Subject: Note about MUDs and Chat

From: [email-masked] (the piano has been drinking)
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1992 21:19:39 -0700

This is just a note that we installed a MUD on Cruzio a couple of
weeks ago, and some impressions on MUDs and Chatting for community
access systems.

One thing Carl noted about the DIAC conference was that Chat was
sort of looked down upon, or seen as somehow "less serious" or
"less useful" for community networking systems.

MUD stands for "Multi-User Dimension", and was the subject of at least
one DIAC talk. A MUD is essentially a text based virtual reality 
implemented  around a map topology database and a form of extended Chat.
Users navigate through rooms, manipulate objects and can intereract
with other users.

Well, one of the things I did with our MUD right away was create a
basic topology consisting of some rooms inside a social club. One
of the rooms is the sysop's office, and I keep regular "office hours"
where folks can "drop in" for help or to shoot the breeze. So far,
without exception, every single time someone drops in we have a blast
conversing, messing around with objects in the MUD and otherwise
interacting in a way that is totally unlike anything I have ever
experienced in my zillions of years as a net dino using email and
Bnews.

Count this as a hearty thumbs up for Chat and MUDs in community networks.
More info about MUDs can be found in the rec.games.mud.misc newsgroup on
USENET, where MUD FAQ files are posted once a month. These FAQs are an
excellent introduction to MUDs for those who wonder what the heck they are.

chris
-- 
		"If life were easy, everybody'd want to do it."
		       -Knuckle Buckalo

	             [email-masked]

---

From: Frank Hecker <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 18:03:59 -0700

> weeks ago, and some impressions on MUDs and Chatting for community

I'm glad to see this come up as a topic.  One of the reasons I
subscribed to the community-access and social-vr mailing lists was to
discuss new technologies that might be appropriate for community
access systems, beyond traditional mechanisms like email, passive
information files, online databases, and conferencing.

> "less useful" for community networking systems.

And not just for community systems, I might add.  Richard Bartle,
"father of MUD," seems to be quite put out by the thought of chat
intruding into the world of MUDs (which are really supposed to be
games, don't you know).

> [MUD defined, and description of positive effects of MUD being used
> as social club area in community system]

Chat is obviously the first service you can imagine being provided by
a MUD in a community access system, and I agree that it can be a
useful one.  In particular, I would guess that it would increase
people's sense of participation in the system and to some degree lower
the "barrier to entry" for those who are not computer experts,
somewhat analogous to the role CB radio played vis-a-vis traditional
amateur radio.  (Of course, some might not find that to be a
flattering comparison :-)

I think a second possible use for MUDs in community access system is
as a way to offer online assistance in using the system, provided by a
real person rather than by a "help system."  After all, in a MUD the
helper can converse directly with a user, see their actions, see the
virtual space they share, and offer immediate feedback in the event of
problems.

Of course, taking full advantage of this requires that the "MUDness"
be extended outside a special area into the entire system, so that
rather than interacting with traditional menus, mail systems, and so
on, the users interact with each other and with spaces and objects
that subsume the functions of the current system services.

Whether this can be done successfully in a real working system (with a
real-world budget!) is to me one of the most interesting challenges
for those designing, building, and operating community access systems.

> excellent introduction to MUDs for those who wonder what the heck they are.

I would recommend that people also take a look at the papers that
Pavel Curtis has put online for anonymous FTP at parcftp.xerox.com in
pub/MOO/papers (I believe), including his DIAC paper, Bartle's MUD
survey paper, and Elizabeth Reid's paper on Internet Relay Chat.

Frank

-- 
Frank Hecker
[email-masked]