
the object, or it may be pure fiction.
For example, "looking" at "Lesley" in one
MOO would provide the following information:
You see a black-clad educational technologist
with a passion for unusual earrings. Silver sharks shimmer as they swim
across her earlobes... Be careful, though... she has a temper to match
her red hair, and she knows you're looking at her right now!
She turns her gaze on you and murmurs,
"Hello, Markus. Can I help you or are you just staring at me out of idle
curiosity?"
[Concepts]
Things
Different objects or things may be
created and used for various purposes:
-
Generic things have a name (flowers,
bottle of Water, chocolate, etc.) and a description. Users can <look>
at them, <take> and <drop> them, or <hand> them to somebody.
-
Containers are generic things
with an additional property which allows the user to <open> and
<close> them, <put in> or <take out> other objects. (box, drawer,
bag...)
-
Notes are objects that allow all or
certain users to <read> them or even <write> on them. All kinds of
text information can be stored on notes.
-
Books comprise a series of pages to
read like an organized sequence of notes
-
Complex Objects are very sophisticated
objects like OHPs, TVs or VCRs that allow quite a large number of interesting
interactions. (See MOOtools).
-
Feature Objects have certain more or
less useful commands attached to them. (often abbreviated sequences to
issue frequently used statements with a few keystrokes).
[Concepts]
Bots
Bots or "robots" are objects
which have player-like characteristics - they can respond to certain questions
and perform certain actions in response to commands which they have been
programmed to recognize. They are, however, part of the MOO environment
rather than being other MOO users.
It can sometimes be difficult to recognize
the difference between an exchange with a bot rather than with a real person,
if the bot has been skillfully programmed, but a bot's description often
includes information about how to interrogate it most effectively.
For example:
Type <order DRINKNAME> from Iona
A bot can only respond in a pre-programmed
way.
[Concepts]
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SOFTWARE:
TelNet, MOO Clients and Web-based access to MOO
It is possible
to access a MOO by using raw Telnet.
Simply choose Connect, enter the MOO address and click on OK.
Having followed the login procedures,
it is then possible to use the MOO to communicate with both other players
and with the environment. However, it can be confusing to use raw
telnet, since incoming text is not separated from outgoing text. It is
also not possible to edit text before sending it. This can be difficult
even for native speakers of a language, and many MOOers prefer to use a
MOO client which not only separates incoming and outgoing text by providing
different windows for each, but also allows text-editing to take place.
There are many
MOO clients available, and these should be chosen according to operating
system and user requirements - while some MOO clients allow hotlinks to external
resources such as the World Wide Web, for instance, others do not.
Certain MOOs
now offer web-based access - in other words, any standard java-enabled
browser will be sufficient to access those MOOs comfortably.
Some examples
of MOO clients and MOOs
offering web-based access are provided in the reference section, but
this is not an exhaustive list.
To open a very
basic Telnet client in Windows 9x:
-
go to the Start
menu
-
select Run
-
enter <telnet.exe>
into the command line field.
-
confirm this by
clicking on Ok
To run TelNet from
a Macintosh, double click on the Telnet application. (Use Find
File and enter <telnet> if you're not sure where this is located).
[Top]
Last updated
30th January 1999
Authors: Lesley
Shield and Markus J.Weininger
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