Dove Lane

UK virtual world consultants KZero develop marketing and brand-driven campaigns for companies and brands seeking to maximize opportunities in the virtual worlds space. They have some novel research that’s worth checking out.

One thing is sure. Mobile devices and virtual worlds have a future together. Like most relationships, though, there will be a lot of talking and disagreements before they successfully arrive at the altar. More takeaways from the vBusiness Expo sponsored by Clever Zebra.

Today I participated in Clever Zebra’s second vBusiness Expo virtual conference. Nice people running the show and a very good list of topics and presenters. Unlike their first conference, which was conducted in Second Life, this one was held in a specially created 3D space using Forterra’s OLIVE platform. The 3D environment added nothing to the experience, and in fact, detracted from it, since it was a big distraction from the content of the speakers’ presentations. However, that said, here is some very useful and interesting information I took away from the presentations.

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting discussion with a Gen Y person about his cell phone. Being a baby boomer myself, I am more than a little fascinated by the intuitive way that generation absorbs technologies into their routine lives. So will Generation Y be the first 3D generation? I think it still depends on many things, as these conversation excerpts from several young people show.

Last week as I was putting together a presentation on virtual worlds for a class, I discovered how my point of view has changed on Second Life. If you look back two years ago, I was skeptical about it and didn’t think it deserved all the hype it was getting. After a year of delving into SL and exploring all the variety it has to offer, I can now say without reservation that it is the best virtual world out there for content creators/builders and people who just like to explore. So far, anyway.

Today I had a reason to go back and search for a video I had saved in my favorites on YouTube, and completely by accident I came across a great set of video interviews by Henrik Bennetsen of the Stanford Humanities Lab from the Metaverse U conference at Stanford University last February. It’s a great evening of entertainment if you are interested in virtual worlds.

Last year I made several presentations to executive groups about Second Life and other virtual worlds. The overwhelming response I had led me to create a workshop comparing the features of many of the current virtual worlds to help business leaders understand their options so they can make solid decisions about what works best […]

Things are moving very fast in virtual worlds now — too fast for anyone to keep up with everything that is happening and the ideas that are springing up like mushrooms after a rain. That is especially difficult for corporations, governments and other large organizations to deal with, so here is a list of some practical applications that these groups can set their focus on. I’ve distilled it from a number of leading sources that have weight and credibility in the field.

Users and organizations face disappointments with today’s virtual worlds. It’s time for leaders and aspiring leaders to become knowledgeable of virtual worlds and to contribute to making them the positive and constructive platforms they will become. How? Take any one of these 11 disappointments, and start a crusade to change it! There are reputations and careers and satisfaction to be achieved by those who get involved now. This is the ground floor of a groundswell.

Right now we are in the explosive “pre-cambrian” period of virtual worlds, just as we were almost 15 years ago with the Web. Everything I am reading is pointing in one clear direction — the creation of transportable avatars. We have a long learning curve ahead of us, but what is emerging is important and will change everything, even if we just don’t yet know how!

I disagree, however, with the assessment that SL is a “barren wasteland” or dying. What is dying is the hype that generated a lot of curious one-time visitors last year. Only people who are inexperienced in virtual worlds would measure their effectiveness on the amount of traffic. That is the equivalent of counting page hits on a web site. No one can experience the potential of virtual worlds by dropping in once or twice for two hours and assuming they have seen enough.

Today my little avatar went to a strange location in Second Life to take a “class” on scripting from someone I have never met before and know nothing about. The attendees where there for different reasons, but when we completed our task at the end, we were exhilarated! Learning by doing is definitely the best way.

The National Academy of Engineering has declared “enhance virtual worlds” as on of the top challenges of the 21st century. This is getting serious!

Yesterday I attended a virtual presentation in Second Life hosted by Metanomics. It was one of those bizarre, amazing and wonderful experiences that sometimes just happen. I was sitting in my real life office, watching my avatar in Second Life sitting in an audience of about 50 avatars watching the Emory attendees in real time watch us watching them! It was an amazing and relevant experience.

Do we really need deep interpretations of games? I don’t debate that many game developers are well educated and are aware of myths, legends, and the literature and competitors relevant to their work. I simply don’t think it’s meaningful in any way for academics to ascribe deep meanings to stories and characters that, for the most part, are based on earlier myths and legends that were meaningful to people. This article gave me a good laugh.

The high visibility of Second Life and its virtual economy have made virtual worlds a common discussion point in many Board Rooms. There are two types of virtual environments: gaming and social. Both may be used to achieve different educational objectives. Although the technology for virtual environments is improving rapidly, it is not yet robust enough for most business-critical processes. Businesses probably have a window of 18-24 months to develop a virtual training strategy and begin implementing a technology solution.

There are an increasing number of organizations that lobby developers or provide a product to help the disabled or those with limiting conditions to participate in a variety of games and learning simulations. Some new ones are referenced.

There are some obvious types of learning simulations, like the Microsoft Flight Simulator or the Wii sports games. Some other useful ones for a variety of purposes are included here.

China’s newly-announce Chinese Recreational District puts virtual worlds on the legitimate map. In the 40-square-mile area of West Beijing, they intend to open the largest virtual worlds park in the world, and are establishing a virtual economy that will interact with real world economies worldwide. They will target businesses to help them do business virtually. It sounds very exciting, but are there causes for concern? We’ll soon see. It opens in June, 2008.

Brookstone announced the opening of its 3D virtual retail store on the Web. It can be accessed using the Kinset browser plugin, and provides a good user experience — as long as the user’s system uses Windows XP and has a lot of memory.

As much as I love virtual worlds, I don’t see the value of turning a core business tool like email into some sort of Super Mario Brothers levels quest. 3D Email is a flawed product, but a good example of the kinds of mind stretching that will have to happen for 3D or virtual reality to have a meaningful impact on everyday business. I believe it’s important, however, to applaud valiant attempts at something completely new, even when they fail.

It’s been over a year since I wrote anything about machinima, and since then it has started to take off. Here are some of the new things I discovered when I went surfing last night to find some entertainment.

Here is my suggested definition of “Virtual Worlds”: A persistent simulated space inhabited by multiple concurrent or nonconcurrent users who share a sense of physical embodiment that enables them to interact imaginatively with others and experience real world outcomes. Think of it as a concentrated definition. Here’s how I got there…

A lively cheer or clapping, a broad laugh, a back flip or spontaneous dancing can be effective and expressive social interactions in virtual worlds, if timed right. Avatars, however, are sadly lacking in the kind of social development that could make immersive worlds even more realistic and expressive.

Japanese scientists have created an experimental device with great promise for people with debilitating movement disorders. The small helmet enables the wearer to animate a 3D avatar in Second Life so it will perform basic movements just through thought impulses. It’s not yet up to the quick response time needed for competing in a first-person shooter, but it’s a giant step forward!

In some virtual worlds, for some specific applications (like raiding in WoW), voice chat works. For purely conversational socializing in 3D, the jury is still out. We are still learning how to use the tools that can make a 3D conversation as informative as a face-to-face chat. We seem to have mastered the sound quality issues. Now we just need to make it more intuitive to use. That won’t be a quick fix.

Gartner research seems contradictory, yet it makes sense. Governments (and companies) can be in Second Life or any other virtual world today simply to get familiar with the issues, concerns and technologies involved. The barriers to entry are low–it’s free–and their employees can learn free, too, by just trial and error, without the expense of formal training! At a certain point, these organizations will unquestionably move the game indoors, and initiate a virtual world or 3D intranet on a server behind their own firewalls. They aren’t going to abandon it now.

Here is some background on virtual worlds and some additional examples of how non-profits and other organizations are experimenting with applications of virtual worlds to real world issues. Examples of how non-profit organizations and others are using Second Life for non-profit objectives.

This is Part 2 of a series. Many organizations are excited about virtual worlds technology, and are still trying to figure out what they can do with the virtual world concept. Here are some examples of what various business groups are doing today. Keep in mind that participation is growing faster than anyone can keep up with, so this list is by no means exhaustive!

While 3D virtual worlds have their flaws, security and scalability issues, and detractors, mainstream business and government are starting to get engaged with the concept, which is a very positive sign. That means budgets, and budgets mean opportunities for creative new concepts and technology improvements. The excitement is definitely building in corporate offices. If the technological improvements needed to pass corporate CIO muster can occur quickly, we may be at the tipping point.

The Gate is one of those breakthrough ideas that will result in a complete change in how people interact, both in business and in their personal lives. This coming weekend, on October 5-7, there will be a portal set up between real life and Second Life on Odyssey island. It’s being billed as an […]

Virtual worlds/ simulations/ metaverses are stepping up onto the legitimate stage in a big way. Linden Labs reports they must install 120 servers per week, each hosting 1-4 “regions” or islands, in order to keep up with demand for land in Second Life. Gartner Research says current trends suggest that 80 percent of active Internet users and Fortune 500 companies will participate in Second Life or some competing virtual world by the end of 2011. A breakthrough in technology will have to occur. Second Life is just not that scalable in its current form. But you can see the signs of the future — the metaverse, the intraverses, the 3D web — in just what’s available today.

It makes me a little uncomfortable that Second Life is the platform businesses are starting to coalesce around. It’s simply not the best platform for a number of reasons. It just happens to be the first one that spoke the language of business — money. Personally, I want 3-D interactive worlds to be ready to apply to day-to-day uses. They just aren’t there yet.

Gaming provides a rich and unmatched opportunity for people of all ages to learn valuable lessons about human nature, good and evil, the value of preparation, equality, dealing with diversity, leadership, economics, merchandising, setting priorities, and team play. Who knew that games taught such important life lessons? I have noticed that…

Looks like we are headed for some answers to the questions I’ve raised before about the reality of virtual goods, and the legal (and ethical) issues the trade of them raise. The Tax Man is poised to weigh in. Maybe.

I have a love-hate relationship with machinima. The love comes from the concept of being able to make my own video clips while I’m inside a virtual world and then turn it into something creative or useful. My hate comes from my lack of skill with it! In fairness, it’s not all my fault.

Some possible scenarios from a 3D learning environment used in a corporate environment, describing how quests and problems lead to learning with real world value.

What was marvelous about Active Worlds in the early days was it was the wild West. Anything could happen, anything could be built, anyone could go there…a participant’s imagination was the only limit . They were on the leading edge of social worlds, holding virtual exhibitions in a giant exhibition hall, creating a virtual school and college, where real world students and teachers conducted classes. They even sponsored supervised summer camps where kids built 3-D worlds in teams to win a prize. AW was way ahead of its time.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past two years, you have no doubt read an article or seen an interview with someone talking about some sociological phenomena or other that occurs in virtual worlds. The line between games and real life is blurring. Research on the Internet raises a host of novel ethical challenges, and only Linden Lab’s Second Life seems to have addressed the ethics of research using virtual world avatars. I find this interesting.

Gaming guru Edward Castronova plans to develop Arden: The World of Shakespeare as a new gaming landscape, based authentically upon Shakespearean times, that submerges players in period costumes, environments, and language. Just imagine — a game where the most valuable treasure is bits of dialogue from Shakespeare’s plays! It’s a little hard for me to envision, but an important initiative all the same.

Internal links that were broken are now fixed, and the site should work properly.

Spam is a four-letter word!

Part 2 of my risky look at a wild and wonderful way of working! This part describes the 3D interactive environment that could change everything about online learning and knowledge management.

Looking ahead is always fun, wrong, fascinating and ridiculous, but I’m going to give it a try anyway. Here’s my own vision of a wild and wonderful place to work 10 years from now…assuming there are still such things as corporations and we don’t all work from home! If you’ve been wondering what an immersive learning/knowledge management system might look like, read this!

It looks like the knowledge management “profession” is not the only group to have definition problems creating confusion in the rank and file. Game developers face the same problem.

Ads in games are inevitable, and truthfully, as long as the game developers pay great attention to maintaining the game ambience and environment, players are not likely to object. Game development costs rise with each generation of games, and for game developers, alternatives to help offset that cost and keep the price to consumers low are desirable. Gamers, of course, are concerned that advertising will bog down game play and alter the game environment so that they will no longer be “games”…just another merchandising venue. Here are some possible advertising scenarios.

My gaming experience recently has been about getting my little gnome rogue to level 60, and I succeeded last week. I applaud World of Warcraft for attempting to keep the high level players engaged in the game. Having known and played with characters of every class, I never get over being amazed at the level of detail this game manages to deliver. Every class is unique and has special abilities. Every class is fun to play. I think I’ll just enjoy being level 60 again for now, and start saving my gold to buy a high speed mount. I know I’ll need that whichever way the fortunes of a rogue blow…

If you are an educator just starting to look at learning simulations and games, this article may save you some time. Most educators don’t have much personal experience with games or gaming technologies, and it’s important to understand the basics in order to develop or license simulations appropriate for your specific needs. This article (by a gamer) covers genres, gaming engines, and other resources you may find useful in your quest. It only scratches the surface!

Not all teaching games are simulations, but many popular and readily available titles can teach valuable life lessons and provide solid educational experiences. Some of the newer mainstream games also have complex learning scenarios integrated into them, however educators unused to playing games themselves can fail to see it. Here are some examples of off-the-shelf games and what I think they have to teach.

While learning in virtual or game environments can’t fully replace traditional learning, there are strong indicators that games, especially multiplayer games, are rich environments for the disabled, and may aid both their development and integration into society. Virtual reality-like games may be the ultimate rehabilitative learning device.

Creation of anything new has its own unique challenges, and creating the perfect UI for new games is a complex challenge for game developers. In multiplayer games, the complexity is compounded by the need for players to be able to interact and communicate with one another. A good UI is one that enhances the ambience of the game, delivers functionality efficiently and is instinctive/invisible to the user. But players want more than that — they want to be able to customize everything and feel like they are immersed in the game. Here are the results from an informal survey of experienced MMOG players.