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The rise and rise of the Game Widow

November 13, 2008 by Leave a Comment

(From our sister site, Metaverse Health)

This article in the Canadian publication, the London Free Press, describes in detail a couple of case studies of gaming addicts. The case studies themselves paint a fairly standard picture of someone with a compulsion for intensive gaming, though some effort has been made to provide balanced coverage of the issue.

The premise of the article is the establishment of a support service for gaming addicts in London, Ontario – apparently the first such group in Canada. What caught my eye was that the wife of one of the addicts described in the article, Wendy Kays, has written a book called Game Widow. (we’ll hopefully be reviewing the book soon).

The term ‘game widow’ has been around for years and it’s increasingly resonating with the broader public. It further emphasises the need for more research in the area as well as a vigilance toward not typecasting all gamers as addicts. Terms like ‘game widow’ also accentuate the gender divide in some gaming genres. There are surely ‘game widowers’ out there but they’re likely to be in a distinct minority.

One final comment to the author of the article – online roleplaying did not begin with Everquest in 1999.

Filed Under: General News, Health, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Distance education close-up

November 12, 2008 by 1 Comment

Coat of arms of Finland

Learning together apart: Distance education in a virtual world – Kim Holmburg and Isto Huvila

Holmburg and Huvila’s study, as related in the article link above, focuses on distributed learning opportunities for distance education students, ‘distributed learning’ meaning that multiple tools are used.

Background information

Some of the tools compared in the study were traditional face-to-face classroom teaching -  asynchronous systems such as blogs, wikis and discussion forums. Synchronous systems include chat rooms, video conferences, and lectures and classroom teaching in digital environments like Second Life.

Overall, students in the past have reported that the use of distributed learning has caused them to be more engaged with the class material. This seems unsurprising – the more learning modalities they are exposed to, the more learning styles a student has access to. Synchronous systems in particular were useful for encouraging interaction between students.

Lectures run in Second Life were found to be distinctly advantageous for distance education students. Students report preferring face-to-face classes, however they also found Second Life to be a more ‘fun’ learning experience compared to the other modalities they were exposed to. Additionally, lecturers found that students were more likely to participate in lectures run in Second Life than in face-to-face classes.

Using Second Life creates an interreality for the users – users are immersed in a digital environment, but are also making use of the real world. They are neither in one reality or the other completely. Digital environment experiences, being used the way they are at present, are best interleaved with real world experiences – students getting solely one set of experiences or the other will be missing out.

The major reason for students to prefer face-to-face education over distance education is because of perceived technical problems with remote connections, rather than a difference in perceived quality of overall educational experiences.

Some researchers have found that digital environments that the students engage well with, will positively impact on students’ emotions. Others fear that digitally mediated distance education will lead to emotional distance.

Holmburg and Huvila’s Study

This study had 30 participants – 28 female, 2 male. Of those, 6 had technical difficulties responding to the survey. Moodle, Second Life and one day of face-to-face teaching were used during the course. A classroom was built in Second Life, in which the lectures were held; the classroom closely resembled real-world classrooms to increase familiarity and emotional engagement. The course was arranged by the Centre for Open University Education at Åbo Akademi University.

Respondents were born between 1952 and 1984.

Each student was given instructions about how to use Second Life, and was expected to get to grips with it before commencing lectures.

Respondents felt that the Second Life client was not too difficult to use. Face-to-face education still rated as ‘better’, though Second Life rated as ‘better’ than web-based educational methods. Second Life was rated as the most fun method. Sixty percent of respondents felt that Second Life lectures could replace face-to-face lectures.

The assumption was made at the outset of the study that using Second Life – manoeuvring an avatar – might be challenging for students who were non-gamers. This turned out to be incorrect.

Second Life itself provides many opportunities for different modes of learning, however there are still benefits to be gained from face-to-face communication, when that is easy to organise, since this adds yet more modes.

Second Life provides significant benefits where distance education is involved. If travel time is short and travelling easy, face-to-face teaching is to be preferred. Nonetheless, Second Life increases the fun in learning, an outcome which in and of itself increases engagement and participation amongst students.

In conclusion

The authors of the study state that fun “is always a desired outcome.” This does not always seem to be the case: for many years, anything ‘fun’ has been questionable in educational circles. Hopefully, studies like this in which the fun of an activity is shown to have a positive impact on learning outcomes will go to show that education can be fun and worthwhile at the same time.

Filed Under: Education, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

The Linden Prize: $10 000 US for good works

November 11, 2008 by 3 Comments

Linden Lab have announced the establishment of The Linden Prize.

Its purpose is to reward a Second Life presence that:

“achieves tangible, compelling results outside of Second Life”, is “distinctive, original work using Second Life that clearly demonstrates high quality, execution, function, aesthetics and technical sophistication” and that it “has the capacity for inspiring and influencing future development, knowledge, creativity, and collaboration both inside and outside of Second Life.”

Ten thousand US dollars goes to the winner and entries aren’t restricted to any particular country. The prize will actually be paid in Linden Dollars, which has its pros and cons.

After some challenging weeks for Linden Lab PR-wise, this announcement may garner some cynicism but it’s also an opportunity for Australian content creators to showcase their work. If you’re creativity in Second Life is having a real-world impact, then think about applying – you have until the 15th January 2009.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

November 10, 2008 by Leave a Comment

1. The Japan Times (Japan) – Need for reality checks. “The line between real and virtual worlds has become more confused than ever. Two weeks ago, a woman was arrested after “killing” her virtual husband who had divorced her in an online game called “Maple Story.” She was arrested not on charges of murder, but on charges of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data. She was taken to face real charges in Sapporo, where the real man whose “avatar,” or online persona, was “killed” really lives.”

2. Linux Insider (USA) – Virtual Learning and the Avatar Generation. “Online learning is evolving into much more than discussions via Blackboard. Today’s online learners are spending time engaged in discussions, meeting in virtual classrooms, and combining online and on-the-ground learning, even if they live time zones away from campus. In response, universities are adjusting their curriculum, learning expectations, and changing how instructors approach topics online. One major challenge, creating and maintaining learning communities in virtual space, is testing both existing and emerging online tools. Jeremy Kemp, assistant director of San Jose State University’s Second Life Campus, never meets his students. Instead, he gets to know them through their avatars. The first thing Kemp teaches his library science graduate students is how to do basic things, like how to share information without interrupting each other, how to outfit their avatars and how to deal with technology problems, like when one avatar is in and out of class as their computer crashes and reboots.”

3. London Free Press (Canada) – Gamers, at any cost. “We are stalking the mountainous terrain on our horse in this world of warlocks, druids, hunters and warriors. Thick purple clouds hang in the sky, blanketing the area and casting it into a permanent violet dusk. Lightning strikes fall around us. Here, in this virtual landscape, where relationships are formed through pixilated images on a computer screen and a few dashes of the keyboard send us into a language with its own dictionary, we have reached Level 70 of World of Warcraft – the most popular online role-playing game on the market.”

4. BBC News (UK) – Capturing the scents of warfare. “Video games use realistic graphics and sounds to create virtual worlds. Now researchers in Birmingham are adding smells to the experience to prepare soldiers for war.
I’m walking along an Iraqi street. I can hear the sounds of a crowd somewhere in the distance.
The call to prayer echoes around as I move towards the still-burning wreckage of a bombed bus. The smell of charred rubber fills my nostrils.”

5. Emirates Business 24/7 (UAE) – A virtual victory. “While crowds gathered at public rallies and millions of others glued themselves to cable news, many spent US election night online – and they had plenty of company this time around.
Across the internet, users were discussing, celebrating and bemoaning Democrat Barack Obama’s unfolding election victory inside virtual worlds, on social networking sites and liveblogs and in online games. Others used techno-savvy websites to share their individual voting experiences throughout the day. A motley crew of election voyeurs gathered to watch voting results pour in from across the country on a giant map inside Second Life, the online virtual world developed by San Francisco-based Linden Lab where pixelated avatars fly around and interact with each other. For months, volunteers have been unofficially campaigning inside the behemoth virtual world.”

6. Gamasutra (USA) – The China Angle: China Tries And Buys Social Gaming. “One of the things that people in the game industry say is that the industry is in some way recession-proof because games are viewed as a cheaper alternative entertainment than eating out and going to expensive clubs. Of course, one still has to buy the appropriate console and software, but on a dollar-per-hour measure, it is still cheap.”

7. Forbes.com (USA) – A Realer Virtual World . “For the large majority of Internet users, virtual worlds like Second Life remain a confusing landscape of empty buildings, failed marketing and furry strangers. But Joe Paradiso believes that virtual worlds could be more than an over-hyped gimmick. They just need a dose of reality. Paradiso, a professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, is working to create what he calls X-Reality or Cross Reality, a system designed to bring virtual and real worlds into a practical sort of alignment. With funding from Second Life parent company, Linden Lab, Paradiso aims to use sensors, displays and software to bring real-world data into virtual worlds and to integrate access to virtual worlds with real-world situations.”

8. PC World (USA) – Second Lifers Split on Linden Lab’s Open Spaces ‘Compromise’. “Linden Lab oversees one of the most successful social virtual worlds in existence, but it is still struggling with residents about how Second Life should be governed. Case in point: The debate over the use of “Open Spaces,” a virtual world land type that the company designed for residents to use for, common sense would dictate, open spaces like forests and water. As residents took advantage of the lower-priced land tier and over-developed and over-used the land, Linden Lab took exception at the increased CPU drain on their servers, and raised prices.”

9. The Daily Mail (UK) – Long live The King. “Next Thursday, I will be queuing at midnight in a line of people dressed as Orcs and elves, questioning what I’m doing with my life. I keep telling myself that I’ll be covering a milestone in the history of games – the launch of Wrath Of The Lich King, the long-awaited expansion for the online PC game World Of Warcraft. But in reality, like 11 million other people worldwide, I’ll be doing it because I’m a helpless addict.”

10. Dusan Writer’s Metaverse – Are Virtual Worlds Ready For Business? “When you think business in virtual worlds you think brands. The wave of polished yet mostly empty sims that followed the press infatuation with Anshe Chung’s mythic millions. And how the brands came and then slipped out into the night, the press flaks from Linden Lab and elsewhere calling the whole thing a brilliant experiment from which, heck, we learned a lot, that was the point really, this was never GOING to be the killer app of virtual worlds, keep your hat on folks, and by the way I have a sim for rent with a nice view.”

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With:

10 days left to save humanity

November 7, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Superstruct game.

Superstruct runs for only 10 more days.

Due to the nature of the game, it’s still not too late to join in, though some may find the task even more daunting than when the game began. Superstruct is difficult to navigate. Though several superstructs have been put together for this express purpose, there is no single, compact point from which to view the game, no easy and comprehensive way to search the collection. Additionally, there’s either quite a bit of duplication of effort, or people have not been sufficiently able to explain how their superstruct differs from other very similar efforts – this makes researching the results doubly difficult.

6452 players. 488 superstructures. Sounds good, considering the nature of the game.

Score: 8196. Current Survival Horizon: 2051. Ouch. Looks like we haven’t significantly impacted our survival horizon. Still, 10 days to go!

Here’s a random selection of superstructures, intended to give an overview of the types of superstructures that have been created thus far.

The Common Purpose Engine

“Large-scale problems do not require large-scale solutions. They require small-scale solutions within a large-scale framework.”

This superstruct is working to reduce carbon emissions from energy production while still keeping everyone fed and keeping necessary technologies running. An open-source online carbon/energy monitoring system is being combined with national systems of Tradable Energy Quotas (see www.teqs.net).  Energy usage by homes and businesses will be closely monitored to ensure that a minimum of energy is being used to reduce carbon emissions.

Badge Winner! Longbroading
The Rooftop Cultivation Association
“Feeding ourselves, one apartment block at a time.”

This superstructure relies on the concept of using rooftops, balconies and other small areas for gardening, along with the idea of vertical farming, in order to produce food within cities. They are looking for marketing folk to assist with the push to get people interested and active, as there has been quite some interest in the past with little activity.

Badge Winner! Cooperation Radar
EDUCYCLE
“Changing the world one student at a time!”

Educycle is all about giving and getting a free education. Groups are set up online through yahoogroups; then there are local groups, moderated by local volunteers, set up in participating towns. Each person shares what knowledge they have in an accessible way, and has access to the knowledge of the rest of the superstructure.

Badge Winner! Multi-Capitalism
Foundation of Hope
“Every mission needs a foundation.”

This superstructure is primarily about the delivery of hope to other SEHIs and other people across the planet. Additionally, hope is transmitted not only just by being hopeful, but by telling stories of hope, helping by talking to other people one-on-one, and by providing help in other forms – there is a section in which people can ask for help, and in which offers of help can be made.

Badge Winner! Influency
Outposts of One
“Together we are no longer alone.”

This superstructure is all about connecting people, especially those who are geographically or physically unable to connect with others. People are invited both to connect through this superstructure and to contribute ideas as to how to connect people so that no-one is left out.

Badge Winner! Mobbability
Everyday Heroes
“Everyday people saving the world.”

Join Everyday Heroes and become an everyday hero! Take a form of transport that produces fewer carbon emissions, help out a neighbour, give to someone in your area who is in need, tell stories of hope for the future, and have dinners for 12 people (12 is the limit for the number of people meeting in ReDS (Respiratory Distress Syndrome) areas).

Badge Winner! Signal/Noise Management
Assembly12
“Making casual social contact safe again — 12 bodies at a time.”

On the recommendation of the World Health Organisation to reduce the number of people meeting in any given space to 12, this superstructure is focussing its efforts on ways to implement this idea. City planners, health specialists, and people to come up with alternative ways to meet, educate and socialise are asked to join.

“Casual social contact in the time of ReDS is no different than casual sex last century during the initial outbreaks of AIDS”.

Badge Winner! Mobbability

Extended Family

“Straddling the global/local divide.”

The idea here is that people have more interest in and are more invested in people that they care for – and that immediate families and blood-relations need not be the limit of those we care for. We need to connect with people beyond our immediate surroundings and local areas, to interact with and care for people across the globe.

Badge Winner! Longbroading
Portable Energy
“Produce your own Power.”

People are encouraged to find personal ways to produce energy for running their homes, if not to produce energy for the wider grid. Solar cells, wind-farming, and human power efforts are all encouraged.

Badge Winner! Longbroading
Ancient Knowledge
“Preserving the past, connecting the present, and safeguarding the future—by conserving, respecting, and sharing the knowledge of the ancients.”

This superstructure has been put together in the expectation that there will be failures in our energy supply and/or global information systems, and that we will lose access to the knowledge we possess now. We need to prepare for disaster, and keep information, especially that concerning basic survival techniques, alive and available.

Badge Winner! Longbroading
Geocaching: 2019
“I swear! I left it right there!”

The idea behind this superstruct is to take the concept of geocaching, placing caches of goods – emergency supplies, medkits, food, batteries, information and reports – around in a distributed fashion, so that people can have access to necessary supplies without needing to have face-to-face contact. Older technologies can be used for this, so that GPSes need not be used.

The New Modesty
“Changing fashion and customs to prevent the spread of ReDS.”

Loose-flowing clothing covering the body to reduce the incidence of insect bites, face masks to reduce air-based transmission of disease and other changes to dress are promoted here. It is recommended that customs such as handshakes be replaced with the bow. All this is to reduce the spread of ReDS.

Badge Winner! Longbroading
Bright Green
“Bright Green Tech, education, and community meals.”

Bright Green technologies embrace solutions that are environmentally sensitive, but technologically sophisticated. Sustainability, literacy and connectivity are key.

Badge Winner! Cooperation Radar
Superstruct Classifieds
“Who needs what?”

We provide a classifieds system, so anyone with a specific need can easily find help within the superstructure structure.

Badge Winner! Open Authorship

These superstructures are overflowing with wondrous ideas that could – and perhaps should – be implemented now, rather than in 10 years time. However, when that time comes, hopefully exercises like this will have taught us how to cooperate and collaborate far better than we do now.

Filed Under: Education, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Gatheryn – MMO / casual world hybrid

November 5, 2008 by Leave a Comment

A potential new MMO kid on the block for 2009 is Gatheryn, the first title under development by San Francisco based MindFuse Games. They state that genre-wise, Gatheryn is “very steampunk-ish, with a deep story and setting reminiscent of the Victorian period.”

Although it’s an immersive MMO, MindFuse see Gatheryn’s key difference as its casual gaming focus rather than long-term grinding through levels. There’s some real cross-over with casual worlds – each player receives their own virtual space (apartment) which can be customised along with their avatar. There’s also a number of payment tiers – from casual play options right through to “extended community building and exploration”. There’s also the usual MMO features like a marketplace for trading goods and skill mastery challenges.

Graphically, it’s certainly competitive:

We’ll follow Gatheryn’s development over coming months. You can register for news updates and future beta invites here.

Filed Under: Alternatives, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

The Big Spaceship lands

November 4, 2008 by Leave a Comment

If you’ve been following Second Life, you’ll know usability issues have been key. As we’ve repeatedly rehashed here, 2008 was cited by Linden Lab as the year for improving the Second Life experience. There’s quite rightly been criticism of the number of issues outstanding with the user experience.

The tide may be turning on that front, with Linden Lab announcing the engagement of ‘interactive design agency’ Big Spaceship to improve Second Life’s ‘first hour’ experience.

Big Spaceship do have some form in the sphere, having played a pivotal role with the 30 Days of Night immersive game. There’s no firm timeframes for when we’ll see the improvements. Like any user interface changes, the challenge will be the get a balance between simplicity for new users and the more complex needs of longer term Second Life residents. Hopefully they’ve already had a browse of some great innovations already created by Second Life residents.

If you’ve got your own suggestions – add them on the Second Life forum thread devoted to the topic.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Rezzable scale back Second Life presence

November 4, 2008 by 2 Comments

Rezzable are arguably one of the most dynamic and innovative content creators in Second Life – a reason we’ve covered their new builds over the past 18 months. Today on the Rezzable blog, CEO Jonathan Himoff (SL: RightAsRain Rimbaud) announced a scaling back of Rezzable’s presence due to the OpenSpace pricing issue. Himoff is quite emphatic on the specifics:

We are very concerned that the Second Life economy from our perspective (not the 67% of growth part that CEO Mark Kingdon sees) is flat and this “void crisis” will have a very negative effect on non-land and non-porno sales inworld. We further, are not convinced, that Linden Lab is doing anything constructive to 1) keep people inworld or 2) market/promote SL to attract new users. Recent announcement from LInden Lab indicate that the company is focusing on enterprise and government markets were it sees better potential.

The Rezzable creations about to be deleted are The Cannery and The Dump – so check them out while you can. Losses like this are nearly always a shame, particularly builds of this quality.

Picture courtesy of Rezzable’s Flickr Group and thanks to Pavig Lok for the heads-up.

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Metaplace: beta impressions

November 3, 2008 by 1 Comment

We first mentioned Metaplace over a year ago, and that year has been spent working toward a public beta. In the past week I received a beta invite and I’ve spent a number of hours using Metaplace. Overall, this is one impressive virtual world platform with enormous potential. It makes offerings like Google Lively seem just a little underdone to say the least.

My impressions of Metaplace so far:

1. Orientation as it should be

Any virtual world lives or dies on its initial impression to new users. Metaplace have obviously learnt from the mistakes of competitors by providing a highly integrated sign-up process. It looks slick but it flows nicely as well. The ‘Metaplace Hub’ is the central gathering point and it’s easily accessible at all times given the ever-present web interface.

2. Content creation is king

Second Life is arguably the best platform for unique content creation. Metaplace has some significant parallels but with a much simpler interface. From observing some of the chat amongst beta users there’s a lot more under the hood than initial impressions, but that simplicity is great for the inital learning curve. The tutorials are well integrated and The whole creation interface reminded me strongly of The Sims. For me the standout is the ability to directly import textures (tiles) from either your hard-drive or via a web image search courtesy of Yahoo – the imported images then merge seamlessly into your overall library.

Building structures is also fairly self-explanatory, with good preview functions. For users where content creation isn’t second nature, the interface will help them get started and hopefully more motivated to take on the deeper learning curve. Scripts, plugins, sprites and sounds are the key components you have to play around with once you’ve got a little more familiar with things. I’m no scripter so it’s hard to know how much complexity is built into the scripting options.

3. It has rewards hooks

From the moment you sign up to Metaplace, you start earning badges for standard activities like rating another user’s world or sending a private message. Metacreds are the currency of choice and they can be used to purchase virtual goods for your world. I don’t want to be repetitive, but the integration of the rewards gets a thumbs up. I also enjoyed the fact the rewards weren’t intrusive – it’s more an added bonus.

4. The user community is strong

Although by its very nature a beta means a smaller community, the one that exists seems strong. In the half dozen times I’ve logged in for an hour or so, there’s a constant stream of chat – mostly people answering questions from newer users on more complex content creation tasks. The web interface makes keeping in touch easy and a fairly standard ‘friends’ functionality exists.

5. Great Web / 3D integration

I’ve mentioned the integration aspects a few times, and with good reason. Because Metaplace runs within a standard web browser (I’ve used it successfully on both Firefox and Safari), it makes accessing the world so much simpler than say Second Life. Of course, there are trade-offs for that simplicity such as the graphical complexity of the world and arguably the degree of scripting that can occur. On the up-side, there’s good social networking tools, including the ability to follow any other user’s discussions via an RSS ‘Metastream’.

Another notable for Metaplace is its speed. Initial login takes around the same time as Second Life – the same for movement between areas. Managing private messages, rewards, profile info, avatar customisation and accessing tutorials all occur from the 2D web interface. It’s plain easy to use.

The sum up

The work put in by the Metaplace crew over the past year is really apparent. As a beta version, this is already an impressive virtual world platform that provides some meaty creative options for casual users that don’t want to spend days or weeks creating their space. If you haven’t signed up for a beta invite, consider doing so if you’re looking for something new in the virtual world space. If Metaplace had reached this stage of development 12-18 months ago, their success would have nearly been assured. In the explosion of new worlds under development now, competition is much tougher. That said, the quality of this offering is likely to win a lot of hearts and minds in the casual worlds space, whilst still intriguing the more hardcore content creator.

What do you think? Is Metaplace the sort of world you can see yourself spending significant time in? Does it open up options that other worlds currently can’t?

Filed Under: Alternatives, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

World of Warcraft polled on Obama and McCain

November 3, 2008 by 3 Comments

Humour is the intent of this video, and there’s certainly some funny sections. It also does again show the potential power of virtual worlds as a political platform.

If you don’t have time to watch – Obama polled 62% across the whole Azeroth population, with McCain been favoured by Alliance whilst Obama is the pick of the Horde. It’s been a popular video to watch: more than a quarter of a million views in the few days it’s been available.

Filed Under: General News, Humour / Satire, Virtual Worlds

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