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The Screenwriter in Cyberspace
By Charles Deemer

Column #8 - The Virtual Office

Imagine having your own "virtual office" in cyberspace. There you would have many of the conveniences of your office in the physical world: a desk and chairs; a blackboard; filing cabinets; a tape recorder; an adjacent conference room for more private consultations. MOO - Object Oriented Multi-User Dimensions - are online sites that provide the tools for creating exactly this.

A Sample MOO, A Sample Virtual Office

I recently opened my "virtual office" at the University of Hawaii's ATHEMO, which is the MOO for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. In the grand tour below, my purpose is to get you as excited about MOOs as I have become. MOOs aren't the easiest environments to learn but the reward is worth the effort.

MOO Access

MOOs are built at sites that are usually accessed by a telnet program (client software can also be used - see links at the end of this column). Most providers and many browsers have telnet built-in, but in some cases you may have to download telnet software yourself. There is an excellent online resource for doing this: The University of Hawaii Theatre MOO is accessed with the following command, which is configured differently depending on your telnet context: When you telnet to this address, you get a welcoming message and then an invitation to register as a guest (or with your I.D. and password if you are a member. Use the command "@go Registration" to see about becoming a member): "connect Guest" is the command (without quotation marks), and then press Enter/Return.

This is where a sense of being overwhelmed begins. MOOs are very powerful, as I hope you'll learn here. They also are a bit confusing and require some getting used to. A new MOO guest may ask: Now what? Or: Is this all there is? Once you connect, nothing seems to be happening.

But wait! With luck, an online experienced MOO Wizard or member may greet you in The Lobby, where your journey begins. To speak to him or her, type the word say and then press enter - you will be prompted to type your message. As a shortcut, you can use " instead of say (i.e. a single quotation mark).

A MOO Tour

Let me give you a tour of my office and tell you what I do there. This will give you an idea of what MOO technology can do. After that, we'll explore other areas of the Theatre MOO.

A MOO is divided into many areas or rooms, which can be used by many users at once "in real time." In this sense, it combines features of IRC and the Web. Like IRC, real time chat is available at a MOO; as on the Web, a space with many areas within it is defined.

Once you've done the "connect Guest" command above, you can get to my office with the command: @go CDOffice

I created my office with commands of "@dig" and "@create," learning about them at the online help area ("help index"). A MOO is dynamic: people can "dig" new rooms or spaces and "create" objects to put in them. I thus created a "tape recorder" and "tape," so I can record what happens in my office when I hold online classes or workshops there. I mail this log to myself with a @mailme command.

I also created a "filing cabinet" so I can store things out of sight from vistors. I created a "clock" so I can easily find out what time it is. I created a "blackboard" on which I can write messages for anyone who happens to drop by.

Many commands in the MOO mirror common sense commands. Thus, to get my tape recorder ready to use, I type: "put CDlog in CDrecorder" and "turn CDrecorder on." I could have given these devices any time I wanted and also described them in any way I wanted (what I describe is what a visitor will see with a "look" command.

Speaking in a MOO is done with the "say" command, unless one wants to "whisper" privately. "say How are you?" might be one command (it is safer to press the enter key after "say" and then type the message, which prevents simultaneous dialogue from interfering with each other). "whisper to CharlesD Let's leave" might be another.

When you enter a room, you can "look" at the objects in it. What you see (read) depends on how the creator as described them (with the @describe command: @describe CDFile as "a battered filing cabinet picked up at a garage sale", for example, will bring up this very description when a visitor types "look CDFile".

The MOO, in other words, is a text-based virtual reality and, as such, is a wonderful environment for writers.

A MOO Tutorial

It takes time to learn the commands above, which are only the most basic of a large assortment of powerful choices made available to MOO users. The classroom/workshop potential of the MOO is especially appealing to me, as it should be to all online writers. ATHEMOO has an online tutorial that gives a sense of what can be done.

Enter the command: @go Kaos Seminar Room (you are still at the theatre MOO). This is a "generic classroom." Generic rooms are easily copied and adapted for use by MOO members.

At the seminar room, enter the command: @tutorial

Take your time going through the wealth of material here, and when you're done type "help here" for even more features.

Other Features

I attached a "conference room" to my office and created a "key" with which to lock the door. In this way, I can hold conferences that other users do not have access to.

For all the features in my office, I've only used a smattering of the commands available to me. Many people use the MOO with a sense of fun, paying homage to MOO's origins in the MUD (Multi-User Dungeons) game tradition.

I've used my virtual office mostly for business, meeting my online classes there, holding screenwriting workshops there, or having business meetings there.

A MOO Hyperdrama Event

In March, I am testing a new use for the MOO environment. My new hyperdrama opens in April, and I am producing a "virtual staged reading" preview at ATHEMOO (to a by-invitation-only audience. To request a "ticket," email me).

For this project, I am using 13 actors at 13 computers, who will move through an 8-room environment in a "hyperdrama lab" that is being constructed just for this event. (If it goes well, a public performance will be scheduled in April or May).

Hyperdrama, with its simultaneous action occurring throughout a performance area, is a difficult form to rehearse "as whole cloth" - but in a MOO environment, for the first time, material can be tested and conveniently "tracked" by having "virtual tape recorders" running in all of the performance spaces. The MOO environment is letting me do things as an author of hyperdrama that I have not been able to do before with regard to new play development.

The creative uses of MOO, then, are limited only by the visions of the artists taking advantage of textual virtual reality. I expect many more exciting projects will premier at ATHEMOO in the months ahead.

More about MOO

I hope I've whetted your interest to learn more about MOOs. I can suggest a couple of useful starting points: MOO is an extraordinary resource for the film industry, if only people have the vision to use it. Imagine pitch meetings at MOOs. Imagine story conferences at MOOs. The possibilities are staggering.

I urge you to take the plunge into MOO.

--Charles Deemer

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Originally appeared at the Hollywood Network.