The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

1. Signal Connections (USA) – Game On for NATO Virtual Training. “NATO’s innovative arm, the Allied Command Transformation (ACT), demonstrated a new way to improve the alliance’s military effectiveness using virtual worlds. Developers from the command presented a game called Boarders Ahoy! at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), and the program received the People’s Choice Award for the Best Serious Game. I/ITSEC is a venue for showcasing cutting-edge games for business, government and academia. Developers were challenged to create technologically sound programs that solve problems and provide users with a rewarding experience. The top 12 games, including Boarders Ahoy!, were presented to conference attendees and evaluated based on problem solving, technical quality, and playability and enjoyment.”

2. Department of Defense (USA) – ‘Virtual World’ Helps With Post-traumatic Stress. “The Defense Department is using virtual-world interactivity to educate and help warfighters and others who are reluctant to seek more direct care to deal with post-traumatic stress, said an official at the National Center for Telehealth and Technology, also known as “T2.” The welcome center for the T2 Virtual PTSD Experience, based in the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life. This immersive, interactive learning activity is a public site designed for warfighters and their families. It educates visitors about combat-related post-traumatic stress and offers resources for seeking help. During a recent telephone briefing from the center’s headquarters at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Wash., Greg Reger — a clinical psychologist and acting chief of the center’s innovative technology applications division — said the kinds of immersive experiences available in virtual worlds, such as the internationally populated virtual world called Second Life, are designed to appeal to tech-savvy service members and their families.”

3. The State Press (USA) – Professors hold class in ‘World of Warcraft’. “Instead of logging onto Blackboard to complete homework this spring, students in one class will enter the “World of Warcraft” and “Second Life” to study the culture of online virtual environments. “Discourses, Community, and Power in Virtual Worlds,” or ENG 654, is open to students of all majors and interests. The course intends to adapt to an increasingly technological environment. “We want them to get the experience of playing together with different characters that have to take on different roles to really get an experiential sense of how complex game play is in that environment,” said English professor Elisabeth Hayes, who will teach the class with law professor John McKnight.”

4. WoW Insider (USA) – The Lawbringer: The lessons of globalization and gold farming. “Back in 2008, I wrote an article for The Escapist titled Crossing Boundaries, a piece all about globalization as the greatest issue facing video game developers and producers at the time. Guess what, ladies and gentlemen? It’s 2011, and globalization still takes the top spot as the prime issue challenging video game development and production. Rather than rewrite an article on the effects of globalization and the problems the phenomenon causes for the video game industry at large, I thought it might be fun to use globalization as a rubric for discussing the very global industry of gold farming, especially when it comes to the legal nature of things, whatever things may be. We will talk about the lack of predictability in the global market, gold farming as globalization, and the problems with fighting the good fight against the grey market. Won’t you join me?”

5. St Louis Today (USA) – Our love affair with technology is one-sided. “One of our most intimate relationships is often our most unexamined. In a book for anyone who has compulsively checked a Facebook page, felt tethered to a phone, spent hours online that passed like minutes, Sherry Turkle has taken apart our affair with technology and shown us how one-sided the love really is. Turkle, a professor of the social studies of science and technology at MIT and founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, is also a clinical psychologist. This book, a result of 15 years of research with children, robots, digital pets, teens, social networks, adults and virtual worlds, is beautifully written; the prose clear and accessible, but also poignant and moving.”

6. TechNewsWorld (USA) – Study: One in 10 Young Gamers Could Become Pathological Addicts. “rantic parents concerned about their children’s digital habits have found a new ally in the form of a study by U.S., Hong Kong and Singapore researchers, published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics. Roughly 10 percent of young video gamers suffer a pathological addiction to their games, the research team found. “We aimed to measure the prevalence and length of the problem of pathological video gaming or Internet use, to identify risk and protective factors, and to identify outcomes for individuals who become or stop being pathological gamers,” explained study co-author Albert Liau, Ph.D., a psychology researcher at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.”

7. The Parthenon (USA) – Marshall engineering professors use new 3-D technology. “The Power Wall: a 10x17ft 3-D projection screen four times more powerful than an HD TV. It may come as a surprise, but this technology can be found in Marshall University’s Engineering building. Professors of engineering are using the power wall along with the organic motion stage markerless motion capture system to develop technology that will allow people to create and manipulate avatars without the use of markers on their body.”

8. ABC Technology (Australia) – MMO Games, your boss and succeeding at work. “For many people, politics, corporate strategy and philosophy are the sort of topics that lead to thoughts of using a cheese-grater on an inner thigh. If you’re a cubicle jockey in an office, or someone questioning their existence in the meatspace, then Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games like World of Warcraft, Everquest and Guild Wars may be able to help. For the sake of this discussion and because most of my experience comes from WoW, I’ll be mentioning it specifically – but it’s only one of many options.”

9. Mashable (USA) – Why Video Games Are Scoring Big for Social Good. “Cultural historian Johan Huizinga suggested that play and games have always been learning tools, key to the development of culture and civilization. Today, as the multi-billion dollar gaming industry continues to soar and begins to embrace social good integration, Huizinga’s theory reigns true. From FarmVille calling on players to support Haiti to an onslaught of environmental, educational, and corporate social responsibility initiatives being driven by games, the fastest growing segment of entertainment is evolving into a new force of digital activism and facilitating social change.”

10. Xconomy (USA) – Say Hello to My Avatar: Bob Metcalfe Gives First UT Innovation Lecture Using Avaya Web Interface. “Internet tycoon Bob Metcalfe, who recently moved from Boston, is giving his first lecture as professor of innovation at the University of Texas at Austin this afternoon. I don’t know exactly what he plans to say, but what’s particularly interesting is how he’s delivering the talk—to more than just the people in the room, through a virtual collaboration interface from Avaya, the New Jersey-based business communications firm. The technology is being led by an Avaya group with a strong presence in Boston. Metcalfe, the inventor of the Ethernet local-area networking standard, founder of 3Com, and partner at Polaris Venture Partners, moved to Austin for the faculty job earlier this month. He has been a mainstay of the Boston innovation scene for the past couple of decades.”