Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.
One of the biggest challenges I have always faced in my efforts to broaden the appeal of virtual environments is the perception that they’re just toys. The public’s thinking is often that gaming is not a business application, and so by extension virtual worlds are just a game that isn’t all that much fun.
The effort has been to help people see that a virtual environment has nothing at all to do with gaming, and is often a very practical solution to real world problems. Slowly this understanding is growing.
I would be remiss, however, if I didn’t acknowledge that the fun factor of virtual environments does play a part. I got involved with Second Life because I’m a gamer, despite it not actually being a game. The intuitive connection exists.
While my primary outreach strategy is currently the Virtual Worlds Keynote series, I’m beginning to realize that I need to start using gaming as a framework in my future planning. Gaming strategies lead to much better ROI than traditional project management. If I can find a way to leverage existing human instincts, rather than my current policy of educating people to overcome what their instincts are telling them, I’ll get further, faster.
The seeds of some new ideas are starting to germinate… but I’d love to hear your ideas, if you’re willing to offer them. I’ll give a +1 Vorpal Sword to the best one.
One of the great things about the Internet is that it connects people who, in the past, have had a hard time keeping in touch. In researching the phenomena of medical amputees rehabilitating and re-integrating into their home communities, it has been shown that peer support is a real key to the process.
This is where virtual world technology has stepped in as a perfect fit. The geographic boundaries are broken down, issues are addressed like body identification and self expression, and training scenarios for everyday things like going to a grocery store are properly simulated.
Doug Thompson and Remedy Communications seem to have approached the project right, taking as much feedback as possible not just from clinicians but also from the program participants. This has become a great support system with full web integration and social networking technologies, and is being rolled out for military veteran amputees and their families.
One thing that Doug mentioned during the presentation was that they discovered a need for this system with veterans from conflicts as far back as Vietnam. It’s good to know that there is continued support for those who have given so much.
What follows is entirely impractical. Those of you who have come to rely on this blog for the pragmatic and practical take on technological innovation may want to skip what follows.
What got me off topic today was our book club. We’re currently reading one of my favorite novels: “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” by Cory Doctorow. (Read it for free here.)
It got me thinking about something called “the singularity” again. This is a term first coined by Ray Kurzweil to describe the point in the near future when the pace technological innovation becomes, for all intents and purposes, infinite. Here’s a short video describing one aspect of the phenomenon:
THE IMMORTALISTS – a short film by Jason Silva
Immortality is within our grasp. Yes, for real. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Sadly, there’s a catch. Even when humanity is smart, we’re still horrible at dealing with each other. Sooner or later someone will decide that what the world really needs is a good apocalypse.
After all, in an age where the pace of technological innovation is infinite, you’ll have about three dozen cheap and easy ways to end all human life listed on six dozen popular blogs.
It could be that this phenomena of knowing that anyone could end it all at any moment might be the new way people come to live with death. For a time, mankind won’t be fearing their own deaths, but rather the end of all civilization.
What will finally end it, of course, will be those who try to prevent the end from coming. As organizations are formed to lock down the “dangerous” information or censor “dangerous” people, there will be a backlash from people objecting to being controlled. The schism between the opposing points of view will rise until eventually it produces someone who can’t stand an eternity of humanity being controlled in this way.
So they’ll end it for all of us.
When people make guesses as to how the world might end, they usually point at natural phenomena or ecological disaster. I’m putting $50 on the singularity. Any takers?
I’ve long been a fan of the work Virtual Ability Inc. (VAI) has done creating one of Second Life’s most flawless and in-depth orientation experiences. They’ve firmly established themselves as innovators in the field and so, when I find out about projects they’ve been a part of, I pay attention.
This is why I took notice when Doug Thompson mentioned in conversation that Remedy Communications had worked with them on a project funded by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC). (There was a full press release about the project, linked here.)
For virtual environment geeks, this is a nice look at a use of the “behind-the-firewall” solution Linden Lab provides. For everyone else, however, this is a good look at why virtual environments are meaningful in the first place and how they can make all the difference to those using them.
Join us today at 2pm PST (10pm GMT) in Second Life for this latest session of Virtual Worlds Keynote. Question and answer period will immediately follow this quick 10-15 minute presentation.
—
To join us in Second Life, you’ll need to do the following:
Go to SecondLife.com, create an account, and install the software.
Log in through the Second Life software using your user name.
Click here to be teleported to our studio before 2pm Pacific.
This week our guest was Justin Bovington, CEO at Rivers Run Red. He gives us a very quick overview of how the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and Retail Sector can use virtual environments to better plan how their shelves are laid out, resulting in much better sales.
While the session above is a short 9 minutes, the conversation afterward with the audience went on for the better part of an hour. We had a fantastic time, and thanks again to Justin for being our guest this week! If you’d like to be a part of the live audience, do join us next Monday at 2pm Pacific for our next session.
