The MUD/MOO

A MUD (Multiple User Dimension, Multiple User Dungeon, or Multiple User Dialogue) is a text-based computer program which users can log into and explore. The MOO (MUD Object Oriented) is developed from the MUD, which has more functions than the MUD. It enables users to build rooms and create objects. One room is a metaphor of a group or a topic like that in newsgroup, which makes users who are separated geographically interact and collaborate in a shared conceptual place. For example, in LambdaMOO, users can chat with friends, meet new friends, and look around. Compared to other online environments like newsgroup, blogs, and listsev, the MUD/MOO provides chances for users to exert their imaginations and efforts and also make users’ personal issues integrated into the social environment.

The features of the MUD/MOO
First, as I think, the MUD/MOO can facilitate users’ cooperation. It provides a text-based virtual environment, within which users can share and communicate. A collaborative environment is not just composed by a shared place, which also needs within interaction and communication. Within the MUD/MOO, users are forced to cooperate sometimes. For example, activities within the MUD/MOO always require users to create objects and environments. It means that users have to cooperate to build up a shared environment. Besides, within the MUD/MOO, there is a strict class system. Different classes have different rights. In order to get promoted, the lower classes have to resort to the help and elevation of the higher classes, which also compel the cooperation between users.

Second, the MUD/MOO can facilitate users’ communication. Users can use an anonymous name or log in as guests, and people within this virtual environment don’t know the background of each other, which to some extent makes their communication easier. Different from the communication in newsgroup, in the MUD/MOO you can find who is online at the same time as you and then you can contact them directly like paging them. So, most interactions in the MUD/MOO are synchronous. If you ask a question there will be somebody who will answer it soon. Under such an environment, users are free to ask questions without fears of being laughed and worries of no answers. Now some MUDS/MOOS are specifically designed for learning computer programming. Some users think playing MUD/MOO games is useful for learning computer language.

Third, the MUD/MOO can support users’ construction. In other virtual environments like newsgroup, users can not change the environment. But the MUD/MOO provides a virtual frame (like the frame of a “house”), based on which users can create artifacts and environments (like the “rooms” and “objects” inside the “house”) that they think worthwhile.
Fourth, compared to other online environments, the MUD/MOO can bring users more fun. For example, in the virtual “swimming pool”, users can splash each other, watch others diving and dunk somebody, etc. The communication within the MUD/MOO is very interactive and close to that in real environments, which also makes the MUD/MOO more interesting.

The ability to create artifacts
As above have said, the ability to create artifacts make the way people communicate with each other more living, interactive and interesting. The artifacts (rooms, trails, buildings, furniture, etc.) play an important role in mediating the interactions.

First, the close-to-reality environment makes itself familiar to users thus facilitate interactions. Below there is a paragraph describing a virtual university created as a MUD/MOO.
“These are the entrance gates to *** University. To the north you can see a carved stone archway leading to the tree lined mall of the campus. To the south, you can hear the rumble of traffic on Bovine Way.”
By reading above texts, though there is not a multimedia interface, users can form the environment in their minds by their imaginations and perceptions.

Second, being able to interact with the artifacts makes interactions approachable. In the virtual environment built within the MUD/MOO, users can “operate” the within objects. For example, they can create “classrooms” and “write” on the “blackboard”.

Moreover, within the MUD/MOO, users can have different activities in different environments. It makes interactions more attractive. For example, in a MUD/MOO environment, there maybe have a living room, a kitchen, a pool, and even a smoking room. The activities users have in these places are characterized by the features of them.

The different speech modalities
In the MUD/MOO, there are different speech modalities like the emote and the page besides the room conversations. Various speech modalities make the MUD/MOO more like a real world. Besides, they make it possible to interact in different methods. As the paper “THE MODAL COMPLEXITY OF SPEECH EVENTS IN A SOCIAL MUD” says, “the emote, combined with the social responses to objects and geography, allows for a complex user culture on MUDs”. The author divides the emote into five categories: (a) conventional action, (b) back channels, (c) byplay, (d) narration, and (e) exposition.

The implication of the MUD/MOO in instruction
1. Instruction can be facilitated in a shared online environment that is close to the social environment.
2. Initiative learning can be achieved in the virtual environment with virtual objects that is close to the real environment with real objects.
3. Literacy can be cultivated and improved in a text-based environment.