When we were first introduced to MOO, my first thought was that this was simply a chatroom similar to one I've used in AIM in the past. Just a lot of people talking at once, with multiple threads of conversations merging together. It was a little overwhelming, but manageable since I've been in chatrooms with large groups of friends before.

But then the next class we were introduced to some more complex aspects of the program. We could now create things to hold, throw, and give to other people. We could navigate through (or get lost in) the virtual Combs building. This meant that MOO was now more complex than a simple chatroom, and instead more like an Interactive Fiction game. Although we were not entirely immersed into the room as Hiro is in the Metaverse, we were still able to interact with our new world in a few more ways.

Unfortunately it is not as complete as the Metaverse because it lacks the visual input. Although there are textual descriptions of the environment, it's still not as complete as the world Hiro can see with his goggles on. Still though, I feel that MOO is a step above the average chatroom, even if it's not as visually appealing as Hiro's Metaverse.