Computer Gamings Paradigm Shift

I remember a great cartoon of two parents looking in their sons room, watching him fanatically thumbing away at his Xbox/Playstation. The mother turns to the father and says - “I hope by the time he grows up game players will be in great demand then he will be able to earn a living ……”

When I first met up with computer games I was in school and they were asterix’s and 0’s and based on a Mini Computer  - A Digital Vax PDP11. I was facinated that you could play against a machine and imagination was all you needed. I have always been a computer gamer, where work, family and sport allowed and followed the trends from Alleycat to Leisure Suit Larry to Elite (PC) to Wolfenstein to Doom to WoW (which is the Worlds most popular on-line Game/ MMORPG).  I have never been a complete gaming loon but I did like them and preferred them to television often for entertainment. However they were always a one user operation. It was you and the PC. And thats all.  The real gaming specialists (experts who completed games in weeks/days) were shut in’s often locked in their room for 24 hours not speaking or communicating with others - not healthy.

I was on WoW the other day and a strange thing happened. I had to go to meet someone and on WoW I was linked up with some guildies trying to get something done to the benefit of us all. The torture I had to endure to get the project done before I had to leave was unbelievable. Was this addiction? No, it was not wanting to let the others down.

Not wanting to let the others down? Suggest friendship, loyalty, teamwork, belonging and community?

A long way from the anti-social shut-in paradigm?

I still meet people outside gaming that do not realise that PC Gaming has changed utterly - just watch as large entertainment corporates try to emulate the success of WoW. What was considered a loners operation has now become what my friend Declan Elliott calls “the new golf”, a method of socializing with others using on screen interaction and communication as well as Teamspeak (Voice over IP communication like phone conferencing).

Interactivity is where its at folks. Pull what you want rather than be force fed what you don’t.

Aidan Higgins

First Life benefits from Second Life

I was introduced to Second Life  (SL) in 2006 and I have been involved to the extent that I now own land, build structures, have items for sale and interact regularly with other people in the SL environment. A member of the group mobileavenue introduced me to SL and they are watching this space carefully and innovating applications for use in modern business particularly in terms of social networking and virtual interaction.

My interactions with SL are aimed at understanding it and its social complexities. Its an emerging and very interesting space - especially now its post hype  - and it has survived the process. And thats what it is - a space - created by imagination. Strange to say it but this morning I caught myself out shopping in SL ….. and enjoying it.

I needed a piece for a structure I was developing on my property and I found myself searching for a suitable piece - teleporting to shopping malls and browsing as if I had popped down to the local shopping centre. I have dollars to spend and I caught myself browsing other shops - where I found and purchased - wait for it ….. an AC/DC T-shirt for my Avatar.

It made me think how after this time I am accepting the “reality” of this Virtual Reality. I caught myself experiencing some of the same satisfying emotions similar to those if I had purchased in the real world. I wanted to try it on !!!!!  (And no parking problems either….). Now while I stuck to my old favourite AC/DC band  - I saw interesting new designs, some really radical suff and some run of the mill stuff too. The opportunity exists for designers to try without fear of failure - if only the real world was as forgiving.

In the time I’ve been there I think the most impressive things have been the designers creations from houses to clothing and the opportuniy for groups to meet. It is possible for thousands to gather in a ready made theatre and watch a real-life presentation with fully interactive media (slides, movies and sound) as if attending a lecture theatre in a major college. One such venue is Berkman - they have constructed a huge indoor and outdoor arena where you can sit and listen or even partake in presentations. And for fun you can attend real time concerts at other venues. All for the price of broadband.

Sounds scary - doesn’t it? But it’s as simple as going to the Second Life site - downloading the free software and giving it a go. There is a step by step “learn as you do” section at the start and for the browser/viewer its mostly intuitive.  You simply build an Avatar (a model of yourself that can look like a racoon if you like) and walk/fly with the keyboard controls around the space. It has its own currency - the linden dollar - which is exchangeable with US dollars (so you can make real profits) and which is used to purchase almost everything.

Creativity is the new “in” thing for corporates and small business alike. Here we have a safe zone to practice that skill. A great opportunity to explore your own and others imaginations.

Aidan Higgins

Virtual Organisations could learn from Games

 Why do we play? We play to learn then we play for fun. But let’s look at the first one. We play to learn.

Organisations consistently talk about the challenges of continuous learning, teaming, training, and more recently about the issues for and against the Virtual Organisation. As the improving infrastructure of communications allows working from home and Virtual Offices so also the need to build trust and co-operation increases as these are the tenets of a successful Virtual Operation.

I recently had the opportunity to play a role in a co-operative game called World of Warcraft. This is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game or MMORPG for short (short?) with 8 million players. This means to you and me that the game is played with others players, over the internet via computers that provide the interaction required to enable the software (client) on your PC to create the virtual world with all the players in it.

So these are real people you are playing with or against. All very well you say. Yes, however there is a very interesting teaming element needed for many parts of the game. This to me exhibits some very interesting characteristics. Groups take can be from 2 to 5 (Party Group) to 10 to 20 (RAID Group). The interesting bit comes when you have to work together with others in the various roles your characters (or toons) dictate. A party is never successfull on a tough Quest if the group is not multi-skilled -  a team of the same or even similar skills can almost never complete the task.

So put your Virtual Organisation or Virtual Team hat on and lets go through the mechanics of doing a Dungeon Quest with a group of 5. See if you can as I did , spot the learning points and opportunities therein.

Firstly you have to flag your interest in the Task/Quest - this is done through a communications interface and/or a text interface similar to a one line email. At this point you can be asked to join others or another, or you can be asked by someone can they join you. If you take the role of leader you must vet the member to see if they have the complimentary skills to be in the group. This decision is based on what you already have and the type of Quest.

Once the group is built then roles must be assigned by mutual agreement although these often fall into place depending on the skills available.  This is mostly done by text/typing interface although some groups use “Teamspeak” a voice comms system. One role of “tank” and one role of “healer” is always critical. Note the two will never have met and may not speak the same language (although a common basic langiuage will exist) but each will depend crucially on the other. The other team members also have roles particulaly during “fights” where everyone agrees the tactics before each “fight”and each plays a different role.  The group must work together to get to the end result and this often means trying and failing then coming back with new tactis which are agreed on the fly.

Another interesting part os the sharing of reward - which is done on trust. Often there is only one valuable piece which is rolled for by the group although at any time one person can “ninja” the piece and run. Although these people have never met there is a certain reputation gained (as in the real world) from dishonest acts.

I have often stood in frustration during the forming stage of a team and watched as the simplest things could not be agreed. This can become even more frustrating when dealing with virtual teams where face to face contact is missing so trust takes even longer to establish.

So what opportunities using games to build teams, team ethos and a work ethic? What opportunities to learn communication skills? What can we learn or indeed teach with this methodology? And of course what about the 10 to 20 RAID groups which are multiple teams with one leader and 3 sub leaders?

Watch this space…..

Aidan Higgins