Blended Reality: A look at bringing Second Life into Real Life

Spam Poem - a combined effort by the spammers of my Inbox

etic

Thanks, we are ready to lend you money

top designer shoes

juggling gifts

FuckstickTremendousFloyd

parallelless

improve sexual endurance

diamond replicas

penis enlargement scams... get the truth

try it, your woman will be happy

thankyou, we are accepting your refinance application.

Sunday Reading

* Here's one of the recent Anonymous videos about protesting against Scientology online and offline.
The hacker group has been counting down to TODAY, Feb 10, for a big assault against the Scientology "cult". So I am sure there will be some major strikes online and off today. It will be interesting to see what happens and how the media responds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4yLnFMFM9g

* IBM expands business centre for India in 'Second Life'
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/IBM_expands_business_centre_for_India_in_Second_Life/articleshow/2738243.cms

* Cool new PicLens firefox add on lets you view pictures in a 3d side scroll reminiscent of the iphone's itunes browser
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5579

* Social Media Information Flow
http://hq.andrewshuttleworth.com/hq/2008/02/social-media-on.html

* Loving your avatar: identity, immersion and empathy
http://warburton.typepad.com/liquidlearning/2008/01/loving-your-ava.html

MDM Students Reflect on the RSVP Mixed reality picnic

RSVP Picnic in first and second life 1, originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

A week after the Contemporary Art Gallery RSVP Picnic event hosted at the GNWC Centre for Digital Media the students discussed their impressions and feedback on the event.

Event Description:

"The Contemporary Art Gallery presents RSVP - a series of dinner parties as unscripted social performance enacted by everyone in attendance, as part of the 2007 LIVE Performance Art Biennale, October 19 - 28, 2007.
Guests including Masters of Digital Media students, faculty, second life and first life educators and Second Front performance artists discussed performance and identity over picnic lunch in both worlds.
Guest-curated by Germaine Koh, ECI sessional faculty member, hosted by Joanna Robinson & Ian Verchere at the GNWC Centre for Digital Media in first and second life. "

General Feedback:

- There was a disconnect between virtual and real picnic – attention drawn to one or the other

- Facilitation between worlds was needed and was provided by Joanna but since she was not clearly defined as 'leader' this could have been more successful

- 'Weird' experience, even though eating lunch and chatting is something we do often in everyday life

- How to particpate was not defined in keeping with the unscripted social performance mandate - this made it awkward, not sure what to do

- Some students performance was centred on their SL avatar, others felt they were performing in first life for our guests at the first life campus, representing the MDM (Masters of Digital Media) program

- RSVP – Framed it as “respond please”

- Being together in the room made a different dynamic, than if we were separated in diferent rooms

- Students found themselves waiting for artist to give her performance, the professor to direct or either to give them explicit sanction to perform

- A 'Team leader' would be useful (video game guild style) to direct group action

General SL feedback:

- The SL experience is Exploratory
- SL is a Social space – a space of chatter
- SL general feels like it is lacking sense of purpose, lack of direction
- No explicit goals to orient participants unlike WoW

Talking about Emergent Play:

- Use of emotes in Wow to communicate between horde and alliance
- Metaphor of SL as a festival with many sub events simultaneously occurring

Examples of gaming Emergent play:
- Reppapropriation
- Mass suicide or town death by poison
- Seasonal quests
- Conga line
- Suggested motivations of boredom, showing off
- “Transgressive play” - pushing the limits, finding the rules and breaking them
- Emergent play requires an observer

Examples of Second Life Emergent Play:
- Different borders and rules to transgress
- Scandalous behaviour, inappropriate in some first life spaces
- "Excessive violence" and PvP
- Griefing
- Or can every Second Life activity be considered "emergent play"?

Another interesting comment about SL and reflexivity:

- SL can make you think more consciously about your first life performance and behaviour, because the rules that govern us in first life are different

Doing it the Great Northern Way - The Masters of Digital Media Program @ the Centre for Digital Media is launched

Hello friends/readers/surfers/you!

It is about time for me to return to the blogosphere & share some news and updates!

It has been a busy summer, jam-packed with program preparation and events at Great Northern Way Campus (GNWC).

Centre for Digital Media Launch in Vancouver Sun, originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

GNWC is an academic partnership of British Columbia's four major post-secondary institutions: the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, and the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

As research assistant to the Masters of Digital Media Program (MDM) @ the GNWC Centre for Digital Media, I have been working on a number of projects over the Summer and continuing into Fall. Most of this work has centred around the use of virtual environments in education, collaboration and events.

Since October 2006, we have been exploring the use of metaverse Second Life in particular, at our virtual space there called "University Project". http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20Project/150/84/23/

Explorations have revolved around developing practical course uses centred around a pedagogy of participation, student centred design (something MDM is exploring in both the physical and the virtual) and the organization and hosting of blended reality events.

We have held a number of events and explorations in Second Life to date, including:

 Collaborative modding and building of learning spaces workshop
 Blended reality open house and campus events, including BC Premier's first visit to Second Life at our blended reality program launch
 Community partner Vancouver Police Department's Second Life information and recruitment session
 Blended reality book launch by renowned sci-fi writer and MDM advisory board member William Gibson
 Hosting a virtual conference - CITASA MC 3.0 2007

Now that the program has launched, and students have begun their courses, our future plans for the use of our virtual campus in Second Life include:

* Courses using SL including:
-Building Virtual Worlds (several metaverses)
-Visual Story
-Interdisciplinary Improvisation
* Further exploration of blended reality events and activities
Eg - ‘RSVP’ Campus & SL blended reality lunch, presented by Contemporary Art Gallery Oct 22 2007
* Student modification/design & redesign of our space(s)
* Exhibition of student work and possible student store

So these are some of the elements of the MDM program I am working on, in addition to speaking engagements this semester.

This week I am looking forward to participating in a panel entitled The Reality Continuum: Physical, Blended and Virtual Realities in Second Life at VidFest (The Vancouver International Digital Festival) http://www.vidfest.com/

In other news, I am looking at some changes and updates to my website in the coming days, and being a Resident Evil buff, keep an eye out for my commentary on the new Resident Evil film, "Extinction" soon to be released. Should be interesting!

Over and out for now, cyberspace.

Metro article page 2 - May 31 2007

Metro article page 2 - May 31 2007, originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

Joanna Robinson aka JoannaTrail Blazer - MDM Research Assistant

VPD Event hosted by the Masters of Digital Media Program @ GNWC - at the Virtual Centre for Digital Media (University Project sim)

www.gnwc.ca/mdm/

The final day of Resident Evil Outbreak (File 2) Online!

"Capcom regretfully announces the end of online support for Resident Evil Outbreak File #2.
Service will terminate on March 31st, 2007.

Fans are, of course, free to continue playing the game offline even after the online server has been shut down.

We would like to apologize for any disappointment this decision may cause the dedicated online community."


I received an email earlier in the week from a friend I used to play daily with in Resident Evil Outbreak (REO) telling me the sad news.
Rumours say that the server will be online til 12 midnight Pacific tonight.
I logged on last night just after midnight EST, and there were:

146 in Free Area (91 now playing)
3 in Nightmare Area
38 in Infinity Area
0 in Mens Club
2 in Ladies Night
12 in Bonus Event
6 in Showdown
0 in Survival
0 in Panic
0 in Elimination
= 207

I checked REO File 1 and there were 17 people online - it seems that File 1 is going to be kept online for a while longer, so I think it is safe to say it can expect a mass migration of hardcore REO players to return to it in the coming days/weeks.

It's a bizarre sort of way for the REO saga to come to a close for participants, particularly those of us who began on file 1, got excited about file 2 and went together to the new game... and now some of us will return to File 1 as the last online REO space....ever?

We all have high hopes for something comparable to (and better) than Resident Evil Outbreak to be released for PS3 or elsewhere...a true survival horror MMOG....
But some think it grim, saying things like "if they make a file 3, bush is the best president"...
There have been many messageboard threads devoted to the possibilities of File 3 and what players would like to see in such a game...but as it stands, we are not sure if we will get to play Resident Evil online together again, after these game servers are shut down.

Players had mixed sentiments, but most were sad or angry at Capcom's decision, even calling them "Crapcom" in game titles. Other game titles could be read either way, such as "thanks Capcom".

Other memorable comments from the gathering of the REO community on the File 2 game servers last night:

• "I haven't seen this many people since last year"
• "What's going on, a fucking reunion?"
• "This is outrageous!!" (after finding out File 2 was closing down)
• "I guess all go file 1 after shutdown"
• "at least ob has the best scenarios ever created" (ob refers to REO File 1)
• "sweet nightmares"

I will return tonight and meet up with some old friends, some of which have been playing REO regularly since I met them after its release in 2003.
Thankyou to all of you for making REO so much more than what capcom programmed it to be! We had a blast. And I will see you on File #1. Looking forward to hitting the zoo one more time tonight, until she goes down!
- J0anna ;)

PS: Here is one of my favourite game play videos from REO File #2, by MEMDB.

Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 - Girls Nite Out

Fiddling with Google Sketchup

Fiddling with Google Sketchup, originally uploaded by J0@nn@.

I had some difficulty...using the help, this was what I did on my first try.

Note the avatar that I couldn't even manage to make female... eek!

I really like what this program can do (which is more than I managed to achieve on my first go, I couldn't even resize my shapes to be 3d easily), but I'm not finding it very user friendly!

It's a shame, as there is a Build Your Campus in 3D contest I'd love to enter if I could get a better handle on this!