NOTE: this chapter was written in 1997 and some
items may be out of date (technical and user interface descriptions). We encourage
you to visit the Digital Space Traveler Home Page at the following address
to get the latest version of Traveler and the latest documentation on how
to use Traveler:
http://www.digitalspace.com/traveler
Fine Tuning Your World
Customizing or changing your avatar
Figure 9.26: on40.gif
Find avatar customizing under the Edit menu.
You can find the avatar customization options under the Edit
menu. The most common thing people want to do is to customize or change their
avatars. Note that if you entered Traveler for the first time, you probably
did not set up your avatar's name. You may have to quite Traveler and restart
it, selecting Create New on the very first dialogue. You can then enter a
name for your avatar. Once you have a name, you will be allowed to modify
your avatar.
Figure 9.27: on22.gif
Choose the Leola tiger avatar.
The dialogue box in the preceding figure displays the array
of avatar models to choose from. Note that we have chosen Leola and given
her a smile. We also could have given her a fierce tiger scowl! You can also
color different parts of your avatar by selecting Appearance. This selection
will open a palette of colors. Dragging a color over top of an area in your
avatar will color that area. A famous avatar in Digital Space is an all-white
tiger (except for the eyes and mouth) used by Sunset Dawn.
Figure 9.28: on23.gif
Customize your avatar's voice.
Once you have chosen your look, you should choose your voice.
Traveler offers you the limited ability to disguise your voice. The preceding
figure shows how you can change the pitch of your voice. This is like those
interviews on TV crime shows where they electronically disguise a person's
voice. You can make yourself sound male or female (although the disguising
might be obvious).
Figure 9.28.2: on6l.gif
Setting up your Avatar Profile
Another useful option under avatar customization is the ability
to set up a profile. As the preceding figure shows, you can give your
real name (if you choose to), your nickname (which you also would have been
asked for when you started Traveler for the first time), your e-mail address,
Web page address (if any), and a brief description of yourself. In the example
above, we are showing the profile of a Utopia citizen from Dallas, Texas,
who chose not to give an email address, web page or comments.
Many Traveler citizens forget to fill out their personal information,
but it can be very useful in starting conversations. I always fill out this
information, my theory being that if I had anything to hide, I would not be
talking inside virtual worlds for anyone in the real world to hear!
Other options
Traveler has several other useful options found under the View
+ Options menu, including Volume, Microphone, Cache and Connection.
Figure 9.29: on41.gif
Picking the Options dialogue.
Figure 9.30: on27.gif
Volume Options dialogue.
Figure 9.31: on28.gif
Microphone Options dialogue.
Figure 9.32: on25.gif
Cache Options dialogue.
Figure 9.33: on26.gif
Connections Options dialogue.
Saving favorite and starting places
Figure 9.34: on42.gif
Use Favorites to save your favorite places.
If you had a particularly good time in a Traveler room, you
can save it as a favorite by selecting Favorites + Add to Favorites.
You can then open the favorite area later with Favorites + Open Favorites,
or stow your favorite room right on your desktop by selecting File + Create
Shortcut. When connecting to Traveler in the future, your favorites are also
shown. Favorite is one of my favorite features!
Traveler Tips: Headbangers and Boom Boxers
Ham, CB, and Radiophone: Protocols and etiquette from other technologies come
in handy
Are you Hamming it up in your off hours? Did you keep on truckin'
with your CB radio long after the 70s were over? Or were you a sad sack in
the Army for too many years? If so, you probably have learned some pretty
good protocol and etiquette from other communication technologies you can
now recycle in the Traveler environment. Of course, two law enforcement officers
talking in Utopia may be unintelligible to the rest of us! Here is a sampling
of protocols that may come in very handy:
| You say | It Means | Comes from |
| Ten Four | I got that! | CB, Police Radio |
| Say or Come Again | Please repeat that | Everyday life |
| Over and out | Good-bye | Radiophone, CB |
Table 9.3
Common ham, CB, and radiophone protocols and etiquette help
you communicate in Traveler.
And as any radio operator would tell you, if you have to cough
or sneeze (or yawn) don't do it into the open microphone!
Things to Keep an Ear Out For
Excess noise, echo, and the open mike problem
On occasion, you will be having a nice, orderly conversation
and then someone will come into your area with a lot of static or background
noise. They might not be doing this on purpose, their microphone might just
be open all the time. How does this happen? Seasoned Traveler users can be
heard asking open-mike offenders to push the P key on their keyboards to shut
down the mike. That person can then talk normally by pressing the space bar
down when they want to speak. If you have the ambient sound set too high or
your speakers set too loud, you can cause feedback through your own open mike
to the other listeners. If you or they are hearing a voice echoing, then someone
has a problem with speaker feedback. A solution is to turn the speaker volume
down or try to better isolate the microphone from the other speakers. Many
users get microphones that have excellent local pickup, such as boom mikes
on headsets. These microphones will sense the speakerís voice and little
else.
Little Billy is mute!
If someone cannot get their sound to work and they cannot hear
you, you can ask them to just nod or shake their heads in a kind of simple
sign language. If you find you can hear people but cannot send them your own
voice (you don't have a microphone), just use the Left Arrow and Right Arrow
to shake your head and the Tab+Up Arrow and Tab+Down Arrow to nod.
Don't fall down a manhole
Be careful not to back into a portal. Portals often resemble
pyramids or telephone booths. If you do back into one, you will be swept away
rather unexpectedly with no way to stop yourself. This can lead to rather
abrupt endings to conversations!
The server is getting loaded
If you are in an area where it becomes very hard to talk or
hear anyone, check the People+Where is dialogue. The server supporting this
area may be getting overloaded. Sometimes we…had…to…talk…very…slowly
so that our voices would go through. This is often the warning of a an overloaded
server. It is a good idea to get out while the getting is good and travel
to a different area supported by a different server.
Are we still on the air?
If suddenly you notice that nobody seems to be talking or moving,
you may have experienced a soft disconnect. This means that you have
lost your connection between your Traveler client and its server. You may
still be connected on the Internet. A telltale sign of a soft disconnect is
when some avatar heads just spin around, indicating idling. If you
think this has happened, try to select View+Reenter or press Ctrl+R. If this
does not work, you may have to shut down and restart Traveler.
Trouble in Traveler City
Dirty mouths
Rotten language can spoil a party and there are people out
there who will try to do just that. You can click on their avatar and ignore
them (this cuts off their sound) and encourage others to do the same. Better
still is if you and the others with you can talk this person out of it. Try
not to stoop to their level and resort to their language or worse, to headbanging
(see below). Communities are forming in the new digital streets, and they
are self-policing for the most part. Gaming worlds (see Chapter 14) and traditional
all-text MUD and MOO environments frequently give individuals (often called
wizards or gods) special powers.
The social virtual worlds like Utopia, on the other hand, often
treat everyone as equals and let community norms evolve. I believe that it
is a good indication for our future in digital space if you just give people
equal access to a world and equal powers there and let them communicate face
to face they create a functioning, decent, and sustainable environment
for themselves.
Boom boxers
Boom boxers are users who turn their music up next to their
computer and come into a Traveler world with their mike open. Boom boxers
are often not listening to anyone's conversations, so the best thing you can
do is ignore them by right-clicking on their avatar and selecting Ignore.
It often takes a minute or two to identify the boom boxer (usually they are
targeted by users working together… ìI think he just went past
me"). You can also go away from the sound and engage in a private conversation
with someone far away from the troublemaker.
Headbangers
Figure 9.35: on37.gif
Avabuse in Utopia. Headbangers hurt, OW!
Another set of hooligans in Traveler worlds are the headbangers.
These pranksters go around and when you are not looking, start to bump you
around. They usually come from behind or above and just hammer away. It can
be very funny if it isn't you trying to have an intelligent (or even not-so-intelligent)
conversation! Solution: bump back, complain, or just ignore that person. You
can also call for help from others in the world; you would be surprised by
the effectiveness of a community voice, even in this "artificial"
reality (but how artificial is it really?).
Where are the cops when you need them?
With all of these problems, you can report the offending user
(if they have a profile) to Digital Space or look for hosts or Digital Space
technical support within a Traveler world, who may be able to come to your
rescue on the spot. Most Digital Space technical support people have the ability
to kick people out of the world, but they must witness the offending person
in the act.