MOO
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- For other uses, see
A MOO (MUD
The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses. One is to refer to those programs descended from the original MOO server, and the other is to refer to any MUD that uses object oriented techniques to organize its database of objects, particularly if it does so in a similar fashion to the original MOO or its derivatives. Most of this article refers to the original MOO and its direct descendants, but see Non-Descendant MOOs for a list of MOO-like systems.
The original MOO server was authored by Stephen White, with later development and maintenance from
One of the most distinguishing features of a MOO is that its users can perform
[edit] Background
MOOs are network accessible, multi-user, programmable, interactive systems well-suited to the construction of text-based adventure games, conferencing systems, and other collaborative software. Their most common use, however, is as multi-participant, low-bandwidth
Most commonly, MOOs are connected to by users using a
Every MOO stores the content and state of all its objects within an
New MOOs have to choose a starting database from which to set their MOO up, or they can use a very minimal one which contains only the necessary objects to start a MOO. There are a handful of such MOO "core" databases which serve as foundations of code and utilities from which to start your MOO, including LambdaCore (from
Every object in the MOO is appointed a number, prefixed with a #, and all objects are referred to by this reference, as well as their name when the user is in the objects presence. Administrators, also known as Wizards, who are able to manage the MOO, and assign certain global names to these objects, which are prefixed with $, a process known as corifying. They also feature parenting systems, and every object will have a parent, commonly eventually leading to Root Class, otherwise known as #1. #0 is also reserved as a special system object which is responsible for managing the list of global names, incoming network connections, and other information related to the operation of the system.
[edit] Advantages
According to St. Amant, Kirk(Editor)(2004), in Internet-Based Workplace Communications: Industry and Academic Applications
There are a number of features that make MOOs valuable collaborative Environments:-
- The ability to communicate in a real-time environment.
- They allow a fuller mode of expression.
- MOOs offer the advantage of making personal interactions much more real and immediate.
- Personality and identity— regardless of whether it’s the MOO’s or the players’
- The ability to create an object that another user can pick up,look at
manipulate, or use, incorporating a “sensory” and hands-on application to an otherwise purely visual learning experience.
- The above help students with the most of different learning styles
- MOO incorporates multiple resources; one is not limited to a single medium.
- MOOs offer flexibility -there is, quite literally, very little one *:cannot do with the proper resources and training.
[edit] Negatives
- One of those difficulties is the question of software required to access the MOO
- One additional problem that often crops up when it comes to questions of access is that of firewalls.
- MOO needs an organized system of governance if not it can become a place of chaos, confusion, and factions.
- Lack of proper training for teachers and learners without which it is difficult to imagine what virtual MOO space will look like, how it will be configured for users.
[edit] Creating a Sense of Reality in Moos
Green, Eileen(Editor)(2001)in Virtual Gender:Technology,Consumption and Identity Matters describe how textual forms of looking and gazing function on MOOs to create a sense of reality and community.
'Looking’ in a MOO is an important part of creating the feeling of ‘reality’.Looking and gazing are an integral part of MOOs like LambdaMOO.
On MOOs the visual vernacular recreates parts of the physical world in order to structure a particular kind of reality. Green, Eileen(2001)
The first thing that someone creates on the MOO is a character. The characters have attributes(including gender characters) which can be defined and re-defined through a process called ‘morphing’.
‘Defining characters as ‘objects’ on MOOs also contributes to the belief that there is a direct physiognomic correlation between the user and their character', Green, Eileen(2001).
Pronouns are used to specify gender constructs to aid in ‘natural language parsing’.
The look is a ‘privileged term in MOO systems’ even though characters
communicate using texts. However this is not easy as,
“Gazing must be radically rethought in online settings because the traditional relationship between subject and object is problematized by the loss of both Cartesian space and the unitary self” Green, Eileen(2001).
The ‘loss of Unitary self’ can be explained because in MOOs the user can create and identify with a ‘character’ or object which can be quite different from the real ‘self’.
Thus creating characters, giving them gender characteristics and ‘looking’ at other such characters help form a sense of community.
This is further explained by Mulvey ‘s point about ‘cinematic reality’. Mulvey(in Green, Eileen(2001)) argues that
‘cinematic codes create a gaze, a world, and an object, thereby producing an illusion cut to the measure of desire’ (1986: 208).
Thus using 'Visual pleasures in textual places'(Green, Eileen(2001))MOOs create a similar set of seemingly real illusions through the construction of an architecture of belief that includes particular kinds of character descriptions which include description of the gender.
[edit] History
MOO, along with all of its nephews, started out with
Stephen White (also known by the handles "Ghondahrl" and "ghond") wrote the first version of the MOO server, which was released on May 2, 1990, and used for the operation of a server called "AlphaMOO". Pavel Curtis, an employee of
According to Jill Serpentelli in her paper Conversational Structure and Personality Correlates of Electronic Communication:
- Curtis went on to explain how the transition occurred from AlphaMOO to
MOO was originally developed as a MUD server in the same general style (sharing much of the command syntax and community conventions) as
There are currently two distributions of the MOO server code. The more popular of the two, the LambdaMOO server, is named such as indication of the close historical and continuing association of the MOO server code with the first public MOO, LambdaMOO, which is still popular today.
It is this LambdaMOO version of MOO that gained popularity in the early 90s, and it remains the most widely-used distribution of MOO. Pavel Curtis continued to maintain the server for several years. Other early contributors to the LambdaMOO server included users Tim Allen ("Gemba"), "Gary_Severn", Roger Crew ("Rog"), Judy Anderson ("yduJ"), and Erik Ostrom (known as "Joe Feedback"). Later, Erik Ostrom maintained the server, and the server is now maintained by Ben Jackson and Jay Carlson and has a LambdaMOO
Sometime around early 2005, the GammaMOO server forked from LambdaMOO with the goal of being a testing ground for new features not yet qualified for inclusion in the main MOO distribution (which has very strict standards for any changes). It can be seen as a the equivalent of a "development branch" that most other projects have.
[edit] Non-Descendant MOOs
Some servers use MOO style object oriented characteristics without being descended from the original MOO server, in the sense that they use little or none of that server's source code and use internal languages that are more or less incompatible with the
Stephen White went on to write a new and similar system called
One unusual MOO with no real relationship to the original MOO is called mooix. mooix is unique among MUDs in that it uses the underlying UNIX operating system to handle all of the multitasking and networking issues. Several unique side effects result from this, one of which is that the MOO can be programmed in any language. mooix was written after a failed attempt by Joey Hess to write a MOO entirely in Perl, called perlmoo.
There are a number of MOOs written in Python, including POO, MOOP, and playsh.
[edit] MOO access
Participants (usually referred to as users) connect to a MOO using
Having connected to a character, users then give one-line commands that are parsed and interpreted by the MOO as appropriate. Such commands may cause changes in the virtual reality, such as the location of a character, or may simply report on the current state of that reality, such as the appearance of some object.
The job of interpreting those commands is shared between the two major components in the MOO system: the server and the database. The server is a program, written in a standard programming language, that manages the network connections, maintains queues of commands and other tasks to be executed, controls all access to the database, and executes other programs written in the
Almost every command is parsed by the server into a call on a MOO procedure, or verb, which actually does the work. Thus, programming in the MOO programming language is a central part of making non-trivial extensions to the database and hence the
[edit] MOO administration
All MOOs provide a flag called Wizard; when set on a player, the player gains the ability to view and modify nearly everything in the MOOs database. Such players are called Wizards, and usually form the basis for MOO administration.
Wizards are able to restrict access to the MOO, as well as make news postings and monitor logs. Wizard permissions are needed for modification and even execution of verbs and properties for which the user does not own, or is not publicly readable/writable. All verbs and properties within objects have the appropriate flags, with the user can change to determine its current state. They are also able to assign global names to any object.
[edit] Outline of well-known MOOs
- LinguaMOO is an educational MOO dedicated to general studies of arts and humanities, created in 1995 by Cynthia Haynes of the
- MediaMOO is designed for professional media researchers now hosted at Northern Illinois University's Department of English. It was originally created in 1993 by Amy Bruckman at the Epistemology and Learning Group at the
- Rupert is a social MOO based on
- MOOsaico is one of the oldest Portuguese MOO (and the oldest Portuguese virtual world), created on 7 January 1994 and also the first true multilingual MOO. Hosted in the Computer Science department of University of Minho. [6]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Essays and documentation
- Official MOO FAQ, updated October 2004
- Yib's Guide to MOOing, updated November 2003
- SunNET manual
- The Lost Library of MOO, updated May 2005
- The Purpose of MOOs by Rachel Rein, May 1996
[edit] MOO directories
- MOO at the
- Echo Duet MOO List - Active MOO directory
[edit] Cores and programming guides
- LambdaMOO server source
- Encore - Popular educational MOO core
- JHCore - Programming MOO core
- MOO programmers manual, May 1996
- yduJ's MOO programming tutorial
- mooix - a programming language independent MOO
- POO - Pythonic MOO
- MOOP - a MOO written entirely in Python
- playsh - a MOO-like text environment that runs on your local computer