[GamingGeek] Warcrafting in the Library

As some of you know, I ran two informational / demo sessions on gaming and virtual environments for the Learning 2.0 @ Mac programme right in the Wong e-Classroom a few weeks back. Specifically, the following were covered:

• IMVU - graphical instant messenger
• X-Men: Retribution - MUSH text-based game
  
• Second Life - graphical social environment / virtual world
• Dance Dance Revolution - a physical interactive console game
• World of Warcraft - an MMORPG

IMVU

This isn’t a game exactly and is actually marketed as an instant messenger, but I found that it is essentially a mini graphical virtual environment. Unlike Second Life which likes to blow up my computers, IMVU was small and ran relatively smoothly even on my laptop. I shared this so that people who didn’t have the hardware resources / requirements to run Second Life could get a bit of a ‘taste’ of what a graphical virtual environment might be like.

You do have to watch the ‘creep factor’. Ever-present anywhere you go on the net are those people who I consider ‘creeps’. These are the ones only looking for cybersex and to ‘troll‘ or otherwise harass or annoy people. Sadly, these types of individuals seem to thrive in an environment (the internet) where people have a relative sense of anonymity and feel they can ‘act out’ however they feel like it without any real consequences. These elements are everywhere on the net, as in real life. This is why my IMVU avatar looks like this:

X-Men: Retribution (MUSHes)

I think this particular style of gaming was one that wasn’t quite grasped completely. I got the feeling that I wasn’t doing it justice or that people didn’t quite understand the full concept. There is quite a learning curve with these games, since the software that it sits on runs in a Unix / Linux environment and therefore is ‘command line’ based, hearkening back to the text adventure games of the old Dos-run machines.

Perhaps I can write up some articles pertaining more to these ‘interactive storytelling-styled’ games and post them here through the summer. (If anyone’s interested.) I felt a little awkward trying to show off these games on the projector screen because I felt it was very distracting trying to type into the screen (which takes more cognitive thought perhaps than controlling a character in WoW) while talking.

As such, I think if I was to run another session on this that I’d like to have a smaller group perhaps and several machines set up to allow telnet access — get them logged in and do the talking right in the game. This would allow me to talk and tell them what they need to know while still showing how the game works in practice instead of theory. As it’s not a graphical environment, it’s hard to see how it works without getting a little hands-on, I think.

Second Life

I didn’t handle this portion of the demonstration session, as I have not yet been able to get a machine of mine to handle Second Life, which I understand can still be pretty “hoggy” with the computer resources and slow and/or “choppy”; I’ll admit I don’t have much patience for this kind of thing, sadly. I wish I did because I know I’m missing out a lot in SL, now that so many people who work right here at Mac have Second Lives.

The thing I love about the idea of Second Life is the potential for teaching environments. Imagine a Classes Without Borders type of scenario. Wow. That just excites me to no end. Imagine teaching a class in your office or home to people in Japan or Australia or even just in the same continent as you. What about during poor weather? No more canceled classes and tutorials! (A downside from a student’s perspective, maybe. *grin*)

Thanks go to Amanda and Krista for the presentation!

Dance Dance Revolution

Even though we only managed to get a few people up and trying it, I think DDR was a big hit. Mostly, I think those who were reluctant to get up and try it were not liking the idea of being put on the spot and doing something goofy in front of a crowd, which I can understand. Kudos to all those who did try it out! (Rhonda, Nora and Jill!) A few people even enjoyed it after the larger group had taken off.

I’ve been asked to bring this back, so I believe I will. We’ll have to set up some lunch time sessions or something!

World of Warcraft

I think this was one game that everyone was really waiting to see. With Jeff talking about it, people wanted to know what all the hubbub was about. Due to Blizzard Entertainment’s server maintenance schedule being forgotten when the session was scheduled, the first session merely consisted of some videos relating to Warcraft on YouTube and whatever I had to say about it.

Thankfully, the second session allowed me to actually login and show off my ‘leet skillz’ (yeah right… at least I didn’t die! Heh). There were definitely more questions and comments in the second session since people could actually see the game in action and being played. They could see my mouse cursor rapidly switching back and forth between the various skill/maneuver buttons, my fingers running over the keyboard, etc. so they could ask how that all worked, what I was doing, etc.

I also had the added help of a beautiful video a couple of WoW friends made for me which is, sadly, too large to post up here (if you missed it and would like to see it, however, feel free to snag me sometime when you see me with my laptop and I’d be happy to show you!).

The potentials for learning with WoW, despite the focus on killing to advance through the levels (as this was a concern for some people), excite me greatly. I’ve read a couple of articles about people learning conversational English via WoW (though I do question this considering how many ‘lol’, ‘omg’, ‘can u plz hlp mee?’ comments I see on the game, but…). Not only that, but the social side of things is phenomenal (I’ve even played with people in the UK, Germany and Australia). And, where else are you going to get 20-40 people from all over the world simultaneously working together in a concerted effort to achieve a single goal (a la some of the larger dungeon raids)? Wow. Just wow. (No pun intended there. Heh.)

***

Anyway, that’s my quick (not-so quick?) write-up on the things that were covered in my gaming sessions. I’ve been asked to run sessions again in the summer and have been given the ‘green light’ on this. Now I just need to know: who’s interested in revisiting what?

~ by libzombie on May 10, 2007.