Yib's Guide to Mooing: Getting the Most from Virtual Communities on the InternetWhat is a MOO? Many first-time visitors think that a MOO is a kind of chat room - and they are partly right. A MOO is like a chat room in that many users log on at the same time and communicate with one another. People become friends, enemies, even lovers! But that is only the beginning.... A MOO is like an adventure: It provides a sense of place. There are areas to explore and puzzles to solve. A MOO is most especially a place whose users themselves can creatively extend the environment, from adding rooms and building objects to programming new commands. The basics of MOOing are easy, and Yib presents them in an easy-to-learn sequence. The intricacies of MOOing are many and varied, as MOOers have expanded these environments extensively over the years. Yib teaches you how to use all the most popular enhancements, then shows you how to investigate and extend the environment yourself. A lively tutorial will have you programming before you know it! Besides the fundamentals - enough to make you a confident user of any MOO - Yib provides an in-depth look at LambdaMOO, the original and largest MOO. She takes you on an armchair tour of its most interesting places, documents its most popular feature objects and player classes, and provides a thorough explanation of how to participate in its political system. New MOOers will like this book because it is accessible. Experienced MOOers will appreciate its depth and comprehensiveness. MOOing is fun! Yib makes it easy. |
