[Encore] A Modest Proposal

[egoff]

Let me clarify things first of all. MOO (v4) does not exists. Encore, a
database developed by some very talented people, however does, MOO does not
come with web attachments, nor does it have "fluff" as I've heard it
described. The items you seen in "ENCORE V4.x" are add-in's to a database
that someone has taken and made. Currently to my knowledge there are at
least 4 primary and probably 100 secondary cores for MOO. GhostWheel,
Lambda, Encore, Jay'sHouse, PMC, to name the 4 I know of for sure.


The next line I disagree with is " I must say that the sense of spatiality"
That appears to be the fault of the developer. I'm don't mean to be rude but
I ran a successful RPG site for 10yrs before I had to shut it down due to
IRL situations. The "send of spatiality" was great. Players became immersed
in a world with rich culture, two unique races, which actually turned into
4, and a lot of fun. I must admit I was sorry to see it go. 

My only complaint from the ENCORE staff is how overhead the ENCORE database
seems to take. I'm not sure if its due to the HTTP controllers that are
running non-stop, a better scheduler or just a "deal with it" situation.

So please don't take this as a hit on ENCORE. I just think that saying "MOO"
is Encore and "Spatiality" doesn't exist in moo is a blanket statement with
no substance or thought.

My .02 and thanks to Peter for his .02. Shall we grow and learn from each
other.


-----Original Message-----
From: encore-bounces at encore-consortium.org
[mailto:encore-bounces at encore-consortium.org] On Behalf Of Peter Whitehouse
Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2006 5:39 PM
To: encore at encore-consortium.org
Cc: Steering at encore-consortium.org; support at lingo.uib.no
Subject: Re: [Encore] A Modest Proposal

Hi, 

I run a MOO (v4) as well as a Moodle and a MUD (Mordor) and I must say that
the sense of spaciality - of actually being somewhere is present truly only
in my MUD. 

MUD uses cardinal directions (nswe, up, down, trapdoor etc) for users to get
around and there is NO media at all, only text - each room is richly
described with a minimum of 5 linesx80chars of rich descriptive text
describing what is here, how it looks, smells, sounds etc ... yes it is a
gamespace, but users have a sense of travelling to get places. Some of the
journeys are long, frought with perils and involve problem solving and
orienting themselves to a map. I have used MUD to model geography they are
familiar with (our school is the gamespace they battle in) and they find
moving around in that space intuitive... interestingly, many ask when I am
going to graphically skin it so they can click on places and battle using
the mouse instead of words (the runescape and WoW junkies)... my answer ...
never.  If you can't think about it, click on it.

My MOO is textually rich as well, but users have less of a sense that they
are any distance from anywhere because of the shortcutting, bookmarking and
ability to "teleport" to each other instantly. They struggle to see the
spaciality, even when I use MOO to build a part of the school - geography
they are familiar with in the real world seems to disorient them in MOO. I
started out building in MOO like i had in MUD - emphasis on the text,
grudgingly putting in pictures, cardinal exits and so on, but find that less
and less necessary in the MOO as users use the space differently. It is
still a labrynth of places, and some of them can be themed and enriched
beautifully to be immersive experiences, but I would agree that adding the
webside seems to put the user in the position of observer and remote
interactor.

This sharply contrasts with a Moodle, where there is nearly NO sense of
place at all, merely a stage for content ... I would mourn the passing of
MOO towards Moodle as the ease of use and constructivist/constructionist
nature of MOO currently is a wonderful thing for my users (kids in a school)

Does this add to the discussion, I am not sure, I hope it is more signal
than noise.

regards,

Peter R Whitehouse *
(AKA wOnKo)
---------------------------------------------------
HOF - ICT
St. Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace, Brisbane.
ACCE Professional Associate 
http://www.wonko.info
*some assembler required


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