From where I hover…

Feature
Gaming: Let Yourself Fail Forward
ASSOCIATIONS NOW, October 2006

Don’t kid yourself. Online games, once the province of the young, could soon change the way your association delivers education and certification programs. In this interview, two virtual characters explore the potential of gaming for associations.
By: Elliott Masie

Today’s videogames are far more than just shoot ‘em ups or Pac Man-style chase-and-collect mindless diversions. They could be a bold new way to deliver education and more–if associations are brave enough to pick up the controller and press “start,” that is.

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Two news items perhaps related - Linden Lab signed on an Asia-ready PR agency named Lewis this week in hopes of cracking Japan and Korea. State of Play IV is heading to Singapore and taking a goodly portion of metaratti, SL staff and loiterers. Wouldn’t that be a kick to share beer over bowls of fish head curry with Mr. Metaverse himself?

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New Yorker Magazine profiles Wright, maker of Sim City who is releasing another God game daling with evolution. But Wright says his game doesn’t allow direct connection of players using the Internet?! This is either something that is intentionally left as a future feature or just a fatal flaw, IMHO.
Game Master - Will Wright changed the concept of video games with the Sims. Can he do it again with Spore?
by JOHN SEABROOK

The article on page 4 includes one of the best descriptions of Second Life I’ve read:

Second Life, created by Linden Lab, and based in San Francisco… uses a similar operating system to The Sims Online. Second Lifers can buy space in a Sim-City-like community, and use it for commercial transactions—conducted in virtual currency that can be exchanged for real money out in the real world. Aspiring musicians can perform onstage while their music is streamed over an audio channel. Second Life seems like a logical outcome of Wright’s simulation games—and it isn’t technically a game at all.

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Photos and transcript here (requires login).
Youtube demo here. (2:36 mins)

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Just found a Plone-head using SL to view their conference video. Hope he finds others doing mashup work like our Sloodle system!

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I put on a great show Wednesday, 10/18/06 for the NMC’s Impact of Digital Media Symposium. I moderated a panel of the allstars from Second Life’s early education efforts:

• Terry Beaubois of Montana State taught architecture in SL last Fall
• Aline Click at NIU has taught in world and presents on SL regularly
• Josephine Dorado and Dan Winckler, co-directors of Kids Connect
• Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins from Ball State is teaching a rhetoric class
• Sharon Tettegah with UIUC is running an AERA symposium on SL in April in Chicago

Mp3 audio segment 1
Mp3 audio segment 2
Mp3 audio segment 3

Chat Transcript

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I played around with the chat and avatar toolset over at SciWorld (launched in South Korea in 1999). I even created my own avatar with settings to change in five or six catagories and… you guessed it, a store to spend “acorns” on backgrounds, accessories, etc. Acorns run $.10 each and item range from .50 for a jack-o-lantern stamp to $2 for a complete disco stage with animated lights.

Looks like the education clubs are focused on language exchange - particularly Korean, Japanese and English.

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The very first mention of Simteach.com in the mainstream press - in Oman?!

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We have finally released the proceedings of the SLCC educator’s workshop. Dan Livingstone did 90% of the work on this piece and gave me half the credit as co-editor. It includes a preface by John Bransford, the Keynote by NMC CEO Larry Johnson and our whitepaper on the SLoodle LMS mashup concept.

It is a huge accomplishment of the entire S.L.E.D. community. I submitted it to the Department of Education.

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I presented at Stanford Medical School August 24th, 2006 on my Heart Murmur Sim concept piece in SL. See the bios and SMIL video presentations from my section of the two day workshop agenda:

• Mike Korolenko  showed Half Life
• Jeremy Kemp  pasty MUVE boy
• Laura Kusumoto  Olive - the platform under There

Olive by Forterra was the hometeam for this audience; SL an unknown oddball, even though SL is being used for a humanities class this Fall.

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