Communicating in the MOO

One of the primary functions of MOO collaboration is the ability to converse with a group in real time. There are many ways of talking in this environment and by combining these together with someimaginsation it is possible to explore a rich conversational style.

When you view the screen in LinguaMOO you will see three panes. the left half of the screen is a web view of the environment. There will often be a graphic of the space you are in with a list of links to surrounding environments and other objects / people who are in the room with you. The right half of the screen has a description of the room in the top half and a blank edit box at the bottom, with three radio buttons. Whenever you type a command, it will be in the edit box. Conversations will scroll up in the top of the right half of the screen.

simple speech

E.G.
	say hello
	You say, "hello"
	DragonFly says, "hello"

note how the punctuation is ready filled in when displayed on the screen. You can type the word 'say' follwed by whatever you want, or just start with a speechmark:

E.G.
	" hello
	You say, "hello"
	DragonFly says, "hello"

You can also select the radio button to the left of the edit box and just type the words you wish your character to say.

creating actions for your character

It is possible to make your character perform actions as well as talking. This is called emoting. To do this, use the word emote at the beginning of the line, followed by whatever you wish your character to do:

E.G.
	emote jumps up and down
	DragonFly jumps up and down

Alternatively you can use just a colon before the action:

E.G.
	: flutters aimlessly 
	DragonFly flutters aimlessly

Or, just set your radio buttons to the emote setting and everything you type will be an action.

paging

If you would like to contact someone who is not in the same room as you, you can page them. This will send a message to that person, telling them that you are looking for them, where you are and what your message is.

E.G.
	page JediKnight Yo, I'm looking for you
	You page JediKnight
	DragonFly is looking for you in The Conservatory
	She says, "Yo, I'm looking for you"

Paging can also be used as a way to speak privately with someone when you are in a group of people. No-one else in the room will know that you are paging someone.

whispering

You can also whisper to someone who is in the same room as you. This will be a private communication, and only the person you are whispering to will be aware that you are talking.

E.G. 
	whisper "pssssst!" to JediKnight
	You whisper, "pssssst!" to JediKnight
	DragonFly whispers, "pssssst!"

Strictly speaking, you don't need to enclose your message in inverted commas, but if you have a preposition in your sentence such as 'to', everything after it will be construed as a command rather than part of your message and your whisper will not be transmitted to the character.

directing speech

If you are in a busy space, you may want to make it clear that you are speaking to or answering someone specifically. To make this clear you can direct your speech at a particular character.

E.G. 
	to JediKnight "You may be right, but I doubt it"
	DragonFly [to JediKnight]: "You may be right, but I doubt it"

As with the whispering, you don't actually need to enclose your message in inverted commas, but if you have a preposition in your sentence such as 'to', the MOO may get a little confused, so best to keep the inverted commas.