VW Final Project Post

Well it’s finished.  Finally.

It was a long road with my group to get the Cheshire Academy building the way it should be.  It took quite a bit of work to get that moving, and the greatest start of it was the kind donation of the landownwers and builders who helped us along the way.

I think that the project idea was a good one, despite the misgivings of Prof Halavais.  Even though it was extremely annoying at times, I think in the end it provided a good look into the work involved to make something awesome for a business in Second Life.  Our group put in a lot of hours with 5 people; I can’t imagine doing it alone. 

I really wish that we could have saw other platforms besides Second Life.  I bash on Second Life a lot, but I do respect what it is pioneering.  I don’t think that it is the cause for the “completely creative world” that people think it is, but I do think that it helps as a model for the step in the right direction.

Most of my frustration with this project was getting synchronized with the group.  With everyone on a different schedule, it is a royal pain in the @$$ to do anything that requires the group there.  Surprisingly, our group met Sundays and Wednesdays and most of us made it most of the time. 

Like I said in the previous post, I am extremely proud of the FAQs I wrote, how I implemented them in Second Life, and how I changed the “box” around to also give out cool free t-shirts.  It may not seem like much, but to me it was a lot given that I never saw linden scripting before, and this semester was the first time I ever programmed anything (I am in Info Animation learning Flash).  As simple and as few as the lines of code were, I was happy that I contributed in that regard. 

I spent a ton of time on the Frequently Asked Questions, and revised them multiple times.  In their current form, they give a great feel for Cheshire Academy and definitely will answer a lot of the “I need this fact” questions. 

In addition to the frequently asked questions, I wrote the script for the movie Tom worked on using Flash.  Again, writing that was fun since it was nice to produce the content for this project. 

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with how the project turned out (the talents kinda just came together) and the class itself.

I don’t consider this class a failure at all.  I think it was a great experiment that gave us a great result and future insight into how it is possible to teach in the Virtual World.

VW Final project notes

As far as the final project goes, we have been meeting weekly for close to a month now since the groups were assigned.  The work has been really spread out over the course of the month.  Here is something I am proud of that I did in the project.

I built FAQ Boxes.  I took a prim, put on an awesome texture, then did some research into how to make a box that gives out items.  After figuring out the Linden scripting, I scripted that into the box, and put the notecard in there as well.  When someone clicked on it, VIOLA, a notecard full of Frequently Asked Questions about Cheshire Academy.

I am proud of this because I thought it was really neat to make something you see all over SL, which are boxes that give you items.  I always wondered since day 1 of class how they did it, and now being able to do it myself is really cool.

Hopefully, the boxes add a lot to the Cheshire Academy site and how things will look and feel to those who visit it.

Power to the People!

I find it stunningly interesting that MMOs besides Second Life haven’t passed on Intellectual Property rights to its participants.  Then again, why should they?

Creating content is one thing; depending on it is another.

I can’t think of a single gamer I know that doesn’t like creating content or finding content or dealing with any type of content.  For starters, many gamers play MMOs like the people who watch television.  In fact, instead of watching television, gamers game.  Like television, when a gamer logs on to whatever world, most (not all) don’t want to sit around building things.  Most want to go in and experience the content of the game, whether its the lava pits of Soluesk’s Eye, the chilling caverns of Permafrost, or Orientation Island on SL.  Well… maybe not Orientation island. 

The real issue here is that people want to play with other people, for the most part.  It’s the primary reason to play MMOs.  One wants to log on, say Hi to one’s friends, and play!  Building is a fairly solo activity, which I myself enjoy thoroughly, but when it involves a group it isn’t a very group activity. 

So someone doesn’t want to own the content?

I don’t think many gamers think of their intellectual property rights when they press “I accept” on the EULA.  Property rights for WoW players and EQ2 players isn’t much of an issue.  The gamers expect SOE and Blizzard to create the content for them.  This expectation is exactly what the article talks of with “goodwill”. 

Take the example of Blizzard.  I recently read that it is projected that Blizzard has lost 18% of their accounts in the past year after the release of Burning Crusade.  Blizzard has frantically been trying to release Wrath of the Lich King, which is meant to be the continuation of World of Warcraft, however many are already disenchanted with how Blizzard deals with lack of content diversity and unresponsiveness to players desires as how the game is going to progress.

Revolution!

It is possible that all these millions of gamers will get fed up and say, “That’s it Blizzard! We are plowing out on our own in SL or some other content createable game to make it how WE want!”

However, let’s say this, “That’s it [insert company you work for]!  We are plowing out on our own at another company or a company of our own to run things how WE want!”.  Same logic, different space.  Many accept their jobs as their jobs.  Many don’t want to plow out and make it on their own, even though many dream and talk of such a thing.  I know tons of individuals who complain about their job, but making it on their own? Not a possibility due to whatever reasons.

Why would it change in the virtual environment?  If one wants to “create” for themselves in SL, why wouldn’t they do it in RL?

So THAT’s the problem with SL and content creation

Exactomundo.  If one is going to spend time creating something in SL, why not create it in RL?  Let’s take the antithesis of my just mentioned thesis:  You can’t create Lightsabers in RL and you can’t fly around with said Lightsabers and slash opponents to death. 

Yea, that’s true, at the moment I can’t fly and I can’t build a lightsaber to slash my opponents to death.  However, what is to stop me from researching an alternative?  What is to stop from making a “laser tag” lightsaber and have everyone on trampolines in a huge warehouse jumping around playing lightsaber tag?

The problem right now with content creation sims in the virtual world is the following:

1) Beating the steep learning curve of learning the interface of the environment enough to be able to manipulate it into what you, the user, desire.

2) The desire to build whatever one wants to build in the environment and not in RL

3) The time to spend on figuring out 1 and 2 and muddling around as the project completes itself.

If someone can meet those three things, then yea, the virtual worlds are fine.  However, after a hard day of work, many want to just log on and effortlessly enjoy content created for them with friends from the internet and RL without having to manipulate prims.

The Forgetfulness of Written information

One of the most interesting points of the Search Engine reading was on page 18 when Halavais stated:
Rather than enhancing memory, he argues in the Phaedrus (2002), writing subsumes it, and reduces the abilities of those who read rather than remember. This doubleedge of technology—and particularly of communication technology, since communication is at the core of our social interactions—represents one of the most pressing reasons we must examine the role of the search engine not just in society, but permeating our social lives. (Halavais, 1

The Lone Ranger of Information

I am becoming more and more skeptical of Wikipedia in light of reading the Search Engine article.  Going along with the logic of writing causes one to forget because what is written may not be the whole picture, it is possible for even a collective of individuals to feed off of each other and “remember” the wrong thing, leaving it written in wikipedia.  The only way to stop this from happening is the logical lone ranger who comes into wikipedia and changes it.  Who is to say though that the lone ranger even has it right in the first place?

Google tells me everything

In the beginning of the article, Halavais talked how individuals ask the machine first, then they go ask people a question they may have.  If the machine gives the answer, the answer has to be right.  I find myself doing the same thing, and was stunned when reading that.  If I ever have a question about American History, the first place I go to is Wikipedia, not an published American history book, not even my old high school American History book!  I go right to Google first.

The standard by which one measures knowledge is now done through Google’s algorithm. 

On page 19, one of Google’s first hits on MLK is a white supremacy group.  As stated in the article, this is abhorrent stuff.  What if someone knew nothing of MLK and looked to that website to know about him?  It would be a totally skewed and horrible view of someone in which there shouldn’t be this view in the first place.

So why would I forget?

It is said, “The story is told by those who won”.  There needs to be a caveat with written information: always search further to make sure what you are reading is true.  Now, one may say, “well that is what Wikipedia is for, everyone can check everyone”.  This is true, however it leaves the responsibility on the people who know something about the field of knowledge that is being queried from Wikipedia.  For example, say I am an expert on Abraham Lincoln, the foremost one.  I never go to Wikipedia because I am too busy being the premier scholar on Abraham Lincoln and when I have been there, I don’t understand Wikipedia since I don’t really use computers much except for email.  This gap of knowledge from the lack of input from me would cause Wikipedia to be incomplete since it is obvious the premier expert on Lincoln knows some niche, random facts that could change one’s perception and apprehension of who Lincoln was.

Just because something is written doesn’t necessarily mean it is true.  The Internet has made the machine the primary source of information and there is an implicit trust when using the machine based on the the scale of possible viewers.  It is clear that one could believe the information to be accurate, however leaving that responsibility on individuals and not taking it upon oneself is the downfall of information on the Internet. 

Nothing, not even the Internet, takes the place of good research across a broad variety of sources.

Politics in SL

There is no difference between branding in SL and a social movement in SL.

SL is a tool that mimics reality but with limitless options.  Actually, its a tool that makes reality more bearable.  If I wanted to dress up like a raccoon and bang a bunch of other plushie animals in real life, I could very well do that.  SL however makes it easier for this to be done.  Need a prostitute? SL has that too. 

The big thing here is that SL is not so much another world.  SL is being used as a tool to extend this world and have us, instead of.. well lets not get into religion…, be the “Creator”.  SL allows for man to control one’s destiny in any way possible, provided one has some US dollars to pay for that island. 

Therefore, whether I am running a political campaign against a particular party or I am selling widgets for 10 Linden a shot, my choices are no different in SL because they are just like choices I would make in reality.  It’s not like the limit of choices changes since the same rules apply.

I have x amount of resources (money).  I have y amount of time to spend.  I use x resources and y time and receive z result.

Same equation for both SL and reality.

Phones controlling everything

My phone is my T.V. remote, my DVD remote, it starts my car, it turns on lights, it sends texts, and I can talk on it.

In the Shibua Epiphany reading, it became abundantly clear that cell phones may become the new remote controls of the physical world. 

I guess that ubercomp may actually come true.

What does the phone controlling everything mean?

 This made me think of that Adam Sandler movie where he could control his whole life with the remote control.  He could fast forward his life, rewind his life, he could pretty much do anything he wanted.  As I thought about it more, I came to realize that having “universal life remotes” would cause this to happen.  Inevitably, people will fast forward their life as much as they can.  This is apparent very much so now.  This will cause less “stop and smell the roses” and more “I need to get here now”.  With the less amount of rose smelling, I may actually start to agree with Sunstein’s article about forcing random occurrence in people’s lives just because giving SO much control can’t be good.. can it?  (I don’t agree with you yet Sunstein, so don’t get your hopes up).

Interesting Calculations

Recently at the dinner table my parents were discussing the difference between “their time” and the present day and dating.  They told of days when they would barely talk on the phone during the week only to make plans for the weekend which consisted of going out friday and saturday night for four hours a night.  Conversely today, I speak with my girlfriend all day long, whether its over IM, SMS, voice.. the amount is unreal.  In fact, the amount of being in touch in one day probably surpasses the amount of being in touch for one weekend (relative to my parents).  This is an immense amount of communication.  People say everything moves so quickly today.  Knowledge and thoughts can move instantly between anything.  This makes the pace quicken; no lag to wait for a message to be received.

More people in touch can’t be bad

The article talked of private lives of individuals using SMS to network themselves.  It allows for anyone to be in touch with anyone without anyone knowing they are in touch.  This presents a good thing for individuals; the individual can talk and deal with anyone the individual wants without having to worry about letting anyone know who they know.  However, look at the examples of all those teachers who contribute to the delinquency of their students by having sex with them:  all of those cases were over SMS and e-mail.

SMS is definitely something, like the article said, that hasn’t really taken off yet in the United States.  I know I use it quite a bit, but most people I know are wary of the extra cents per message and would “prefer just to call the person”.  I disagree, but then again that is why I am in this degree program.  I have to be on the edge of technology as much as I can.  It really is an amazing thing and the cell phone will most likely become something more than just a cell phone.  It will likely become a universal remote control.

Project Process

I have been working hard on creating an FAQ and other content materials for the Cheshire Academy SL building.

I have experience from working in Quinnipiac’s Admissions office as an assistant to the director.  I actually wrote an FAQ for them which they intended on using for the website, but it eventually fell through due to changes in the admissions office putting all their records as digital records.  I did a bunch of open houses, gave tours, and saw from start to finish how exactly to promote a school in the most effective way.

The key thing to bring to SL, from my experience in Admissions, is content that rings true.  Too many times outdated pamphlets or fact sheets had information that was no longer the case.  There is nothing more embarassing and more annoying than having to explain that sheet the prospective student has in their hands is one year old and something has changed.  Nobody wants to hear that when debating spending lots of money on school.

The advantage of having the Admissions office in SL is for people to have always up to date information since changing a notecard in SL is much easier than asking Campus Copy for all new sheets costing 1.25 a sheet.  Yes, 1.25 per sheet.   Now that is a lucrative business.

I am going to create content that is factually accurate and mutable so that Cheshire Academy can edit it as time passes as they see fit and the project becomes a success.

Work is work no matter how you work.. it’s work

When reading the article by Aimee Weber and the 10 rules one, I was struck how honestly simple the ideas were about working in SL.  SL has the potential to be a place where one spends one’s work time and gets paid for it, however it is obvious it requires exactly what no one really wants to do: work.

There is no way around a good hard day’s work

This idea of work has changed in time.  My grandfather was a postmaster, so his schedule was 6-1pm ish five days a week.  There was no variation really between this time; obviously sometimes I’m sure things may have changed.  My father is much the same as a doctor with a 9-5 ish office hours at his practice.  In those days and today, the “get rich quick” idea is always present, but we all end up slaves to some kind of time spent on work.

Whether the time is consecutive hours five times a week or random times, one will always have to put in time to complete or create something.  It is very hard to get around this very universal rule

SL may not be Libertarian after all

While most people in SL would consider themselves as such due to the nature of the MUVE and the general attitude, this doesn’t work, as Weber said, in the business world.  One needs to be somewhat “business-like” and she cleverly alludes to “selling-out” where one will actually appear as one would in a business meeting in RL to promote one’s work.  One still needs a portfolio, one still needs clients and happy customers, and one still needs to have all the components of a CV that one would have in RL.

So there is no difference

Wrong, there is a difference.  Despite needing everything that the RL corporates would want, since they are paying you for this, one can still do SL work in one’s pajamas and drunk, as Weber says.

Basically, again, one doesn’t need to think much before realizing work is work, no matter how one spins it.  It’s just a matter of whether one likes working on the computer in one’s pajamas or not.

Lets all get naked. A+ for human contact

No matter how personalized or polarized our society gets, everyone has been in a situation where one would rather speak to a human than the computer over the phone.

Don’t deny it; it has happened to you at least once.

Complex situations aren’t always answered by simple systems

The Naked Conversations article made me think a lot about human contact and how much it affects the individual in today’s technological society. 

I usually fly Delta.  Delta’s reputation as an airline from what I hear from people I know is that of a not-so-nice airline.  Many computer nerds think their website is somehow fixed, and that the whole Skymiles system doesn’t work right since there is the breakdown of Skysaver and Skychoice and somehow Skysaver ones (the cheaper mileage redeemable seats) are never available.  When one gets in touch with Delta, one is put through a ton of loops and transfer and automated messages telling one to go to the website and book the ticket.  Sounds simple, however there are always situations where one needs a real person…

The website works; why have real people?

Something being functional doesn’t mean the job is finished.  If functionality determined when one shouts, “C’est finis!”, then a  lot of our computer programs, cars, planes, basically everything one deals with today would be susceptible to bad design and lack of longevity. 

Back to the Delta example, I tried once to figure out the difference between Skysaver seats and Skychoice seats.  Not only that, but also I tried to see why when I reloaded a search on the same flight seats that on the previous reload were NOT Skysaver somehow magically became Skysaver, and vice versa.  In fact, I noticed that about 20% of the time on reloads there were Skychoice seats, about 10% of the time there were actually Skysaver seats, and 70% of the time none were available.  All of this was on the same flight!

Well naturally I have a question…

So I decided that this was ridiculous and called Delta to ask why this was happening.  I waited on the line listening to really bad Shania Twain (no offense to those fans out there, but it was static and Shania which doesn’t sound good.. at all).  About every five minutes Shania would be cut off by, “If you want to buy a ticket or have a question, please visit Delta.com to receive your answer.”  This cycled through about 4-5 times before (finally) I got a real person on the line.

What seats appear are determined by “the system”

Yes, the representative told me “the system” determines when certain kinds of seats were available and she nor her manager or anyone she works with has any idea how “the system” works.  All she could tell me was exactly what was on the website about the difference between Skychoice and Skysaver seats. 

The human contact here really didn’t help me much in determining Delta’s magical “system”, however just the fact that I spoke with a company employee and received an answer that they are all ignorant of how the system works make me understand the human face of the company.  I understand that Delta is basically ripping people off because they can as they hide behind the notion of “the system”. 

 Lets get naked.

I couldn’t find any Delta blogs, but after reading about Microsoft in the article I definitely think they should explain this magical system.

If a company doesn’t show a side of wanting to understand what the customers want, the customers will go somewhere else with their money.  Today’s society promotes competition because the internet allows the small people to be heard and put on a level playing field with the big corporations.  Now, like in the previous articles about “experience economy”, it is clear that if the experience, meaning the human side of things, is not present, then it is very likely customers will go somewhere else.

Leadership and MUVEs

“Those leaders do not expect to continue to lead the group beyond that particular mission, and they understand the very real possibility that tomorrow, they will be followers. And decisions on who will lead and who will follow are made organically, by the group itself, rather than coming from some higher authority.”

 This statement is so true and so false at the same time. 

I am sure now on what I am going to write my thesis on, and I am damn sure that I am going to send it to GIO.  They can’t expect to see after 50 hours of gaming and interviewing leaders that they can say they conducted a study on MMORPGs.  Hell, the guildleaders they interviewed could be the head of some bum guilds that haven’t gone through much content.

I can say this with authority of 8 years of MMORPG experience:  No leader is permenant, it is the network that wins. 

The network wins

A network is this “organic” trait that these people merely touched on.  Competent gamers tend to stick together.  The raiding guilds that succeed and do the content faster don’t do it faster or better than anyone else because they have some special understanding.  They do it faster for three reasons: 1) All players in the raid understand that they want the loot, therefore, they will do anything to make sure they get it 2) They understand what their class is supposed to do in different situations.  3) They know what their other raiders will do as their specific classes and the organism of the raid is formed.  Add a lot of time spent and invested and BAM you are Fires of Heaven.

Why do people fail at these games and encounters?

Simply they fail because they are stupid.  Raids in MMORPGs require a lot of coordination.  However, there is one factor that GIO seems to disregard: Lack of loss.

World of Warcraft cannot be used as an accurate measure of what it means to lead and succeed because that game of ALL MMOs is made in a way where you can throw yourself at a boss and once everyone learns the “dance” (meaning how the fight will progress), then you kill the boss.  I found it offending and shortsighted of these researchers to even assume that WoW can be some accurate measure.  In order to fully study the potential of MMOs, one needs to go to the start.

That’s right.  Everquest 1.

I never raided in Everquest 1 because I wanted to try all the classes to see how they worked.  It was my first MMO.  My close friend however did raid, a lot.  In fact, he and the whole Rallos Zek server were the only ones to kill Kerafym the Prismatic when he wasn’t meant to die.  That’s an amazing feat compared to farming Molten Core.  I can say with absolute certainty that raiding in WoW is nothing like raiding in EQ1.

 If you die in EQ you have to get back to your corpse.  If you die in EQ1 in say, Temple of Veeshan, you won’t be able to get your corpse.  I would like to see any WoW guild that is “the best” log into old school Plane of Fear at level 50 and survive the onslaught of merely ZONING in. 

So if I haven’t raided in EQ1, how can I essentially say all WoW raids are noob?  Getting high level and raiding doesn’t mean you are a leader.

On Rallos Zek PvP server, I decked out my lvl 25 Shadowknight with lvl 50 gear, one piece being the Electrum Bladed Wakizashi (go ahead and look it up) that was NO DROP requiring two extremely rare drop fangs and sitting in a hidden hallway patrolled by lvl 40+ vampires waiting for a rare spawn NPC to hand the fangs to to get the quest item.

 I had to trade, wheel, deal, and work with people my level and other levels to secure the fangs and have an entourage to get me into the castle, then some bodyguards to help me wait to fight off players and vampires alike so I could get the NPC.

That’s skill at an MMO.  That shows resourcefulness and leadership.