Index

MOO’s (1990’s)

MOO’s developed slightly after MUDs and added a significant social functionality. This functionality allowed users to modify the scripts within the MOO to edit the world they were in. Yet this required a specialist skill set that was not within the ability of the mass population at the time. However MOOs provided not only a social space and platform for play, but an opportunity to be part of the virtual world’s creators. Those who could edit the MOO could create themselves a rooms and “place” objects within it. This could be anything from a compass, book or warlock. This provided more opportunity for social interaction as these all signified something different about its creator. Not only this but these permanent changes were left to be explored by others, even when the creator was not ‘online’ in the world. Thus social interaction could occur when neither parties were present and gave more opportunity for community development than MUDs.

This is an early example of web 2.0 behaviour, so called “user generated content”, seen in social networks today. At that point in time, however, the vast majority of people did not possess the specialist knowledge and so the appeal of this functionality was fairly limited. Again, this does not represent significant competition today, as there are more advanced graphical interfaces that require less programming skills.

Due to the limited Internet access during the 1990’s however MUD’s and MOO’s were still limited in their use by a niche of society and thus as a community. Never-the-less the development of additional functionality aided social development within them. Their introduction as the first of multiplayer virtual environments demonstrated that, from the beginning, they provided the potential for a social and entertainment tool to many people at once.