Doings in the Palace
What is doing in The Palace? It turns out…quite a lot! This
next section will give you a sampling.
Interviews
I have been interviewed twice in The Palace. One reason The Palace
is so good for interviews is that you can save the log of all
conversations. Another reason is that many people can get into
the interview area and participate. The first interview I did
was for Artificial Intelligence Watch, a British computer
science newsletter. I was able to do this while on vacation in
July 1996, up in the woods outside Seattle on a friendís
Internet connection. This also saved huge telephone charges (to
call London).
The second interview I did was for Fabrice Florin, of Zenda, creator
of innovative environments and games for citizens of virtual worlds.
Fabrice produced Minds Palace for Howard Rheingold, working with
cartoonist Jim Woodring, and ìspoon manî Mark Petrakis.
Minds Palace, as a first-rate social spot in The Palace cosmos,
holds regular interviews and publishes them later on their Web
site at http://www.minds.com.
I was recruited for
such an interview, so showed up early in the dressing area of
Minds Palace. You can connect to Minds Palace by choosing File
È Connect and entering minds.palace.com.
Digi gets a dressing down
I had arrived early at Minds Palace for my interview, nervous
as a mare in the springtime. It wasnít exactly like appearing
on the Tonight Show, but I still wanted to look my best.
Figure 6.23: pa7p.jpg
I arrive at Minds Palace prop wall to get dressed for a big interview.
Minds Palace has a great prop wall, where you can collect and
use props to dress up your avatar. The prop wall must have seen
me coming, because it had just the accessories for an out-of-breath,
red-faced roundhead like me.
Figure 6.24: pa7r.jpg
I pull rubbery legs into my Props satchel.
I dragged and dropped a wonderful set of rubbery arms and legs
into my Prop satchel, opened it up, and found them all nicely
stashed there. From that point, I could just drag the props onto
my avatarís body, and use the Edit window to adjust them
and voilà: Digiís got legs!
Figure 6.25: pa7q.jpg
I Plopped my new prop legs onto old round head!
Snatching a crown and a funny thing that looked like a crumhorn
(my voice is pretty soft, so I need to get attention somehow),
I was off to my date with destiny…famous author interviewed
(well, famous in his own computer room, anyway).
Camera! Action! The interview of famous author Digi
Out of breath, there is quite a crowd here, and there is…Coyote,
the avatar representing Fabrice of Zenda. I sure liked his avatar;
must be someone from the Hopi or Navajo legends. It reminds me
fondly of times spent driving through Arizona and New Mexico.
Figure 6.26: pa8e.jpg
My interview with the famous creator of Zenda starts!
The interview is just starting, when one of our honored members
of the studio audience, mr. rotten, starts to heckle from the
peanut gallery. As these interviews are posted all over Minds
Palace, any kind of rabble can just show up!
Figure 6.27: pa8d.jpg
mr. rotten is not happy!
mr. rotten is not happy, or rather, very happy to
have a stage to do his number. So what can we do? Well,
we carry on the interview to see if mr. rotten sees something
of interest, or just gets bored and goes away. Letís tune
in now to the action (my comments are in italics).
What follows is part of the log of
my interview.
mr. rotten sets the tone
mr. rotten: uuhh this sucks, this is like boring i am going to
go do something productive like beat up a trashcan or something
some time later
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): Well, shy people or people with dull lives can become more…
Coyote: virtual community versus physical community
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): flamboyant. And it is a community of the mind, like any academic pursuit.
mr. rotten: who the hell are you??
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): Community is in the mind.
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): Or starts in the mind, our model of communities. So virtual worlds are…
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): places where we build new mental models of community which
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): may be ephemeral (these communities may only last weeks,
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): if that).
mr. rotten is being ignored
mr. rotten: bunghole
Guest 5443: What do you mean, community is in the mind?
Guest 5443: For me community has always be strongly associated with place
mr. rotten: uuhh i do not understand these words
mr. rotten: they are confusing me
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): Good question, but say you took all the people out…
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): of a village and into another altogether different place…
Coyote: you have visited a lot of communities in the past few years: which ones have turned out to be most interesting? why?
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): would they re-form the community they had, their relationships?
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): Do they need the village buildings?
mr. rotten starts to get interested and conversation turns to him
mr. rotten: hey Bruce exactly who are you so i know what to ask you in questions
Coyote: we're talking about social life in places like this, mr. rotten
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): Oh, for all you, see http://www.ccon.org for what I do.
mr. rotten: oh i see
Coyote: Bruce has studied those and is writing a book on the subject
mr. rotten: like when you are talking to someone or having friends
mr. rotten: kinda like in real life??
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): www.ccon.org, avatar central
Coyote: yes, exactly.
mr. rotten: pretty cool
mr. rotten: basically what we are doing right now.... right??
Coyote: my question is: is the way we interact here as valid as real-life interaction?
Coyote: or is it a bit of an illusion?
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): What do you think, Mr R?
mr. rotten: about what??
mr. rotten: i am kinda tired
mr. rotten: sorry
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): about Coy's question
mr. rotten: good question
Coyote: are we hiding behind our avs? or are our avs a true representation of ourselves?
mr. rotten: put on the spot
mr. rotten: not for me
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): what does everyone think?
the truth is out!
mr. rotten: i am a totally different person on the computer then in real life
Coyote: i try to represent myself as honestly as I can on the computer
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): what are you like in RL?
Guest 5443: Perhaps we are particular facets of ourselves
mr. rotten: well for one thing i am only 13
Coyote: good point, 43
mr. rotten: i mean
Guest 5443: I think it's rather difficult at this point…
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): are you a big cheese here in The Palace, how do you see your role here?
mr. rotten: on the computer i come on to have fun and kinda be a different person
Guest 5443: to represent the entire complexity of a person in a virtual setting
Coyote: are you rowdier on the computer?
mr. rotten: i see my role (sorry to say) as a person who bothers people makes jokes but is also a pretty nice guy
mr. rotten: OH YES I AM COYOTE
mr. rotten: OH YES
mr. rotten: VERY TRUE
Coyote: are you more reserved in real life?
mr. rotten: yes
Coyote: so this is a bit of an outlet for you
mr. rotten: uh huh
Bruce Damer (DigiGardener): these are interesting questions
mr. rotten: i am like a whole different person on here
Figure 6.28: pa8h.jpg
Bye all my friends! This interview was conducted partly in French.
So, this interview went a whole different place than I thought
it would, and we learned something about mr. rotten, life in virtual
worlds, and in RL (real life). These interviews are snippets of
life, streams of thought and can be quite touching (or stupendously
boring!).
Figure 6.29: pa8b.jpg
Shameless plug for this book, Coyote adds an image prop into The Palace.
Expand your Mental Capacity in Minds Palace
Figure 6.30: pa6e.jpg
Minds Palace Logo.
The Minds Palace is a Palace world created to explore new forms
of social interaction. Developed by Zenda Studio (also described
in the following section on Games) as a companion to Howard Rheingold's
new Electric Minds Web site, this new site features the day-glo
visuals of comic artist Jim Woodring (who also designed Comic
Chat), the creative direction of Mark "Spoonman" Petrakis,
and all sorts of new inter-activities, such as interviews (like
the one I did described above) and Zenda's addictive Charebus
game (see the next section). (This
repeats info given on p.33.)
In Minds Palace, you can make your own character from a large
collection of outrageous body parts and, if you're lucky, get
your 15 seconds of fame in their monument
to cool avatars. Drop on in, enjoy the view,
and pursue good conversation with other like minds. Find the Minds
Palace home page at http://www.minds.com/palace/.
Connect directly with Minds Palace by entering palace.minds.com
into your Connect dialogue box.
Games! Charebus
Zenda studio, working with Minds Palace and the Palace Inc. has
produced Charebus, a combination of charades and rebus
in which you solve picture puzzles while chatting with other players
from around the world. A new twist on charades, pictionary, and
rebus puzzles, Charebus is currently played in the Minds Palace
at 5 p.m. each Saturday. Groups of five or more can play at the
same time. Each Charebus puzzle features a different mystery phrase
(movie, song, TV show, etc.). To solve the puzzle, you must guess
picture clues related to that mystery phrase.
Find information about Charebus and other games in the Palace
at Zenda Studioís home page at http://www.zenda.com/.
You can even submit your own puzzle ideas for future episodes
of Charebus.
Avatar fashion shows
So many Palace citizens (who are registered users) have created
their own avatars that it seems like a real pageant. Some citizens
have created multiple avatars, which they change in and out of
in the course of the avatar parade. Take Turbodog for example.
Figure 6.31: pa5j.jpg
Turbodog, the turbocharged roundhead.
Roundheads are the ubiquitous smiley faces everyone starts with
as a guest in the Palace. When you become a registered user, you
get a red roundhead and the power to create your own avatar. Turbodog,
who I met one day, is a student from the Bayou country of Louisiana,
and a total pro in the avatar creation game. Take a look at his
turbo-charged roundhead here!
Figure 6.32: pa5k.jpg
Turbodog as Ren (or Stimpy?) of MTV cartoon fame.
Wow, who is this character? I think it is Ren (or Stimpy?) from
his glory days on MTV. Avamarks, otherwise affectionately known
as avatar trademark violations, abound in virtual worlds. As avatars
are still small potatoes in the world of entertainment, we have
yet to see hundreds of blue-suited avalawyers chasing down avamarks
and serving them with avasuits.
Figure 6.33: pa5h.jpg
Beavis and Butthead got a life…in The Palace!
Get a life, Beavis and Butthead, and come on into The Palace!
Turbodog brings you two more famous MTV characters in another
of his avatars.
Figure 6.34: pa5i.jpg
BRB avatar; very useful for personal survival.
Here, Turbodog is showing off one of his more practical avatars,
the famed BRB (be right back). One has to eat sometime, lest The
Palace eat up your whole life!
Using Macros to switch between various sets of grouped props is
the way to create an avatar fashion show.
IptScrae…better living through scripting
Scripting, using The Palaceís very own programming language,
affectionately known as IptScrae (pig Latin for SCRIPT), is
a powerful way to automate yourself, create bots, and have a whole
lot of fun.
Figure 6.35: pa6b.jpg
Snowball script in action…gotcha!
I used the snowball script built by Turbodog to chuck this
hunk of white at my fellow avatars.
Figure 6.36: pa6c.jpg
Oops! I got it back!
Snowballs work both ways, so I did get it back in my cheery face.
Figure 6.37: pa6a.jpg
The IptScrae language makes snowballs work.
And here it is, the IptScrae programming language which makes
the snowballs happen. Describing all the details of IptScrae is
beyond the scope of this chapter. If you are an ordinary user,
you might be satisfied with running scripts that other programming
nerd types give to you. If you are afflicted by deep nerd thought,
you may want to learn IptScrae by checking the references in The
Palace, ìFrequently Asked Questions (FAQ),î section
at the end of this chapter.
Bots: itís the Borg!
Appearing more often in virtual worlds are things called bots
(a virtual world shorthand for robot). In other types of computer
software, bots are called agents or angels. Bots, agents, and
angels are all pieces of software that run on their own, and sometimes
look just like other users who communicate with us. However, there
is no person behind a bot (apart from the programmer of the bot,
who may not be around). Bots can be very helpful, as greeters
or guides, or sometimes they can tell you who has been in a particular
area in the last 24 hours. However, some bot builders are pretty
devious, and design their bots to trick people into thinking that
the bot is a real person.
Back in the early days of computers, the first scientists who
dreamed of thinking machines built a program called Eliza. Eliza
would take in text typed by users, and then, with a big word and
phrase association table, carry out a conversation. Eliza could
fool people for long periods of time. Eliza could act as a psychotherapist,
taking statements like, ìwell, I finally got to speak with
my father,î and throwing back, ìwhat did you speak
with your father about?î and so on.
Figure 6.38: pa5m.jpg
Is it a bot? Or has the Borg arrived to assimilate us?!
Talking bots can be designed to mimic Eliza, which could make
for embarrassing situations when real users discover that they
have been talking about their deepest, innermost feelings with
a bot for an hour (especially if it was a good-looking one!).
We in the virtual worlds business have been wracking our brains
for years to come up with a standard symbol for bot so that no
user is tricked (if people will use the symbol). After finding
nothing suitable, users came up with it for us: the eye piece
on the Borg characters, as depicted on Star
Trek: The Next Generation TV series.
As we can see in the preceding figure, a user is proudly displaying
a Borg avatar (in this case representing a real user). This kind
of bot facial markings (black ring around the right eye as you
are looking at it) is now being used increasingly to signify a
bot .