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SCAILAB
- Student Computer Aided Instruction Lab
| MOOn
Space Design |
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General Guidelines
While it seems somewhat counter to the objectives of virutal space to impose limits
and rules on what space on a MOO should look like, there are certain things one
should keep in mind to avoid creating rooms and exits that will be viewed more
as a pain than anything else to others in the virtual community.
- Exit names should be descriptive and brief. If
they are not descriptive, it should be stated clearly in the room description
where exits lead. This need not be as boring as it sounds, however. An exit called
"The rusted old gate with the broken lock" is a pain to type, and might be better
condensed to "Gate" or "Rusted Gate." And while the name "Gate" doesn't necessarily
hint at where the room leads, if you add in your room description, "Sounds of
children at play can be heard beyond the gate," the MOOn explorer can make a good
enough guess that it's a playground and not a cemetary. This is really helpful
if one is looking for a specific room.
- Avoid beginning exit names with articles. They're
wordy and unnecessary, as well as more difficult to type. While your room name
might be "The Little House in the Big Woods," an exit name to get there that's
easier on the fingers might be "little house" or even "house."
- Include nice aliases for folks to use when they're
typing in exit names. "Shadowy Doorway" should also be accessable by typing
in shadowy, shadow, shad, s, doorway, door, d, shadowydoorway, and sd, as well
as (perhaps) the name of the room on the other side. I also like to include either
"in" or "out" (and "o" as an alias for "out") when I have strings of rooms that
lead into private space or back out into public space. Avoid using "i" as an exit
alias, however, since that's a MOO command to list your inventory.
- Avoid putting actions in room descriptions.Someone
may or may not smile as s/he comes upon a scene, no matter how cheery or amusing
it seems to you. And who is to say you are looking at something "as you enter
the house"? Remember you also see it as you are leaving the house.
- Name your rooms what they are.Check your descriptions
and make sure they match the name you gave the room when you built it. As well,
a name like "Doorway" makes more sense as an exit than a room.
- Avoid excessively long strings of rooms as the only
way to get between point A and point B. While it's reasonable to create 3
or so rooms between one place and another to provide a sense of space, when that
number stretches to 5 or more, and there are no other exits off those rooms in
between, it becomes a trial to get through them. Consider making a "short cut"
and a "long cut," looping a string of several rooms off to the side where folks
can take it if they want to expore, or just rearrange the rooms so a few of them
branch off the main path.
- Think about what rooms are used for--who will be
using them, and how often. There's a fine line between having enough room
to explore and move your elbows, and just having a bunch of objects on the DB
that no one uses. Can you imagine people gathering in any given room to do something?
What activity (creative, scholarly, experimental, etc.) might this space be used
for? A forest clearing might be a place a class could gather for discussion, to
create wildflower objects and descriptions for a project, or just for a virtual
leaf fight some MOOish autumn. But if it's just a room people pass through on
their way to somewhere else, the description will be read once (if that). Practice
economy, yet allow for possibility.
Putting Yourself on the Map
To assist visitors in getting a mental picture of our little virtual world, we
have a map in progress of the main areas. Not every room is or should be on the
map; areas may be shrunk or enlarged, based on what seems to be useful. If you
have several rooms which will be a publicly accessible area of the MOO (used for
teaching, tutoring, gathering, stationing of projects, etc.), we can place the
area on the map so that others can find it. Determine a name for your area and
pick a logical place for it on the map. Ideally, your rooms should be connected--physically
and thematically--so that someone looking for a room within your complex will
be able to pick it out from the map.
Things to Consider When Building for the Community:
- Don't create strings of rooms which are thematically
unrelated. Virtual spaces can be difficult to visualize, and we want to create
logical connections and groupings.
- Don't ask to have private rooms connected to
public areas. Offices, bedrooms, and the like should be grouped in the Suzette
Hotel. If you wish, you can lock those rooms and exits so no one else can enter
them, or set them dark if you want privacy.
- Don't create large complexes of rooms used by
only one person. Every room, every exit, and every description take up space on
the database. Condense what you own to what you and others will use.
- Do build entertaining, imaginative rooms that
will impress others with their creativity and usefulness.
- Do spend time on your descriptions, adding interesting
detail that will make people enjoy reading them and will help them find new things
to do in the rooms.
- Do experiment and test the boundaries of virtual
space. If one is creating rooms to be used as virtual classrooms, how do they
differ from actual classrooms? What can be done in text-based space that "real
life" doesn't allow? The virtual can't give us anything new if it is created to
be just like the actual.
- Do contact the MOOn wizards when you are ready
to have your room linked up to the rest of the MOOn. That way others in the community
can visit it and appreciate all the work you put in on it.
Check out the MOOn Map to see what others have built! |
