Speaking of Virtual Worlds…(Week of December 21-25)
December 24th, 2009
Happy Holidays to one and all from Visual Purple!
A weekly wrap-up on what’s going on within the Virtual World sphere and beyond! Click on any of the below titles to read the full story.
Why Smart Brands are Jumping Into Virtual World Marketing
Second Life Looking Back: 2009 Uncovered
NPC’s You Say?
December 21st, 2009
It recently came to my attention that I refer a lot to Non-Player Characters (or otherwise known as NPCs) within my blog posts. This is simply out of sheer habit. So here you go, an entire post devoted to these second rate characters in virtual worlds.
First, let’s further define a NPC, unlike an Avatar which is human controlled, a Non-Player Character (NPC) has the freedom to wander around in some cases or in other instances may remain as a stationary character. Regardless, of mobility or location, the more ‘intelligent’ a NPC, the greater it’s value in learning, training or entertainment. Intelligently-powered NPC’s have can have many purposes – such as giving a quest to a player, pointing the player in the right direction in the virtual world, etc. Player Characters or PC’s, are the avatar within the virtual world. So now that we have the basic definitions down lets delve a little deeper into what these characters are capable of within a virtual world environment. Questing through intelligent NPC’s brings out a realism that is unseen in virtual worlds sans NPC’s or non-intelligent NPC’s. NPC’s also provide the unique ability to advance the storyline within a virtual world. The Player Character (PC) can thus be guided through certain scenarios without the freedom to get ‘lost’ along the way. The social interaction between the player and non-player characters can be the ultimate key to success especially when training within a virtual world space, ultimately changing the ways that a VW simulation may be played out. The key is engaging the player character in realistic human-like interaction like that found in the real world.
The role of NPCs can range from very simplistic to advanced (carrying a full on conversation with the player). The norm for non-player characters is to wait for the player to involve them in an interaction, normally the NPC will then play through a pre-defined script with the player character. Although this type of interaction does have a predictability about it, it does lead to a higher level of engagement for the player within the virtual world space. These ‘support characters,’ if you will, reinforce the storyline. Although current technologies for NPC’s remain somewhat limited, I see the role of the NPC and capabilities within the virtual world expanding dramatically in the very near future. Bringing a new level of interaction to the virtual world. Of course console and computer- role playing games also have varied forms of NPC’s. Over time the landscape of virtual worlds has changed, from more realistic avatars to better 3-D representations of the real world. It’s only natural and desirable that Non-Player Characters (NPC’s) within virtual worlds will evolve as well.
Speaking of Virtual Worlds… (Week of December 14-18)
December 18th, 2009
A weekly wrap-up on what’s going on within the Virtual World sphere and beyond! Click on any of the below titles to read the full story.
Gates Foundation Invests in Virtual Learning
FTC: Kids Can Access Explicit Content In Virtual Worlds
New Study: Women Spend More Time in Virtual Worlds Than Men
Virtual Terror Attacks and/or Training on the Horizon?
Corporate Learning & Training Innovations
December 14th, 2009
What are organizations searching for when it comes to training? 1) A new and innovative solution, 2) or a road-tested and proven solution. And if the answer is number two- then by definition do virtual worlds fit the bill?!
One size does not fit all when it comes down to training (and most clothes), no matter what the type. You don’t want single use training- meaning to use it once and then discard it. There is no cost savings in this. The learning environment can be the key to success or the ultimate in failure. What’s to ensure that your organization’s next training initiative is the right fit for your employees? Many others and I say that active participation is key, thus leading to higher retention rates and higher ratio of success. And guess what…. Virtual Worlds do offer the right fit for many organizations at a low cost and short time frame of concept, to development to implementation.
ASTD, recently released their State of the Industry Report. Here are a few key highlights of note:
• US organizations spent $134.07 billion on employee learning and development in 2008
• $88.59 billion was spent on the internal learning function
• $45.48 billion was allocated to external services
• Average annual expenditure per employee fell 3.8% from 2007 to $1,068
• The figure for learning expenditure as a percentage of payroll was 2.24% a small increase from 2007
• The average number of employees per learning staff member was 253
What’s in a Serious Game?
December 10th, 2009
A recent report from GameIndustry stated that 83% of the United States population plays games; averaging 10.5 hours spent playing per week.
Image courtesy of Game Industry
More and more leading companies are adopting games for learning. Perhaps ‘game’ has a negative connotation for some. And I am sorry to say that in some instances I know why, some so called “serious games” look like really bad jokes to even the untrained eye.
According to a 2008 study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which works to further understanding of entrepreneurship, the economic impact of a great lecture can improve learning outcomes by 17 percent, while switching to a different delivery mechanism such as serious gaming can improve learning outcomes by 108 percent! Yes that is a 91 percent difference between a lecture vs. a different delivery method (such as a serious game).
The Government and Virtual Worlds
December 8th, 2009
More often than not I am asked about our ongoing virtual world projects. Although I am not at liberty to discuss all that we have been doing (as some of it is classified) I can tell you we have been busy building virtual worlds for a variety of unique clients (both in the Government and Corporate sectors). Hopefully someday we will be able to show more of what we can do! It always cracks me up when I see a company handing out case study after case study without actually being able to publicize what company it is. How can one get a clear picture of the entire product without knowing all the nuts and bolts that went into creating the training product and ultimately a roundabout case study. I will say that the team here at Visual Purple have done case studies in the past, although they do provide a window into our training capabilities we measure success by our clients’ success and their trainees’ retention and improved performance. Having said all that, look for some exciting new ways we can share with you our successes in Q1 of 2010.
Speaking of Virtual Worlds… (Week of November 30-December 4)
December 5th, 2009
A weekly wrap-up on what’s going on within the Virtual World sphere and beyond! Click on any of the below titles to read the full story.
Building Real Security With Virtual Worlds
Insurance Company Launches a Virtual World Aimed at Making Healthy Choices
Virtual world to offer chiropractic students unique patient experience
Second Life Gets A Life 2.0 At Sundance
Educators explore virtual reality as learning tool
U.C. Irvine Set to Offer 4-Year Degree in Virtual Worlds
Is CBT A Dying Breed?
December 4th, 2009
It seems as though the once wildly popular, Computer-Based Training (or CBT for short) just isn’t ringing in any headlines these days. You just aren’t hearing about company trainees using a CBT (and no I am not referring to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and falling in love with it, or asleep for that matter. For goodness sakes, even the Army is abandoning the some flavors of CBT! Training, assessment and design are all key features to a CBT course, however these also are all key elements to more innovative types of training (such as virtual worlds). Advantages of the CBT system were really based around the learner being able to learn at his/ her own pace, this means it’s not too remedial for seasoned employees and is also able to cater to a slower pace for the newbie’s within an organization. Mainly popular in the 1980’s and 90’s – however the full breadth of CBT was not there as computers (and later the Internet) where just beginning to pick up steam. Although Computer-Based Training is being utilized it has transformed into eLearning (boring!) or virtual world training (bring it on!). Yeah sure, CBT can now offer streaming audio and video and even be web-based, but so can a host of other more efficient and cost-effective training methods. Rest in peace CBT.
Virtual World Economies- Thriving or Dying?
December 2nd, 2009
It seems like most of the buzz around virtual worlds lately has been that virtual world economies are thriving…hmmm…so, why is that? I don’t think it is simply because our economy is struggling, rather I see a positive trend in virtual world adoption and with that the economies within virtual worlds budding as well.
According to New Scientist: “With its users swapping virtual goods and services worth around $600 million per year, Second Life has the largest economy of any virtual world – which exceeds the GDP of 19 countries, including Samoa”.
Second Life Residents spend an average of about 100 minutes in-world per visit. So what are residents doing over this hour and forty minutes? Conducting business in a virtual world is becoming more and more commonplace. Although there is a differentiation between virtual goods vs. physical tangible goods (assets), virtual goods are being taken more and more seriously. Take a recent example from The New York Times of a real-life will reflecting virtual goods. Obviously due to the user agreement in a virtual world, you can’t take your avatar with you when you die nor does your ‘virtual’ property remain unless someone is paying the fee to maintain it.
Let’s narrow down the term ‘virtual worlds’ to refer more specifically to the popular virtual world of Second Life from Linden Lab, here are a few more relevant stats from Multiplayer Games:“Over 1050 users spent 1 million Linden Dollars or more, which translates to about $4,000 USD and up. Just under 60 per cent of the 475,000 Second Life players spent at least $2 in September, and the total supply of Linden Dollars is equal to over $26 million USD.”
Brian Solis posted on his blog that: “Residents create more than 250,000 new virtual goods every day – from clothing to vehicles to buildings to automatic language translators, and more.”
Virtual economies with make-believe products and goods are booming, albeit the real-world economy may not be. The United States is slowly climbing the virtual goods ladder if you will as Europe and Asia have always led the pack in virtual world spending. So here’s to the future of virtual world economic growth.