so i'd love an open discussion about something that i don't have much vocabulary for, if only because there are so few examples of it on the world wide web. anyone/everyone is welcome to chime in.
back in the mid/late 90s there were some attempts at turning web forums and chat interfaces into virtual worlds. beyond all of the 3d chat rooms and telnet muds, there were some 2d graphical sites like moo.ca. The Canada SchoolNet moo was a mud/moo that allowed users to add/remove/modify rooms in real time, in-browser.
Furcadia went a hundred steps further and integrated a 2d tile-based world with a world editor and script editor, so you could build your own "dreams" (multiplayer instances) within the shared game world. the entire game was built around socialization.
both of the above games are not just fancy web chat terminals. building and decorating the game world is a critical part of the social experience. you create a dining room, put chairs in it, program the chairs to allow players to use the 'sit' command, and then invite people into your dining room for a make-believe dinner party.
we now have reddit and various web forums. they're effectively the same threaded conversation that has been around since the usenet days.
what i don't see anymore are graphical WWW virtual worlds built around socialization. we either lock down everything and only allow chat. are there web-based MUDs/MUSHes/MOOs that allow for both world building and conversation?
A screenshot from the Furcadia client for Windows 95. It shows a furry character walking through a tile-based world composed of trees and roads.
Below there is a MUD-style status window showing text describing the world and its rules. To the left is the character's portrait, as well as buttons for navigating through menus.
on the topic of MOOs and MUDs, i can't believe the Weyrmount MOO still exists, on the exact same port, and at the same domain i first connected to it almost 30 years ago D:
WTF IS A MOO? it's a multiplayer text adventure! think zork with other people, but with more focus on socializing and building stuff and less on killing monsters or whatever
if you're chill i can give you permissions so you can make cool stuff and help the place grow! i hope bringing it back will give me the opportunity to continue learning more python
Statue of Vanta
Before you stands an enormous photorealistic holographic statue of Vanta, enby girl extraordinaire and lesbian gender terrorist. Her shoulder-length MAGICALLY ENCHANTED HAIR is currently cycling through the colors of the rainbow slowly. She has a few iridescent metal piercings -- a septum ring and fake safety pins in her ears. She's wearing cute hot pink femme-y glasses, and behind those her eyes are decorated with very thick smudged black eyeliner (with a bit of black eyeshadow thrown in too for good measure).
She's wearing a black denim trenchcoat, women's-style, adorned with a large number of political and musical patches, pins, studs, and more. Its collar is clad in a series of alternating black and gray pyramid studs. Along the front six extra black denim pockets have been sewn on with faded off-white waxed dental floss. You might still be able to taste the mint, though licking it would be inadvisable.
On the back, a large one says "THE FUTURE IS QUEER" and an even bigger one below that reads "GIRLS LIVING OUTSIDE SOCIETY'S SHIT." Underneath the trenchcoat is a very pretty black lace dress that stretches down to her hips, and beneath that some plain black leggings. Her feet are protected by two large black combat boots, which show their age with wear. She wields with a single hand Vanta's Candy Sword. It is an enormous five-foot candysteel zweihander with a blade made out of sharpened candy cane. Its molded chocolate guard and handle are decorated...
oh wow the #MUD-like written in #Python in 1998 still has its vintage website. it's called (sigh) POO. I played with it back in the day. I assumed I'd never find it even if it was still up, given how badly search engines work these days.