MUDs in the IT workplace in Tutorials & Snippets

ID:47967
 
Sep 11 2008, 7:45 pm
Keywords: links
This is one for the older BYONDers (i.e., those of us who have jobs). It's now fifteen years old; I probably first read it sometime around the time I found BYOND (1999), but it strikes me that it's still a neat idea today. Sure, you could just use AIM or Trillian to communicate with co-workers in other locations -- but why do that when you could use a BYOND world, and bash their heads in with a sledgehammer when they interrupt your web-surfing?

"Collaborative Networked Communication: MUDs as Systems Tools"

http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/remy/documents/cncmast.html

Interesting side note: I posted this today because I saw the name "Denali" in the news, and that word (along with "squirrel", "MUD", and "unreachable") is one of the mental keywords I chose to make sure I could find the article again in the future. I once read a good article about a program that would scan a web page and identify four or five keywords that would produce the desired page as one of the top hits in a web search -- but ironically, I don't remember the key words for that article. I'll let you know if I find it.

#1 Sep 12 2008, 3:42 am
Wow, thats really interesting actually. I wonder what something like that might look like today, with some AJAX and web magic.

Actually, I was recently brought in to see a 'web 2.0' project dealing with just this sort of thing, which provided an interactive canvas with *very* neat features. Sadly I'm under NDA and can't actually disclose anything about it, but suffice to say that this article might be considered a grandfather of that concept (Although I doubt the company producing this specific project has read it).

I wonder if the inclusion of 'graphics' in general is more of a distraction than a help in such a medium - If so, it'd have to be limited to assets that need to be viewable.
#2 Sep 12 2008, 8:20 am
this is what i had in mind for the next generation Chatters at one point: essentially a MUD or MOO, run via the browser (with a sprinkling of AJAX), and using some graphics (isometric 'environment' at one point in my design). BYOND is certainly capable of it, in my opinion.

would be neat to use this in an office environment where employees gather around the virtual coffee machine to chat. or maybe run the MOO with the layout of the office, where people communicate through it, instead of by phone, to share info/data/requests.
#3 Sep 12 2008, 10:13 am
I like playing the Google Game, which is to find those five-or-fewer keywords yourself manually, such that the intended article appears when doing an I Feel Lucky search.

You're ONLY allowed to use the I Feel Lucky button when trying to narrow down the page, of course.
#4 Sep 12 2008, 1:52 pm
You walk into an office.
You sit in a chair.
You work for a while.
You have earned 5 dollars.
An evil boss has arrived.
An evil boss attacks!
You swing at an evil boss!
An evil boss casts a spell.
You have been fired!
You are dead.
#5 Sep 12 2008, 11:32 pm
Pray to Employment Insurance? [y/n]
y
Your prayers go unheard.