My entry on the IF Wiki. Thanks, Dswxyz, for compiling it.
Has it been that long since I entered the IF Comp? I miss Troy Sterling and Melody Sweet (characters from my game, “Fine-Tuned: An Auto-mated Romance“).
Incidentally, I just found this SynTax walkthrough for Fine-Tuned, which was reviewed and included in issue 82.
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Thanks for the details, I'll look up your article and check out your links as soon as I get the chance.
Most of the MOO scholarship focuses on MOOs as writing spaces. See Cynthia Haynes and Jan Holmevik's collection *High Wired* for an excellent example of this. I was (and still am) more interested in thinking about replications/extensions of literary worlds in virtual spaces. I have not posted online about the Brave New World MOO, but have an article in the Sept. 2003 English Journal which should be available via ProQuest or another full-text index.
The 1984 game (Thoughtcrime) is very much like a virtual version of the card game "Mafia," (http://www.princeton.edu/~mafia/rules.htm). In Thoughtcrime, players/students are divided into Thoughtpolice, Members of the Underground, and Party Loyalists. In theory--game is still untested--Thoughtpolice work to "vaporize" the members of the Underground, while Party Loyalists join the cause or just lie low. For more details, you can visit the Thoughtcrime support site at faculty.gvsu.edu/rozemar/thoughtcrime
Very interesting... I'd love more details. I try to work IF in to my lit and writing courses whenever possible, so I'd love to hear more about it. Is there much scholarship on using a MOO to teach this way? The "serious games" movement is pretty hot right now. Have you posted information about it online? I'll happily blog it.
DGJ,
As part of my dissertation, I designed an interactive fiction game based on Brave New World. The game, along with my current game based on 1984, is played in a MOO environment. The interface (encore) is still a little clunky and not very user-friendly. Plus, I'm no pro at the object-oriented MOO code. But I do have a high school teacher using the 1984 game within the next month. I can pass along a few more details if you're interested.
RR