The Librarian's Lounge

virtual worlds

When it comes to the Sims, I'm an old hat "early adopter" who bought the first game the minute it hit the stores and proceeded to spend more time than I care to admit playing it. The Sims 2 also caught my fancy. I never got into The Sims Online, however, mostly because I couldn't see paying a monthly fee just to play the game. When Second Life came into being, however, I was quick to get an account. Here was the free virtual world I was waiting for. At the beginning, I couldn't get enough of it. Over time, my interest in it began to wane - I was tired of wandering the grid and never got caught up in creating my own content or getting a paid account.

I've been in SL this week again after a few months' absence after reading Peter Ludlow and Mark Wallace's The Second Life Herald: The virtual tabloid that witnessed the dawn of the metaverse. What a fascinating and strange book. Strange, in large part, because it's written in the third person limited view of the author's avatar, so that even when the author is writing about himself and what he felt, it's from an outsider's perspective. I wonder, if the reader wasn't familiar with what it's like to be in a virtual world, if the book would still be understandable. I think I enjoyed it so much because I knew exactly what the author was talking about from first-hand experience. And it covered what it was like to play the Sims Online which I was alway curious about. I would love to see him write more about the new EA-LAND and how EA has changed TSO to be more like SL.

Speaking of first-hand experience, I had this disturbing sense of deja-vu the other day when I read this story about a guy who was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours and watched the accompanying video footage taken by the security camera during his plight. The video was sped up quite a bit. It came to me later why it was that watching the guy have a high-speed meltdown seemed so familiar: he looked exactly the way a Sims character looks when locked in a room with no doors on high speed for hours on end. Something about the similarity between what I've seen in a game and what I've now seen a real person go through - well, let's just say it was sobering to witness.

A Deserted Second Life?

This is a great article about Second Life from Wired this week. It and others like it that have been published lately are lamenting the fact that people don't go to Second Life for the marketing. I don't know why any company ever thought people would flock to their virtual reality site - it makes sense that people either go to the company's homepage or to a brick and mortar location. I can't imagine anyone wanting to walk into a virtual world full of advertising. The only things that really seem to sell in SL are products that you can use in SL, like clothing, skins, and objects for your virtual home.

It seems to me that these companies had a mistaken idea of what SL is all about in the first place. Like chat, it's about connecting with others. Like games, it's about having fun online. Like education, it's about sharing ideas and learning new things. It certainly wasn't built primarily for its money-making potential. Ok, and maybe it seems like Linden Lab has been fudging its population count and that there are actually a lot less people online and active than previously thought. Still, when sites like Info Island are getting about 5,000 visits a day - obviously, people are coming to Second Life and using it, whether someone stands to profit from it or not.

The way I see it, this type of virtual reality environment is important for its ability to connect people and, through that, for its value as an educational tool. I for one would be happy to see all the big corporations pack up their virtual storefronts and call it a day - their presence in my time online is unwelcome. Really, what's the difference between being subjected to advertising in SL and pop-ups when visiting a website? I find both equally annoying. I would bet that if Second Life became a company-driven enterprise, it would be its death. I would also bet that a new, noncommercial recreation would soon be in its place.

Where's a Teen When You Need One?

You'd think I'd be able to track one down in the library, but alas, it was pretty slow at this branch today.

So today was my second class on Second Life and virtual reference services. We went over things such as skins, clothes, where to get freebies, how to use the menus on the top and bottom of the screen, and acquiring the SL browser. I instantly revisited the problem I had last week with sitting down facing the teacher instead of rudely facing away but am happy to report that's not my problem. Apparently, half the benches at the outside auditorium on Info Island are facing the wrong direction and it's not easy to tell which are which in order to fix it. Or at least it'd be pretty time-consuming to do so. We also covered the SL search engine. I wish there were more ways to browse Second Life - sometimes you don't know exactly what you are looking for, you know? The class was great but afterward, I got bogged down with trying to open and use objects in my inventory and was nearly tearing my hair out an hour later. It was a combination of that and waiting excruciatingly long periods of time for scenes to load that drove me over the edge. I can't even find a good SL faq on the net anywhere to answer what must be common newbie questions. At least when I learned The Sims there was a small manual included. Therein lies my need for a teen to show me the ropes, or at least, someone younger than me. I'm pretty computer savvy and ahead of the curve when it comes to my peers, but not nearly as up on gaming as a teen or early twentysomething would be.

So I've put in a request for my library to buy the official SL guide. In the meantime, I'm going back to the web to look for more help - there's just got to be a good site out there somewhere! So far, even the Second Life wiki doesn't look very friendly for new users.

Do Alternate Realities Also Have a Liberal Bias?

I am quite excited that the Lost ARG is finally underway. If you're interested in learning more, why don't you check out The Hanso Foundation and subscribe to their newsletter? Or perhaps you'd rather start with Gary Troup's new book, Bad Twin? I hear Amazon is carrying it at a discount. And of course, it didn't take long for a community of gamers to start a blog - helpful if you get stuck, miss something, or want to share a new lead. But I'll tell you right now, I've already spotted some misinformation there, so be sure to examine all clues and "dead ends" yourself.

Virtual Vaudeville

Virtual Vaudeville is a simulation learning object that allows you to experience a real historical vaudeville act from various perspectives inside the Union Square Theatre in New York during the year 1895. The theatre is no longer in existence but lives on virtually through this object. The designers strove foremost for historical accuracy in the recreation both of the performance and the building itself. For those who may be skeptical of the educational value of games, this is a great example of how, using gaming technology, a learning object can be built to engage students in learning history.

The video about the making of Virtual Vaudeville is particularly interesting, especially the part about how they animated the 800 audience members and made them all unique characters. They used a game engine known as Gamebryo, which has been used in other games such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Sid Meier's Pirates. In the video clip about the project, they mention their plan to create an avatar mode that will allow users to actually become a character in the audience, enabling them to participate directly in the simulation.

Funding for this project came primarily from the National Science Foundation.

Add gaming to your resume

In Wired's article, "You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired!" gaming is regarded as a form of experiential learning. The advantages of playing games: learning by accident, the high risk of failure but low cost, immediate feedback, and, depending on the game (in this case it's Warcraft), perhaps even a chance to try out a leadership role and see how it fits.