Communication in Genesis is fairly simple. It ranges from common speech to magical communication, with many other options in between. Here we'll deal with means of communication, some conventions and some common problems.
Standard speech
Languages
Tells
Names
Post Offices
Boards
Communication in Genesis follows a simple command structure:
<command> [string]
The standard and most used command is say. Try the following
command:
> say Hello, Genesis!
If your echo is on, you will see:
You say: Hello, Genesis!
If not, you will see:
Ok.
Anybody in the room can hear what you said. Be warned that even if you can't see a person in a room, he may be there.
Others will see:
Bodo says: Hello, Genesis!
The say command can be directed, with the syntax
say to [person] [string]
So if Garnet is in the room, you may type
> say to garnet Hello, Garnet. It's a pleasure to meet you.
Others will see:
Bodo says to Garnet: Hello, Garnet. It's a pleasure to meet you.
While Garnet will see:
Bodo says to you: Hello, Garnet. It's a pleasure to meet you.
There may come a time when you are in a room with many people,
but you want to tell one of them something private. In this
case you will use the whisper or ask commands.
The syntax is
<command> [person] [string]
For example:
> whisper dordon You have beautiful eyes.
Dordon will see:
Bodo whispers to you: You have beautiful eyes.
But others in the room will see only
Bodo whispers something to Dordon.
whisper and ask are identical in functionality. ask should really be removed, since it duplicates the whisper function, since the command is not indicative of its function (asking a person something in a crowded room does not normally imply privacy), and since the command is misleading (one does not have to give a question with the ask command).
Everybody in Genesis understands what a character says using the say command. However, it is possible for characters to speak in different languages. One such language is available to everybody. This is the rsay command. It is used exactly like say. It is one's racial language. Most all characters of your race will understand your rsay. Most all characters not of your race won't, though there are some very learned ones about who have considerable skill in languages and who may be able to understand your racial speech.
Aside from rsay there are many other languages in Genesis. Most (if not all) of which are guild languages, so that all members of a guild can understand that guild language.
There are times when it is possible to communicate directly to
another person. Every character can do it when Armageddon comes
to reboot the game. The syntax is
tell [person] [string]
Wizards can always do tells. It is recommended that you read the help file on the reply command in case a wizard does a tell to you. So that you will know what it looks like, here is an example:
An apparition of a slender young human wizard appears. He tells you: Your decrees to the minions of Morgul have been noted for their quality. He then disappears.
A different form of tells are messenger animals. There have been pigeons, eagles, rats, spiders, weasels, ferrets, shades, wolves and any number of creatures used to send messages. One must hire, summon, buy or otherwise acquire a messenger. Then one writes a note and sends it to another person. The syntaxes vary, and one will most often find the proper syntax by examining the messenger animal.
Finally, characters may gain the ability to do tells through magical means. Most often this is an ability bestowed by a guild, but it is powerful magic, so one cannot expect to receive it without a firm commitment.
A feature particular to Genesis is that one does not automatically know the names of all the other players in the game. In fact, one starts out knowing nobody. When you meet others you will first see their non-met descriptions: two adjectives describing the person's appearance, the gender of the person, and the person's race, in that order. For example:
A swarthy yellow-eyed male elf arrives. The swarthy yellow-eye male elf says: what's your name?
Similarly, you will be unknown to this person. The way to make
yourself known is with the introduce command. The
syntax is
introduce me
When you introduce yourself, others will see:
The dull peasantish male human introduces himself as: Bodo, novice, male human.
Once somebody has introduced himself, you can remember him with the remember command. Once you have remembered somebody, you will see them by name without needing an introduction first. However, memory space is limited by your character's brainpower, and young characters are typically not mental powerhouses.
This brings us to a discussion on titles. When you start meeting people, you will see that some of them have titles as long as the Nile. Titles come from different factors, and consist of up to six parts. The first part is the name, the second last part is his level, the last part is his gender and race, and everything in between are guild affiliations. Let's look at an example:
The voluptuous blue-eyed female goblin introduces herself as: Juanita the Lethal Grunt, Worshipped Bishop of Kaheda and Minstrel of the Dawn, champion, female goblin.
A quick breakdown of the parts:
Juanita the Lethal Grunt, Worshipped Bishop of Kaheda and Minstrel of the
[name] [racial guild] [occupational guild] [layman guild]
Dawn, champion, female goblin.
[level] [gender & race]
All guild titles are organized in the following order: 1) racial, 2) occupational, 3) layman. Of course, one may only be in one or two guilds, so the title structure may be different. For example,
Tosha the Calian Champion and High White Sorceror of the Shires, champion,
male hobbit.
In this case Tosha has no racial guild, so his occupational guild is listed first, and the layman guild is listed second.
To see what levels are possible, type
> levels mortal
What if you want to leave a message for somebody, but he isn't on at the moment, or you have no idea where he is? There are post offices to cover such situations. When you enter a post office, you will be given a mailreader. Look at the mailreader for instructions. The mail system is quite powerful and has many nice features; it is worth looking into if you will be doing a lot of mailing on Genesis.
Of course, the same netiquette that applies to your RL email should dictate your behaviour when using Genesis mail. Avoid spam, and don't waste people's time. The Administration has been known to take action when mortals abuse the post office system.
Finally, bulletin boards exist on Genesis for public discussion. You may contribute to the discussions or create your own as you wish. Some would warn that it is better to stay silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt, but I think Francis Bacon put it better: "Silence is the virtue of fools." This statement of course has several meanings, all of which apply to this issue, I think.
For more information on say, rsay, ask, whisper, remember, introduce, reply and titles, consult the help files on the appropriate topics.
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©1997 to Michael A. Laux.