Letís Chat: The Good Life as a Guest
There are several levels of citizenship in the Palace; that of
guest, registered user, and the highest level, wizard. In this
section, I will cover features that are available to guests (and
everyone else). See the section, ìHow do I become a Registered
User of The Palace?î in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
at the end of this chapter.
Well, even if you are only a guest, you can still do what most
people come to The Palace to do: chat, chat, chat. The Palace
software provides you with a number of ways to express yourself.
To chat, you just click on the input box, an area at the bottom
of the Palace client window, and then start typing. Your words
will appear in the input box. You can also press Tab instead of
clicking on the input box to be able to start typing again. When
you push Enter (sometimes called Return), your text in the input
box will appear in a cartoon-balloon near your avatarís
head.
You can control the length of time text stays up on your screen
by setting the balloon delay (which can be found under Preferences
on the Edit menu). Mac users can also control the font and font
size used in the cartoon-balloons.
Using special balloons
You can change the way your words appear on the screen by typing
the following special characters in front of your text:
Balloon shapes help to express your thoughts
| Prefix character | What it does |
| : my message | This gives you a thought balloon, instead of the normal talking balloon. |
| ! my message | This gives you an excited-looking spiky balloon. |
| ^ my message | This gives you a rectangular sign balloon, which stays up until you move or say something else. Sign balloons are useful for saying things like BRB (Be Right Back) or On the phone. |
| @x,y my message | This allows you to place your cartoon-balloon wherever you want on the screen. X and Y are the numeric coordinates of the location from which you wish the balloon to emanate. The view screen is 512 pixels wide (X) by 384 pixels high (Y). This feature can be used for spoofing (putting words in peoples' mouths); however, anyone who looks at the log window would be able to see who the real speaker was. This feature doesn't work for guests. |
| ; my message | This results in your message appearing only in the log window. |
Table 6.1
Whispering sweet nothings
By clicking directly on another person's avatar, you enter Whisper
mode. In this mode, all other avatars on the screen become slightly
darker, and the phrase, Talking to:
If you are a registered user, you can also whisper to people in
distant rooms. This is called telepathy. To send a telepathic
message, simply open the user window by selecting Options È
Find User. Next, click once on the name of the person you wish
to speak to. Regardless of their location, they will see your
message in italics (and no one else will). Note that your message
cannot enter a locked room. Sounds and special balloons do not
work in Telepathy mode.
Shortcut Keys for Chat
The following keys provide useful shortcuts:
Shortcut keys
Table 6.2
Sounds like Chat
Want to express yourself a little more brashly? The Palace has
a built-in set of audio files which everyone can use. These files
happen to be located in your Sounds folder (which is within the
Palace folder), and they are recorded in 22 KHz, 8-bit mono WAV
format. All you really need to know is:
To make a sound, type a right parenthesis followed by the name
of the sound, like so:
)applause
You can even follow a sound with spoken text, like so:
)applause He shoots! He scores!
The current list of available sounds includes: amen, applause,
belch, boom, crunch, debut, fazein (for faze
in), guffaw, kiss, no, ow, pop, teehee, wet1
(I donít know what this means, try it and see!),
wind, and yes. Try 'em all!
Your avatar and you
As a guest, you come into The Palace wearing the default avatar,
which is a spherical yellow smiley face, also affectionately known
as a Roundhead or a Yellowhead. Although you cannot
make your own avatar (or change the color of your head) until
you become a registered member, there are still a number of things
you can do to personalize yourself for better communications.
The face window
The Face icon at the bottom of your screen brings up a pop-up
window which can be used to change your facial expression and
color (if you are registered). This window may be kept open while
you are maneuvering around in The Palace, so that you can change
your appearance almost instantly. A rapid sequence of facial expression
changes can be a hilarious way of communicating with your avatar
buddies. If you have an extended keyboard (with a separate numeric
keypad on one side), you can use your number keys to rapidly change
your expression as well.
These expressions serve much the same function as emoticons in
e-mail messages. They are a convenient means of displaying emotion
in a medium which cannot convey all the subtleties of human communication.
In fact, some of the expressions can be triggered by typing various
emoticons straight into the input box, as shown in the following
table:
Use emoticons for avatar expressions
Table 6.3
Figure
6.13: pam4e.jpg
The user window opens through Options
È
Find User.
Key What it does
Tab Toggles focus between the input box and the viewing area
Up Arrow Pages back through your previously typed statements
Down Arrow Pages forward through your previously typed statements
Esc Clears the input box
When you type The Expression You Get
:) or ) Smile :( or ( Frown :| or | Normal ;) or ; Wink :[ or [ Angry