Wormhole for schools

From Wormhole Sci-Fi MUD Homepage

Educational resource: Wormhole for schools

Note to teachers: Wormhole MUD is administrated entirely by volunteers (the ‘immortals’ of the game) who contribute their time as and when they can. Given this unpaid basis, it is impossible to guarantee that the actions of players will be policed at all times. Players use a pseudonym, and their place of origin is concealed. Players are not recommended to give out any personal information. In this regard, time spent on Wormhole MUD is no more or less dangerous than any public Internet chatroom, and should be considered as such when you decide if pupils should be allowed access to Wormhole MUD. We do our best to administer justice within the game, and can deny access to disruptive players when necessary.

Wormhole MUD is a roleplaying game – a kind of improvised theatre – but it features a structured approach to progression that requires combat with computer-generated foes. Combat with other players is optional; by default players cannot attack each other. Since the game is entirely text-based, violence within it cannot really be said to be ‘graphic’ in nature.

Ideas for student activities:

Any of the following might be done, depending on how much time you want to devote to the Wormhole activity. It's probably best if you drop in first, to look things over, and iron out any technical difficulties you may encounter. (We'll provide as much help as we can, too.) Your students will be presented with a text-based game that encourages them to read, and rewards good keyboard skills. Additional reasoning can also help them, allowing them to solve puzzles and co-operate in the virtual world. The only problem you're likely to have is getting them to stop! Here are some suggestions for structured activity within the Wormhole:

• Introduction: Choose a fictional name, and create a character. Then learn how to move, pick up items, wear things and communicate within the Wormhole world. Type ‘WHO’ to see who else is playing, and TELL them ‘Hi!’ Type QUESTION blah blah blah to talk to everybody in the game at once. Study the descriptions in the first few rooms, to learn what you need to do... and then go exploring!

• Art and design: Draw a picture of your wormhole character. Because the Wormhole is purely text-based, you get to use your imagination! Make sure you have an outlandish ‘sci-fi’ outfit! If you want, your character can walk to one of the many shops in Wormhole MUD, and buy some new clothes! Alternatively, draw one of the monsters that you have encountered.
• Technical writing: Discuss your experiences with your friends, then write a ‘walkthrough’ that would help a novice player to survive their first hours in the world of Wormhole. What do they need to know? Where should they go, and what should they try to do? What traps and monsters should they avoid?
• Creative writing: Write a piece of fiction describing the life of somebody who has been sucked into the Wormhole. They have been taken from their own culture, and left in this strange new place. What’s it like for them? This could be about your own character, one of the monsters, an immortal, or somebody new. (For an example of a piece of Wormhole fiction, see ‘Elara’s Story’. This was written way back in 1996, when the Wormhole game was new.)
• Art and design: Walk around in one of the areas in the Wormhole, and make a map that will help your friends. There’s only one problem... you’ve all come from different planets, and nobody has the same language! You can’t use any words at all... Perhaps you can help your friends by designing ideograms: pictures that indicate things like danger, food, poison and so on.
• Drama: Work in a small group, to write a short play about a day in the life of one of the Wormhole’s regular characters. Who will you choose? A shopkeeper? A beggar? One of the immortals? Remember that nobody in the Wormhole world ever really understands everything that is going on. Make it funny!
• Group discussion: In the world of Wormhole you are anonymous: you can choose a name that it nothing like your own, and you can be one of many different species. You can even change your gender. Nobody has to know who you are (unless you tell them), and nobody can actually hurt the real ‘you’. Here’s the question: Is bullying possible in a ‘virtual world’ like this?
• Virtual drama: Select a scene from a play that you know well, and perform it within the Wormhole. Choose a room that provides good ‘scenery’ and get hold of all the ‘props’ (items) that you need. You can even create characters with names like ‘Romeo’ and ‘Juliet’ if you want. Have a rehearsal, and then invite everybody to come and watch your play. Hint: Experiment with the EMOTE command (“:” for short) to act out any emotion you want to show to the audience.
• The big design project (for experienced players): You have seen how the Wormhole world is split up into a series of ‘rooms’ that are linked together by moving north, south, east, west, up and down. In many rooms there are computer-generated people and monsters (sometimes called ‘mobiles’) plus objects to be found. In this project, you will learn how to build a world of your own! Work in a small group. This project could take quite a long time! Keep your area small, so you can be sure of finishing. You can always expand it later.
  • Get some graph paper, and draw a map of of a place, broken down into a series of interconnected ‘rooms’... It could be of a place that you know well, such as a building or a town, or your could invent somewhere new!
  • Write a short name for each room, such as “under the oak tree” or “a dusty corner of the factory”... put these on the map.
  • Write a longer description for each room, to make it interesting for people to read. For example: “Wow... this oak tree is huge! From down here it’s impossible to see the top, although you are sure there would be an excellent view over the forest. Maybe you could climb up?”
  • List the people and monsters who can be found in each of the rooms. What do they look like? Do they stand still, or walk around? Are they aggressive? Are they a coward? Do they have habits, and things they like to say?
  • Invent the items that will be scattered throughout your area. Mark your map to show what goes where, or who it belongs to. Wormhole is supposed to be fun, so don’t make them all weapons. How about some glasses that allow you to see invisible things? How about a picnic basket full of goodies?
  • Once you have done all this, it is possible to convert your work into a special computer language so that your area can be fed into a MUD. See the builder docs for instructions on typing in an area. (Your teacher may also be able to get you some help from one of the Wormhole’s immortals.) If you do it right, we can add it into the game for you to explore... and if it really good, we’ll leave it there for players to explore in the future.