Virtual Events- Can They Really be Cost Effective?
January 30th, 2009
Ever had to travel to a business tradeshow or conference? As I am sure most of us have, we endure the tedious travel arrangements, flight and transportation hassles (don’t you just love those buy on board meals???!!!…yummmmyyy!), outrageous hotel and food expenses and those seemingly endless days. An emerging alternative to eliminating these hassles and cutting expense would be to attend a Virtual Event. So what is a “Virtual Event” you may ask? Well it is a virtual world based experience that allows you to interact with the conference and other attendees in real time and non-locally. A much easier solution and Virtual Events = Lower Cost for companies.
The world is going green, oh excuse me, “clean” seems to be the new buzz word, following this trend, Unisfair began calculating the positive environmental impact. So what’s the moral of this post? Virtual Events cater to a variety of needs, range in size, are extremely cost effective, and enjoy political correctness.
Some of us at Visual Purple have experienced virtual conferences and the general consensus is they are a step in the right direction. However, fidelity seems to be the operative concern. One of the tangible benefits of enduring a real conference is to mingle and meet new folks and explore ways to work together. And key to that relationship building is detecting the nuances of body language. As virtual worlds become a higher fidelity experience, we can see the day where virtual conferences really will be almost as good as being there.
Avatar: A New Addition to Mankind
January 27th, 2009
A few posts ago I discussed my Top 10 trends in the Virtual World space for 2009. One raised a few eyebrows: Cross-platform Avatar standardization will continue. Perhaps I should elaborate.
Teleporting avatars from one Virtual World to another…We saw the beginning of this in 2008 between IBM and Linden Lab. Look for more moves like this in the future through VC backed companies and the eight hundred pound gorillas. With the massive use of social media outlets – and more and more people adopting Virtual Worlds into their daily lives – this is not going away! Who wants to have to keep reinventing the wheel in every 3D world? Not me! More than likely the avatars moving from one platform to another will be a hot topic in 2009. Be warned the road to cross-platform avatar standardization may hit a few bumps along the way.
Persistent vs. Packaged Worlds
January 23rd, 2009
Persistent vs. Packaged Worlds. What’s the difference? Not all worlds are created equal…
An illustrated Wordle comparison between Persistent and Packaged Worlds.
Persistent World
The persistence comes from maintaining and developing the state of the world in the game around the clock. Quite unlike other types of games, the plot and events in a persistent world game continue to develop even while some of the players are not playing their characters. That aspect is similar to the real world where events do occur regardless if they are directly or indirectly related to a person, as they continue to happen while a person is asleep, etc. Conversely, a player’s character can also influence and change a persistent world. The degree to which a character affects a world varies from game to game. Since the game does not pause or create player-accessible back-up files, a character’s actions will have consequences that the player must deal with. Description from Wikipedia
Packaged World
How Serious Are You About Serious Games?
January 20th, 2009
Serious Games (otherwise known as “SGs”) are meant to train or otherwise educate players, while being engaging. Serious Games Simulations are designed to have the same look and feel of a game, but include non-game events and/or processes. These types of games are specially targeted to government and business sectors for training purposes. While training segments vary for Serious Game applications, the military, corporate and educational arenas are all adopters of this technology/methodology. This rapidly growing industry originally began within the non-government sector and has continued to expand from there. And now the development of “Serious Virtual Worlds” to support training and learning is on fire. It’s more than a game…
Wikipedia Definition A serious game is a term used to refer to a software or hardware application developed with game technology and game design principles for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. Serious games include games used for educational, persuasive, political, or health purposes.
Virtual Worlds- Top 10 Trends for 2009
January 16th, 2009
The New Year is upon us and I can’t resist sharing my predictions for Virtual Worlds in 2009.
Top 10 trends for Virtual Worlds in the public and private spaces as I see it for 2009…
1. Learning in a Virtual World will become in vogue
2. Double-digit adoption across a broad demographic
3. More and more social networks migrating to the Virtual World space
4. More institutions turning to Virtual Worlds (Universities and Colleges building Virtual Campuses & Classrooms/ Virtual Teaching Environments being established)
5. Artificial Intelligence-like behaviors – more buzz around this
6. Backlash against traditional CBT coupled with lower development costs will encourage corporations to pilot Virtual Worlds for training and collaboration
7. Virtual Goods – hot for ‘09
8. Government entities adopting Virtual Worlds as pilot programs (many agencies won’t want to be left out)
9. Beginning to see traction for standards, especially in the enterprise space
10. Cross-platform Avatar standardization will continue
Please post comments on what you see as hot trends in the Virtual World space for 2009.
Animated Simulations Come to Life
January 12th, 2009
Q: What are the benefits to animated simulations in place of video scenes?
A: Animated simulations are far more adaptable, user friendly, and engaging than simple video scenes. The benefits of 3D animation are immediately apparent in two major arenas: animation offers more cost effective production and maintenance while producing higher quality simulations.
Animated products have the advantage of flexible, editable discrete assets. In addition, standard 3D elements can be purchased for faster production time, custom developed for accuracy of unique attributes, or client-provided to maintain consistency with other client materials or preferences. Elements such as characters, objects or environmental qualities, can then be easily maintained. Ease of movement or substitution allows for a dynamic atmosphere while reuse of elements in other locations or simulations allows for ease and speed in production of parallel scenes or derivative projects.
Such modularity or simplicity of manipulation ensures near photo realistic characters, textures, and assets while maintaining a timelessness of look and feel that video scenes are quickly apt to loose. With no need to “re-shoot” scenes for quality, accuracy, alterations, or updating, production costs are significantly lowered. In comparison with video scenes, 3D animation also exhibits less risk and easier production scheduling – read lower costs, too!
Compared to video, 3D simulations provide greater immersion and sense of limitless possibilities coupled with strong genre and thematic appeal to today’s gaming-centric generation.
Simulation
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The act of simulating, or assuming an appearance which is feigned, or not true; — distinguished from dissimulation, which disguises or conceals what is true. BrainyQuote
Embedded Training- Are you Mission Ready?
January 9th, 2009
Embedded Training (ET) is defined as “training provided by capabilities built into or added onto operational systems, subsystems, or equipment, to enhance and maintain the skill proficiency of personnel”. This being said, the revolution of this type of training is only just beginning. The Virtual Environment within Embedded Training provides the opportunity to take military training to the next level and allows personnel to train anywhere, anytime. This type of “collective training” puts information needed right at the fingertips of eager trainees, and enables them to train during downtime. The U.S. Military recognizes that its complex systems are prime for this type of training capability and have been investing heavily into future training technologies within the past few years. 3D Embedded Training allows for advanced simulation technologies to present embedded training concepts in a series of realistic scenarios enabling tactical decision making. The underlying technologies present make the capabilities that Embedded Training offers, virtually limitless.
The Use of Simulations for Educational Learning
January 7th, 2009
Education and learning are beginning to be redefined through new ideas and technologies. With the migration of colleges/ universities to hosting web-based classes and the ability to track assignments through Blackboard™, etc. the world of learning has taken its first steps in reinventing itself beyond traditional platform instruction. Simulations are now being considered and implemented for educational purposes as a tool to more cost-effectively inspire, teach and assist in developing critical thinking skills. In other words, progressive educators are working to move beyond platform instruction by using simulations to engage minds viscerally…and forever.
The magic of the immersive medium of simulation creates an experiential ‘learn by doing’ world that engages the student on all levels and in ways often expected and almost demanded by today’s tech-savvy student body. Virtual Campuses and new immersive web technologies continue to evolve and traditional barriers of time, distance and culture are melting away…to a very exciting future of learning!
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”-Albert Einstein
Story Based Simulations- A monthly review of Visual Purple products and/ or technologies
January 2nd, 2009
What’s Your Story? Visual Purple brings the power of story to players of 3D simulations in immersive learning worlds. Educators, psychologists, linguists, and artists all agree: stories are richly coded with meaning and transmit data far more effectively than other mediums. We couldn’t agree more! That’s why Visual Purple simulations, whether virtual world, embedded or decision-based, all have one thing in common: Story.
- Virtual world training provides the most intriguing and exciting application of the power of story. The virtual world environment provides the context and framework for users to train, but it is the users’ training itself that builds the details of the story as they go. The pedagogy behind this type of “bottom-up” training is instructionally proven; users learn by doing, creating their own stories as they accomplish their quests (jobs, tasks, missions, etc.). The freedom, choice and discovery incorporated into this type of instructional design are not only highly engaging, but provide the most cost-effective, and arguably the most compelling, training Visual Purple has to offer.
- Embedded training simulations use stories to train users of complex software systems. These embedded training simulations contain all the best features of Visual Purple decision-based simulations (see below), but are built in to or reside on top of the client software. Users experience a compelling story that motivates them to excellence while training the “big picture” on their own software system as they learn the “buttonology.” One hundred percent of Visual Purple embedded training translates into performance improvement because on-the-job software becomes training software.
- Decision-based training simulations tell dramatic stories using traditional cinematic devices. The unique twist is that unlike cinema Visual Purple simulations are interactive and engaging because the player makes the choices, explores vast arrays of options, and learns improved decision-making skills along the way. These simulations—instructional design experts classify them as Level V simulations—include remediation, mentoring, and content-rich media libraries. Most recently, they have become the proven vehicle of bringing context to embedded training simulations.