Big Dummy's Guide To The Internet Part 37

How would you find such channels in the future? Use the /list command to scroll through the available channels. If one has been set up to discuss a particular breaking event, chances are you'll see a brief description next to the channel name that will tell you that's the place to tune.

11.5 MUDs

Multiple-User Dimensions or Dungeons (MUDs) take IRC into the realm of fantasy. MUDs are live, role-playing games in which you enter a.s.sume a new ident.i.ty and enter an alternate reality through your keyboard. As you explore this other world, through a series of simple commands (such as "look," "go" and "take"), you'll run across other users, who may engage you in a friendly discussion, enlist your aid in some quest or try to kill you for no apparent reason.

Each MUD has its own personality and creator (or G.o.d) who was willing to put in the long hours required to establish the particular MUD's rules, laws of nature and information databases. Some MUDs stress the social aspects of online communications -- users frequently gather online to chat and join together to build new structures or even entire realms. Others are closer to "Dungeons and Dragons" and are filled with sorcerers, dragons and evil people out to keep you from completing your quest -- through murder if necessary.

Many MUDs (there are also related games known as MUCKs and MUSEs) require you to apply in advance, through e-mail, for a character name and pa.s.sword. One that lets you look around first, though, is HoloMuck at McGill University in Montreal. The premise of this game is that you arrive in the middle of Tanstaafl, a city on the planet Holo. You have to find a place to live (else you get thrown into the homeless shelter) and then you can begin exploring. Magic is allowed on this world, but only outside the city limits. Get bored with the city and you can roam the rest of the world or even take a trip into orbit (of course, all this takes money; you can either wait for your weekly salary or take a trip to the city casino). Once you become familiar with the city and get your own character, you can even begin erecting your own building (or subway line, or almost anything else).

To connect, telnet to

collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu 5757

When you connect, type

connect guest guest

and hit enter. This connects you to the "guest" account, which has a pa.s.sword of "guest."

You'll see this:

The Homeless Shelter(#22Rna) You wake up in the town's Homeless Shelter, where vagrants are put for protective holding. Please don't sleep in public places-- there are plenty of open apartments available. Type 'apartments' to see how to get to an apartment building with open vacancies.

There is a small sign on the wall here, with helpful information. Type 'look sign' to read it.

The door is standing open for your return to respectable society. Simply walk 'out' to the center.

Of course, you want to join respectable society, but first you want to see what that sign says. So you type

look sign

and hit enter, which brings up a list of some basic commands. Then you type

out

followed by enter, which brings up this:

You slip out the door, and head southeast...

Tanstaafl Center This is the center of the beautiful town of Tanstaafl. High Street runs north and south into residential areas, while Main Street runs east and west into business districts.

SW: is Tanstaafl Towers. Please claim an apartment... no sleeping in public!

SE: the Public Library offers both information and entertainment.

NW: is the Homeless Shelter, formerly the Town Jail.

NE: is Town Hall, site of several important services, including: Public Message Board, Bureau of Land Management (with maps and regulations), and other governmental/ bureaucratic help.

Down: Below a sign marked with both red and blue large letter 'U's, a staircase leads into an underground subway pa.s.sage.

(Feel free to 'look' in any direction for more information.) [Obvious exits: launch, d, nw, se, w, e, n, s, ne, sw]

Contents: Instructions for newcomers Directional signpost Founders' statue

To see "Instructions for newcomers", type

look Instructions for newcomers

and hit enter. You could do the same for "Directional signpost" and "Founders' statue." Then type

SW

and enter to get to Tanstaafl Towers, the city housing complex, where you have to claim an apartment (you may have to look around; many will already) be occupied. And now it's off to explore Holo! One command you'll want to keep in mind is "take." Periodically, you'll come across items that, when you take them will confer certain abilities or powers on you. If you type

help

and enter, you'll get a list of files you can read to learn more about the MUD's commands.

The "say" command lets you talk to other players publicly. For example,

say Hey, I'm here!

would be broadcast to everybody else in the room with you. If you want to talk to just one particular person, use "whisper" instead of "say."

whisper agora=Hey, I'm here!

would be heard only by agora. Another way to communicate with somebody regardless of where on the world they are is through your pager. If you suddenly see yours go off while visiting, chances are it's a wizard checking to see if you need any help. To read his message, type

page

To send him a message, type

page name=message

where name is the wizard's name (it'll be in the original message).

Other MUDs and MUCKs may have different commands, but generally use the same basic idea of letting you navigate through relatively simple English commands.

When you connect to a MUD, choose your pa.s.sword as carefully as you would one for your host system; alas, there are MUD crackers who enjoy trying to break into other people's MUD accounts. And never, never use the same pa.s.sword as the one you use on your host system!

MUDs can prove highly addicting. "The jury is still out on whether MUDding is 'just a game' or 'an extension of real life with gamelike qualities'," says Jennifer Smith, an active MUD player who wrote an FAQ on the subject.

She adds one caution: "You shouldn't do anything that you wouldn't do in real life, even if the world is a fantasy world. The important thing to remember is that it's the fantasy world of possibly hundreds of people, and not just yours in particular. There's a human being on the other side of each and every wire! Always remember that you may meet these other people some day, and they may break your nose. People who treat others badly gradually build up bad reputations and eventually receive the NO FUN Stamp of Disapproval."

11.6 GO, GO, GO (AND CHESS, TOO)!

Fancy a good game of go or chess? You no longer have to head for the nearest park with a board in hand. The Internet has a couple of machines that let you engage people from around the world in your favorite board games. Or, if you prefer, you can watch matches in progress.

To play go,

telnet h.e.l.lspark.wharton.upenn.edu 6969 log on as: guest

You'll find prompts to various online help files to get you started.

For a chess match,

telnet news.panix.com 5000 log on as: guest

You'll find prompts for online help files on the system, which lets you choose your skill level.

11.7 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

All is not fun and games on the Net. Like any community, the Net has its share of obnoxious characters who seem to exist only to make your life miserable (you've already met some of them in chapter 4).

There are people who seem to spend a bit more time on the Net than many would find healthy. It also has its criminals. Clifford Stoll writes in "The Cuckoo's Egg" how he tracked a team of German hackers who were breaking into U.S. computers and selling the information they found to the Soviets. Robert Morris, a Cornell University student, was convicted of unleashing a "worm" program that effectively disabled several thousand computers connected to the Internet.