MOO PROJECT 1

SUMMARY

In this project you will (1) use your text books and Perseus to research a building that stood in pre-Persian War Athens. (2) You will then "build" it on the MOO, basing your description on the findings of your research. You will be working in groups of 2-4.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Reconstruct one exterior face and one interior room of one of the buildings suggested below on MiamiMOO. Include at least *one* object in one of your rooms (see @create for object types.) Note that there is a 2 "room" minimum for this project, though you may choose to add more rooms, especially if you want to continue working on the same building as a later project. Also note that, for the MOO, the word "room" means any space. This includes exteriors, so that, for example, the Parthenon could include four exterior rooms (north, south, east and west facades) as well as interior rooms.

Be sure to make it clear from your description of the building (which can include activities occurring there), that you understand the function of the building in its original context.

In addition to the project itself (on the MOO), please hand in (electronically or hard copy) a bibliography of sources you used for your reconstruction, which should include a reference to at least one photograph of the site (from either a book or a web site). This bibliography should also include the name of your building, its room of origin (Delta, Eta, Zeta or Theta), a list of group members, and any other information you consider pertinent. For web sites other than Perseus with images of Athenian buildings, have a look at the sites linked to our Democracy Home Page (under Web resources) as well as the Skidmore Classics Page (click on Resources). Web sites should be cited with their title and URL.

OPTIONAL: If you would like to link images or web sites directly to your project, or learn more about the MOO editor, have a look at this MOO Editor Tutorial.

OBJECTIVES

Become more familiar and comfortable with using Perseus as a research tool.
Learn how to use architectural plans and site photos along with textual evidence as the basis of your reconstructions of buildings which no longer exist.
Learn the basics of MOO building, in preparation for later projects.
Learn your assigned material well enough to be able to reassimilate it in a different setting.
Become much more intimately familiar with analyzing and synthesizing the evidence for your building than you might if you were simply asked to read it.
Get a feel for what kinds of effort is involved for this constructivist collaborative exercise and begin to develop the necessary individual strategies and group dynamics for successful completion of such assignments.
See MOO evaluation criteria for more on the general objectives of MOO projects.

PROCEDURE

I. RESEARCH AND PLANNING

Choose one of the following buildings, all of which were significant for the early Athenian democracy: Heliaia, Old Athena Temple (on the Akropolis), Enneakrounos, Altar of the 12 Gods, Kleisthenic Bouleuterion, Prytanikon or Monument of the Eponymous Heroes.
Use the Web and your texts to find out more about what the building looked like in antiquity. You will be describing it from the perspective of an ancient Athenian, NOT as a ruin, so this will require some reconstruction. You will also want to consider what kinds of objects (furniture? dedications?) and people a visitor would find in and around your building.
Decide which exterior face of your building you want to reconstruct (hint: pick the one with a door or opening). You will call this something like East End. Your entrance can be called anything you like, though "in" (and "out" for the exit back) is probably a good idea. You will also want to decide what to call the interior. It may help to draw a plan before you log into the MOO to build.
Write descriptions of the exterior, the interior, AND the exits. You should write these in 2nd person, from the visitor's perspective (e.g. "You see a large stone gate....") Decide what kind of object you want to include, and write a description for that as well.

II. BUILDING

NOTE: Only one person can *own* a MOO object (this includes rooms), so you will need to decide who your group builder is, and only that person can enter and change text. An alternative is for that person to share his/her login name and password with other members of the group, at least for the duration of the project (you can later change your password again).

Log into the MOO and make your way to the Democracy Projects Area. Choose one of the rooms with Greek letter names to start your project from. Note the names of exits already in use -- you do NOT want to duplicate one of these. A good way to avoid duplication is to name the exit to your project something like Fred'sAgora (note: NO spaces allowed in exit names!). Choose a project name, then type
@dig Fred'sAgora|out to The Agora
This assumes that you are building the Agora, and that someone in group is named Fred. NOTE THE SYNTAX VERY CAREFULLY: No spaces between the entrance name, exit name and the | (pipe, which is shift-\ on most keyboards)!!!! IF you leave a space you will end up with a room with the name you meant for your exit to have, and no entrance to that room. This is the MOST COMMON ERROR made by first-time builders!
To see if it worked, type 'look'. You should see "An exit leads Fred'sAgora." If not, type @audit, @recycle your mistakes, and start over.
Type Fred'sAgora to go to your new room. If it does not have an exit, you probably mistyped the command (did you forget the |?) It is possible to dig one, though you will need to know the object number of the room you were digging from. It's probably easier to get out of there by typing 'home', @audit yourself, @recycle your mistakes, and start over. Assuming you do see an exit, you're ready to describe your room. Remember, this is the EXTERIOR of your building.
To describe a room, type @describe here as "whatever you want your description to say". You can also describe exits, which is a very good idea. This lets people know what the exit looks like and where it leads. To do this, type @describe out as "A small wooden door leads OUT to the Agora." NOTE: You will not be able to describe exits named "in" except by object number (@audit to get this number).
If you want to change the description, you can always @describe again. This will overwrite the first description.
Dig your interior room, using the same procedure you used to dig to the exterior. Of course you can do all the digging first, and then the description -- that's up to you. Again, keep in mind that whoever does the digging is the room's owner, and only that person (or a MOO 'wizard') can describe or change the room in any way.
To create an object to put in one of your rooms (either the exterior or the interior), type @create -- the MOO will present you with a list of "generic" objects, such as furniture, and throwables, that you can copy. Follow the instructions on the screen (be sure to use the object number, e.g. #460 for furniture), to make, name and describe your object (don't worry about the home and realm -- just hit return).
Once you have created something, you will be holding it ('look me' to see it). You will want to describe it, and maybe set some of the custom messages. To see what you can customize, try @examine [object name]. Many of the generics have in-MOO help. Try 'help $furniture' or 'help $throwable', for example (a $ indicates a generic).
Take your object to the room where you want it to be and drop it there. You can set its home by typing @set-home here for objectname. One of the messages you will probably want to set is its integrate_room message. Try setting it (e.g., type @integrate_room object name is "A small amphora leans against the wall."), then type 'look' to see the effect.
OPTIONAL for Advanced Builders:You also have the option of customizing messages on your rooms and exits. An arrive message, for example, will print when someone goes through an exit. Many messages have two forms: the one beginning with an o (lower case letter O), is what others in the room see. To see what messages are available, type '@messages here' for a room, '@messages [exit name]' (without the brackets) for an exit. To change a message, just type (for example) "@arrive east is "You trip over the threshold as you push open the heavy door."
Please do not hesitate to ask me or other MOOer's if you have any questions. MOOmail is a good way to do this (help mail will explain the system), as is email and the class listserv. Have fun!
P.S. There are several ways of doing just about everything on the MOO. The above instructions are more guidelines than rules -- feel free to do things differently!

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