I'm Serious.net

Learners’ Rights

One might be inclined to giggle (to oneself, of course) when the subject of the legal rights of learners arises. Certainly, learners have the right to expect a good and effective learning experience, as squishy as those terms may be. They have the right not to have their money or time wasted. But these are more ethical than legal assertions.

There is a very interesting case (Bragg v. Linden Research, Inc.) before the court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Mr. Bragg alleges that, by terminating his account, Second Life (a California corporation) has unlawfully deprived him of access to his virtual possessions, which possessions are the plaintiff's alone. This case is pending, but a couple of weeks ago, the judge decided that Second Life's Terms of Service were too one-sided, and granted the plaintiff the right to sue Second Life in the plaintiff's home state of Pennsylvania. If I were Philip Rosedale, I think I'd be uneasy.

I'm vaguely uneasy anyway. These kinds of cases are being fought in jurisdictions all over the world. Whatever decisions are rendered will apply equally to entertainment and learning virtual environments - but not necessarily equally around the globe.

As I've made clear, I believe learner-generated content is a critical component to serious games. But as these cases make their way to the law books, serious game designers will need to stay current on the changing requirements.

Ultimately, if we are designing for a multi-national audience, we will be forced to level our designs to meet the tests of the most restrictive legal environment if we are to ensure that all learners have an equivalent game and learning experience. And at all times we must be sensitive to the sometimes emotional attachments we all develop toward our creations.

This issue will become even more vigorously debated, I'm sure, when some of the planned game portals are launched, including a few directed at serious games. These portals will offer features such as single logon, portable avatars, and portable game content.

More than anything else, planning ahead will keep us out of the crack on this issue. Designing the rules of game play up front - and making them clear to the learners - will accomodate the emerging cyberlaws without impinging on the experience of the learner.

I'm serious,
Anne

Thanks to reader Ovidiu Ciobanu for bringing this case to my attention.

Google’s got game

Have you played Google Image Labeler yet? It's Google's clever answer to improving image search.

Here's how it works, in Google's words:

You'll be randomly paired with a partner who's online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will be shown the same set of images and asked to provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see. When your label matches your partner's label, you'll earn points depending on how specific your label is. You'll be shown more images until time runs out. After time expires, you can explore the images you've seen and the websites where those images were found. And we'll show you the points you've earned throughout the session.

Why do I like it? It's fun, fast, competitive and compelling. It's easy (although it did take me a few tries to "get it"). I'm interacting with random people from around the world. Even while I'm competing, I'm collaborating. I'm learning something - in this case, I'm refining how I think about tags. What's not to like?

I'm serious,
Anne

What do South Koreans know that we don’t?

Two items from the New York Times caught my eye.

This past weekend, Blizzard's 2007 Worldwide Invitational "Starcraft" tournament was held in Seoul, with thousands of fans cramming into the Olympic Gymnastics Arena. Seth Schiesel writes about this event and the gaming craze that grips South Korea in today's "To the Glee of South Korean Fans, a Game's Sequel is Announced." E-sports (what South Koreans call competitive gaming), he notes, has not just millions of fans, but millions of participants. Just imagine the enthusiasm in the arena yesterday when Blizzard announced its sequel to Starcraft.

"Why Work Is Looking More Like a Video Game" doesn't offer any new information to us in the field, but gives a nice glimpse into how a number of companies are using games to their advantage. Author Michael Fitzgerald points out, by the examples he uses, the power and importance of social networking to a serious game's success. It's the collaboration that results from the networking that facilitates learning transference back to the job.

So we have e-sports mania in South Korea contrasted with just a dawning awareness among the world's business leaders of the power of games for learning, for innovation, for team-building, for on-boarding... The good news is that with attention from the likes of the New York Times, serious games are getting a serious look by more and more decision-makers.

I'm serious,
Anne

Wii, Haptic Computing, and SGs

Today's San Francisco Chronicle included an article entitled, "Wii needs more games." Game developers misread the market, says author Ryan Kim, when this latest generation of game consoles was released, initially leaping on the PS3 and XBox bandwagons. Now, Wii sales are outpacing its competitors', and developers are starting to leap its way. In addition to a backlog in console demand, there is a shortage of titles that really show off Wii's aerobic potential.

At the same time, people like Ovidiu Ciobanu are pushing the envelope of dental education with smart, sophisticated uses of interactive technology and haptic computing. Technology is a few years out for convenient and cost-effective haptic devices, but what if Dr. Ciobanu had a $250 Wii in his lab in the meantime?

And if we broaden our minds a bit, aren't there scores of ways serious game designers could incorporate motion into our game mechanics? Certainly in the accomplishment of manual skills. But what would the impact be on learner-learner interactions if players could simulate touching each other? In conflict? On a first meeting? At a family gathering? Might this have an impact on learner-generated content?

I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but I sure would like to. I'll let you know as I find out. And please tell me of your experiences.

I'm serious,
Anne

The Power of Virtual Communities

Charles Babcock, Information Week, recently wrote a piece, "What's the Greatest Web Software Ever Written?". Great article. After nominating World of Warcraft to #9 (of 12 - and it's heady company), he explains:

"...[M]uch has been made of a three-dimensional virtual world known as Second Life. For my money, more significant examples of 3-D virtual reality can be found in massively multiplayer online games, which offer playful, real-time activity where the actions of one participant affect another. The possibilities in terms of training people to complete complicated team-oriented tasks seem obvious. The godfather of this genre is Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft. Introduced in 2004, World of Warcraft's 8.5 million rabid fans--3.5 million in China alone--put Second Life's 6 million registered residents in the shade."

Good news for the industry

Interactive media adoption seems to progress predictably, regardless of the innovation being introduced: from entertainment to corporate marketing to military/defense training to corporate training to education. It's logical, of course - just follow the money trail.

Last week, more good news that the adoption wave for serious games is gaining intensity. Calytrix Technologies announced last week that they have been selected to provide both technology and services to the UK Ministry of Defense (UK MoD). Calytrix will be providing the UK MoD with a simulation solution for use in collective and tactical training, mission rehearsal, experimentation and terrain/3D model visualization for AO familiarization.

Particularly intriguing is the partnership struck to offer the winning solution. From their side of the duo, Bohemia Interactive, producers of Operation Flashpoint, are contributing Virtual Battlespace, an interactive training system used for military and civilian combat and experimentation purposes. Seems Bohemia Interactive saw the wave coming some time ago, and repurposed their commercially-oriented game technology to military training needs. Are corporate applications next?

As the wave continues to build, we will see more commercial game studios looking at new ways to leverage their considerable investments in proprietary technology. Innovative and forward-thinking SIs/consultants will recognize the new market opportunity, and see the benefits of using 3rd party technology and working with highly knowledgable, intact engineering teams to seize the advantage. This is when it starts to get fun...

So, learning designers, are you listening? Who should you be partnering with?

I'm serious,
Anne

Bandwidth Issues

One of the questions serious game designers must resolve for themselves early on in a project is whether bandwidth issues must be taken into consideration. Specifically, will players only access the game on the internal corporate LAN (say, 10 gigabits-per-second ethernet), or also from home using a high-speed connection (my cable runs at 6 megabits-per-second)? One can quickly see how many technical design questions - AND, consequently, learning design questions - flow from the initial decision. Questions, for example, like: "How much processing can the system do on-the-fly? What limitations does that put on the player's interactions with the environment?"

Good news is on the horizon! The Internet2 consortium has announced that they have broken Internet speed records. Their research team recently sent data over a 20,000-mile path at 9.08 Gbps. This required some modification to the standard communications protocols, but without those modifications they sent the data at a meager 7.67 Gbps.

When the Internet2 consortium achieves their goal of building a network with 100Gbps, "The Matrix" fans will be able to download the HiDef version of the movie in just a few seconds (!) rather than half a minute over the current Internet2 and two days over a typical broadband connection. (The announcement did not include a projected date for deployment of said network.)

Imagine how this will change the design conversation.

I'm serious,
Anne