Roleplaying

I like roleplaying games, I've been a fan of them since I was eleven. When the Christian Brothers that ran my school said they were evil and tried to ban them, I just became even more determined to play. For about fifteen years then, every week, I'd get together with some friends and we'd play. Dungeons and Dragons mostly. For 98% of it, I was the Dungeon Master. I created worlds, wrote adventures and directed the stories. And I loved it. Anyway, inevitably I moved away from my friends and for the past 10 years my roleplaying opportunities have been very limited. So then I find out about these things called MUDS. Online roleplaying games. Sounds very interesting, like it should be right up my alley. My friend is co-creator of one called Dark-Isles, so I log in and start the character creation process. And thats when the problems set in. See I like to know the rules when I'm playing. I like to know that person X is an NPC, person Y is another player and if you type A, then B will happen. I like to know what the commands are, and at least have some general idea of whats going on. And on Dark-Isles I'm lost. My friends response when I've asked for help has been to tell me to tell me to ask on OOC channels, or go where people are gathered and observe. Trouble is, I've no idea how to do either of those things.

UPDATE: Right, now I'm starting to get a bit of a better grasp of things. I've finally gotten a bit of help and now understand how to initiate combat, kill some poor bunny, skin it and then use the skin. Finally progress.