It seems that there is a common misconception that the ONLY REAL use for virtual worlds is multiplayer. This is a BIG fallacy that most people just don’t seem to understand. So let’s devote some time to clear up this basic misunderstanding. Sure, some of the more popular virtual worlds are multiplayer, World of Warcraft for example which has over 11 million paying subscribers as of 2009. However, much can be said for a single-player/ single- role or single-player/multi-role virtual world, especially when it comes to training/learning on demand and a guaranteed quality of experience.
You might be asking, what is an MMORPG (MMORPGs for plural)? An MMORPG is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. A role playing game is a genre of computer games where you interact with a large number of people in an online virtual world. One might want to play MMORPGs for the social aspect, or the overall game play aspect. Perhaps the more famous here is the MMORPGs of the world (otherwise known as Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) while the standard fare of these games are fantasy in nature these worlds allow for an environment where a large number of players are able to interact.
Now if you bring the whole idea of MMORPG to a virtual world meant for training you will probably find more often than not a large band of resistance against this. And I agree that there should be a huge resistance against MMORPGs for training. Rather a virtual world that is meant for training should just be a single player environment where the user is able to interact with non-player characters (NPCs). Although some will argue that virtual environments are prime for collaboration, with which I do agree. However I think that virtual worlds have a variety of applications that they can cater to. If I want to attend a virtual conference or tradeshow than I agree the largest key component of that would be the collaboration aspect. However when I login to Second Life and am going to learn something I do not want to be bothered by an unknown avatar trying to befriend me. I am there to learn/ train not socialize and make friends.
So I won’t go into all the nitty gritty aspects of MMORPGs rather I merely want to clarify some key misconceptions of utilizing virtual worlds for training and multi-player vs. single-player aspects.
It seems as though whenever one mentions ‘virtual world’ the first thing that comes to mind is Second Life (SL). Admittedly, this is perhaps the most well known virtual world platform and certainly the largest ‘sandbox.’ Recently, Linden Lab (SL’s purveyor and overlord) released Q1 2009 performance data stating that SL users logged 124 million hours! So what are users doing? Most get caught up in creating there own avatar, utilizing the cheap economy of Linden dollars (L$) micro-currency, purchasing land, building things and enjoying 3D chat – think lots of socializing. Obviously, SL does appeal to the vast majority of early adopter virtual world users. Now, what if you are in the government or corporate sectors and like what virtual worlds offer? After a little digging most traditional or legacy organizations gin up concerns around the SL brand (the remnants of early ‘lawlessness” in SL and resulting bad press that just never seems to die).
So, in spite of a much more civil environment and continued strong use, the reservations never quite seem to go away, they just linger like a the Hong Kong haze…
- It’s not private and secure
-Too much variability and not enough control over the user, the user may roam freely in an open world environment
- No control on whom the user is able to talk to or how the avatar is set up
- Doesn’t play well with most enterprise firewalls
All these issues and others have hindered SL’s adoption by corporate/government. Linden recognizes this and is working with IBM and Intel to solve some of these issues. We hope to see some headway in ’09 as SL attempts to become an emerging platform standard for enterprise.
So, we are finally LIVE with the Winning in Wireless:Year 1! What is this virtual world you may ask?…Visual Purple partnered with BTS and took an existing Computer-Based Training (CBT) course and transmogrified it into a virtual world simulation. Not the whole enchilada but more than anticipated. Pretty cool, huh? The Visual Purple technologists have been working technology and creative approaches for months and months separating the wheat from the chaff until things really started to click. The virtual world sim depicts an eager, newly hired CEO of a wireless telecom company trying to find his way, complete with computer-generated voice for some of the non-player characters (NPC’s). No strings attached: no forms to fill out or marketing hurdles. Just click the download button and go.
Winning in Wireless: Year 1 does require a download, a browser-based experience is a cool option for deployment in the Enterprise space.
We have also compiled a short trailer showing the comparison of CBT to the virtual world transformation.
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.
Most of us have heard of the “video-game” generation, or are even a part of it.Today’s generation of teenagers grew up with a mouse in their hand and the Internet in their back pocket.With the success of Virtual Worlds today most popular among the pre-teen and teenage years most understand that the next generation of employees to enter the workforce will be extremely well versed with computers and very accepting to technology based around computer learning and training.Factor in the various social networks, like MySpace and Face book and you will find that by incorporating this type of training into the workplace would be beneficial for any type of employer.Long gone are the days when the employer asks an interviewee about past computer experience, and average words per minute typed – as nearly all of the 20 and 30 something’s today have extensive computer knowledge.The next generation to enter the workforce will expect the employer to offer capabilities within the computer realm that they have become accustomed to growing up in the “computer world.”This new generation of workers is changing the way business is done.Immersive elements and environments bring the player in to a new realm of learning…We live in a video game culture.Highly skilled, more effective workers are now in the workplace – ultimately increasing business efficiency.
The world as we know it is changing- it’s going VIRTUAL! Much like the start of the internet in the mid 1990’s…a new evolution of the internet is taking place. It’s called, “Virtual Worlds”, aside from the economy and past presidential election it seems to be the new buzz. The next wave of technology is here to stay…with many companies entering the “VW” sector, each offering something unique to the user/player. Although in its infancy, the Virtual World idea is one that will no doubt continue to grow and change the way people interact. These immersive 3D environments bring reality to the computer screen and place users into a “new world” of possibilities. The popularity of Virtual Worlds ranges from all age groups, with a large audience in the younger teenage years. 3D virtual universe’s allow endless possibilities for the future and beyond in a wide variety of applications. By providing immersive environments for training, Virtual Worlds are the new hot ticket item for learning and training in the 21st Century.
Brief definition of a Virtual World from Wikipedia: A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical representations, although other forms are possible[1] (auditor[2]and touch sensations for example). Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users.
Welcome to the Visual Purple blog site which is primarily focused on providing you with the latest in training and technology that takes place in the Virtual World and Embedded-Training sectors. And now let me introduce you to who we are and what we do…
Visual Purple is on the forefront of technological advancements and trends with the exciting addition of business efficiency solutions and training scenarios taking place through Virtual World spaces, Embedded and Decision-Based training. Virtual world simulations offer compelling experiences, dramatic interactions, and sustainable collaborative environments. As the saying goes “not all things are created equal”, well neither are training solutions.
The blog entries will be intentionally kept short for a quick read and the majority of blog entries will be written in an informal style for easy reading. I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS Feed so that you will automatically receive new blog entries as soon as they are posted. At Visual Purple, we are passionately focused on changing the way people train. So stay tuned to the Virtual Speak blog- there is much more to come! We welcome any and all comments and/or feedback that you may have.
Active in a number of key simulation and training markets, Visual Purple offers you the possibility to change the way people train, through its state-of-the-art technology platforms in Virtual Worlds, Embedded Training and Decision-Based Simulations. Learn more...
