MUDs/MOOs/MUCKs/MUSHes... ...
MUDs/MOOs/MUCKs/MUSHes are role playing adventure games in which the players
solve puzzles, kill enemies, and roam around about the virtual world. Someone
creates a "world" and you, as a player, and other folks create the characters
who explore within that "world". The unfolding of lives can be a source
of fun, surprise, and inspiration.
These games have database that has been coded to have textual descritpions
of rooms and buildings and outdoor scenes that are built around a central
theme correspond to the "world" that you entered. There are worlds that
are based on Science fiction and fantasy books, movies and television shows,
comics and anime, etc. Players are given the capablility
to create characters who can interact with one another in the games. The
difference between these games and the internet relay chat is that in these
games, players are not visiting with people as their real-life selves, but as
fictional characters who are congruent with the universe.
Finding a place to play that you'll enjoy is the first step. Most of the
MUDs/MOOs/MUCKs/MUSHes would let you visit their site as a quest.
Guest characters generally have the freedom to wander around the world and
explore what it this world is all about before being required to have some
kind of background story for themselves. But it is better that you begin
with a world that you are familiar with, perhaps a favorite movie setting, etc.
This will allow you to preview your character better, and help you to
interact with other people in a way that is appropriate based on a shared
knowledge of what is happening in that world.
Generally you will find a description about the room you have logged into,
and the contents of the room. The descriptions about the rooms will fit
the mood of the world you are in. If a word in the description is bracketed
by quotes or apostrophes, that means that there is something to look at. Simply
type look the bracketed word, then you will see a description of that
object or person which was in the brackets. If you want to talk, type
say message, to perform an action, type pose action,
to pose an action and speak, type pose action "message",
and if you want to send a private message to a specific character, type page
charactername = message.
Some of the MUDs/MOOs/MUCKs/MUSHes would let you create the character at the
login screen, others ask that you mail to a certain address to request for
a character. Once they give you a character name and password, you are ready to
create a new identity in your ViRtUaL WoRlD.
The first thing that you have to do for your character is to assign it a gender,
by typing @gender male/female. Then, you would have to describe your
character, in order to do so, type @descme=whatever your description is.
And now you are all set for your adventure in your ViRtUaL WoRlD.
One important thing to keep in mind is that, there are 2 kinds of people on the
MUDs/MOOs/MUCKs/MUSHes, they are the coders and the role-players. The coders
are the ones who make sure the role-players have rooms to play in, and cool things
like wagons that carry them around or elevators that appear to move or machines to vend
them drinks when they are thirsty.
Even most of the MUDs/MOOs/MUCKs/MUSHes are based on thud-and-blunder warfare between
human players and computer-generated monsters, there are others that offer
sophisticated role-playing environments where personal interaction within the context
of the game is of primary importance. For instance, the Diversity University
is the first MOO to be designed specifically for educational purpose. Diversity
University MOO provides a real-time internet accessible virtual reality
educational environment. Classes, literature, conferences and consulting services
offered by the Diversity University MOO is used my many students, teachers and
professors, and administrators around the world.
ArE YoU ReAdY To TaKe YoUr FiRsT StEp InTo tHe ViRtUaL WoRLd?
CrEaTe A ChArAcTeR oF YoUr OwN
There are a lot of emotionally needy people on the internet, and they tend to mistake a virtual relationship with their own real life needs. They might bring the character that they created for this game into their real life world, in other words, they have become the characters that they created. This obssession with their own characters or other charcters in the game may interfer with their normal behavior or how they usually interact with their real life friends and family members. Therefore, players must learn to establish their own personal boundaries and be clear about what they are.
FliP tO tHe BiBliOgRaPhY
