MUD Lab

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“If you believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?”
The Unicorn, Through the Looking Glass
In this lab we will visit DragonMUD, the one described in the handout. (Check the date on the handout and you will see that this particular virtual environment has been in existence for a very long time.)
The goal of this lab is to become familiar with navigating and communicating in a MUD or MOO. The commands are almost identical across most MUDs, and very similar to those used in most MOOs.
We will be using a piece of Linux software for this lab, so restart the PC into Linux if not already.
DragonMUD has a web site <http://www.dragonmud.org> with online help and links. You may find it useful to have a web browser open to the web site during this lab.
You will need one xterm/console window. Resize it vertically to be taller than the default, as the more lines of text you can see at one time the better.
It is possible to telnet to a MUD, but more convenient to use a special client program which keeps your typed input separate at the bottom of the window from the MUD output. We have a client called TinyFugue installed.
Open a connection to DragonMUD with
/usr/local/bin/tf dragonmud.org 4201
You have to create an identity within DragonMUD. Your name, or handle, can be whatever you wish, provided it does not conflict with one already allocated. If you are not intending to visit DragonMUD again, please add _guest to the end of your name. Do not use your ANU password, or the same password as any valuable computer account.
create name_guest password
You will arrive in DragonMUD.
Don't ring the bell. Try
help new
help basics

Things to do
Wander around and do stuff. If you run out of ideas, try
Relaxation: drink something in a tavern
Exploration: what happened to the NorthEast tower?
Exploration: what is special about Southwark Cathedral?
Exploration: which side of the river are the docks on?
Adventure: start by finding the Quester's RestUseful commands and abbreviations:
look l
look name of thing l name of thing
See the description of either the room you are in, or a named object or person, for example
l pvk_guest
say sentence “sentence
Everyone else will see
Your-name says sentence
Example
“hello everybody
emote action :action
Everyone else will see
Your-name action
Example
:scratches his head
[Exits: Northwest into the Knight’s Inn, West down Clink Street]
Rooms list the exit commands and where they will take you. Here you would type northwest or west respectively.
help
help command
The MUD has an online help system.
QUIT
To leave DragonMUD. This is one of the few commands which must be in uppercase.
/quit
To leave the TinyFugue program itself.
Discussion
Did you talk to anyone not from IVR?
Did you meet Newt?
Is “talking” by typing comfortable?
How often did you use emoting (the : command) ?
Did you find yourself multi-threading, with two or more conversation threads or lines of discussion going on at once?
What did you choose as your handle? Why?
Did your online description match yourself in real life?
Does it matter if not?
Is being able to scroll back up to see previously typed “speech” useful? Could it be done for true spoken conversation?