Multi-user virtual environments, part I

RELease 1.0, June 27, 1994 by Jerry Michalski

Text-based multi-user games on the Internet are popular -- despite their interfaces. These so-called MUDs and MOOs (Multi-User Dungeons and MUDS that are Object-Oriented, respectively; see Release 1.0, 6-93) are a throw-back to time-sharing days and use a command-line interface. Almost no MUDs or HOOs use graphics. Places, people, objects and events are described in prose, which is often eloquent. Commands are often arcane. To make one character wave at another, a MOOer might type "[at]emote waves at phantom." The system would show other participants in the same virtual room the message "spiff waves at phantom."

Of course, the text-only interface can liberate as well as constrain. Text can describe actions, relationships and scenes that would be difficult or impossible to render or model visibly. (Movies never do live up to good books.) Participants can evoke emotions the same way that a good book does. Also, many MOOs allow people to create novel objects with specific behaviors; the text interface allows those objects to be impossible or highly improbable.

Virtual reality games are gaining popularity, too. In 1989, VPL Research fielded one of the early virtual reality setups that the public could use (see Release 1.0, 10-90). It had an electronically turbocharged helmet and glove that one person puts on at a time. To move, a user points a finger in the desired direction; to pick an object up, she gets the glove near the desired object (both displayed on small screens in front of her eyes) and uses a grasping motion.

Now there are VR games for small groups of players, such as Virtuality Entertainment's Dactyl Nightmare. In that game, players don special gear and stand on LAN-connected motion-sensing platforms. Then, in time-honored game tradition, they try to shoot--each other while they hide behind objects, evade other attackers and dodge the occasional flying reptile.

Great, good places to work

Playful as all this may sound, there are compelling, mainstream business uses for these tools, beyond the obvious applications of VR such as architectural walkthroughs and multimedia kiosks -- or the navigational interfaces of our 500-channel future. Think of the status quo. Some workers are already drowning in e-mail messages, which lie, unfiltered, unthreaded and unread, in swelling in-boxes. Lotus Notes is de rigueur for distributed corporate collaborations. Part of its appeal is the structure that it adds to such interactions.

The emergence of shared virtual worlds could have repercussions far beyond the computer games industry and the scientific and technical communities. Virtual environments are a product to be sold and a medium for commerce and commercial organizations' daily lives. They could affect user-interface design, communications (see Release 1.0 on unified messaging, 12-92), information navigation and commerce.

The trend is already under way. Biologists around the world use a MOO called BioMOO (what else?) to collaborate. Similarly, Amy Bruckman's MediaMOO at MIT's Media Lab is a home for researchers actively investigating media and technology. MOOS add important elements to the discourses, starting with a shared context in the form of a persistent environment. Objects such as session transcripts or document drafts stay in the place visit after visit. The place itself becomes familiar.

People can set rooms aside in the MOO for different topics and can furnish and decorate them appropriately. Some participants may create tools or objects (e.g., work aids, idea prototypes, discussion maps) that everyone uses and that help move the discussion forward. People can project their personalities by how they name and describe themselves, and thereby get to know each other. Creating such a space together is a significant community-building exercise. Think of it as the barn-raising of the modern age. The resulting space may hold special meaning for the participants. Of course, it can also be the site of major crises and ill will.

Who will be the Steelcase and Herman Miller of the electronic

workplace?

Fight the telecommuting blues!

There are other, pragmatic reasons to use MUDS and MOOs. Kevin Goldsmith, a developer at Colossal Pictures, used to work three floors away from the rest of his colleagues. To mitigate the isolation, he would keep a MUD window open on his screen while he worked. This way he could visit with colleagues and friends whenever he wanted to in the virtual place of their choice. Goldsmith says, "Working with computers is basically very isolating. Shared spaces are good ways of breaking the isolation."

As telecommuting takes hold, MUD-like environments will be an appropriate way to supplement dry work documents and tools with people-friendly objects such as the water cooler down the hall or the lunch room. Of course, there's much that one can do with e-mail or shared document databases. But the MUD interaction is richer, more casual and has more context. Instead of e-mailing a compound document as an attachment or checking it out of a document database, one could pick it up off the table in a virtual workroom. Put it back down, and others could view it.