What would you teach a group of 11 year old kids about text based games - part 4
We began our explorations of MUSHes today. In a nutshell, the activity was slightly disappointing, but I learned something important (especially at the end of the class).
We logged into a world war 2 mush and began character generation. This was the first difference the kids noticed - interactive fiction had no CG and the mud we played had a minimal CG process. The kids chose skills, attributes, nation of origin, looked at descriptions, and backgrounds. After about 10 minutes of character generation, the kids started to complain "I just want to play!".
We continued, though, and they enjoyed looking and choosing the skills. There was a very entertaining conversation about flamethrowers. Still, though there was some impatience. They chose complimentary roles they thought would make a good party, and as with other text-based games we have played, they were incredibly excited and interested (but a bit impatient).
We finally got to the training grounds, and the kids learned the commands for targeting and shooting. This was very different for them, as the combat system worked on a time-based point system (we are on mush, after all). The talk soon turned towards "this is boring" and "when do we get to attack stuff"? One of the kids seemed especially disappointing there wasn't a flamethrower around for him to use. Heh.
So I realized at this point I had made a mistake. The mush we were on is actually very well designed, and well coded. The problem was we were trying to play a mush like a mud. With the kids becoming exasperated, I told them we were going to role play new privates in the army during world war 2. We had already gone through character generation, so the kids had a sense of their character. I taught them how to pose, and we discussed our pose order, and we got started.
The complaining immediately stopped, the room became quiet, and the conversation began! The kids were acting like solders, and having a blast. They were in-character, and acting like, well, new recruits. They responded to each other in character and were having fun.
I told them we might play a "pure rp" mush next week, and I apologized to them. They were quite understanding. They remain very excited about making their own game. We are going to explore how different games are made over the next few weeks before settling on a specific text-based domain.
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Distinctions
Sounds like this might be a very good time to present an overview of all of MU*-dom, its various incarnations, platforms, and implementations... and the similarities and differences therein, therewith, therefrom, etc.
MUD MUSH MUCK MUX MUSE MOO M(Etc).
To answer the question in the title of your post, I would hope to teach them that:
* despite the most valiant efforts (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rape_in_Cyberspace), creepy weirdos exist. Tom Arnold (Rosanne's ex) stars in a new movie based on a true story (outside of cyberspace). It's the same thing online, though. You NEVER really know for certain who is sitting at that other keyboard. (I would be very interested in knowing how you end up addressing this matter... specifically, if it were to manifest in a share-able text format for others to learn from on down the line.)
and...
* Please don't be a tinyjerk (http://www.nicoladoering.net/Hogrefe/ciskowski.htm)
Since these youngsters are under your supervision, they're probably on their best behavior (school environment and all that). But, what happens when they seek to explore this stuff on their own, without your supervision? I think the aforementioned two "lessons" are best learned with tutelage rather than via hard knocks.
Keep up the good work!