( An aside: Many people view MUSH as just a game; my experience has proved
otherwise. I helped set-up, administrate, and create a MUSH devoted to
interactiveeducation over the network; it was called ViBES. Students from
across the Internet could log in, and attend virtual classes taught by
teachers which were either programmed, or actually logged on to the MUSH
through their computers. What we learned from the project: the idea is,
basically, a very good one - but with a very serious flaw: text based
learning is difficult, if not impossible; it is difficult for a student
to respect a teacher he only knows as a MUSH object :-)
Enter VRML. Imagine _seeing_, in 3D, the other logged-in users of a MUSH,
walking around this virtually constructed world. Everything in the world
would be a programmed object, which has display properties (this includes
both audio and video), and properties to determine how that object
functions. (i.e. a virtual grandfather clock object could be programed -
it would keep time, chime on the hour, and even need to be wound up every
couple of days).
This vision of the internet is, in my opinion, shared by many, and I
believe that VRML is a necessary step in seeing this vision come true.
I know this posting is totally generic, but this is purposefully so. I've
been working on a very specific specification on an extended
MUSH+VRML system which I intend to make public soon; until then, I'd like
to hear everyone's thoughts on this exciting topic.
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David Peck
http://www.mbhs.edu/~dpeck/
Macintosh SW Games Programmer
"Weep for the future. Weep for us all..." - B5