More Second Life® fun & games...

I've spent an interesting time in Second Life® recently. There have been lots of changes - it looks as though we will be losing our campus island due to budget cuts. I've responded by getting a small space of my own to do some development work. I may be able to host a few small meetings there as well. It's my first time to own land on the mainland, so I'm paying tier straight to the Lindens. This will be a new experience. Now I'll need to do some work there to justify the expense.

I played a fantastic new game in-world last week. It took about 2-3 hours over several evenings to get through it. The KAAOS Effect is an adventure exploration game hosted by Orange, the French telecomm outfit with a significant SL presence. MadPea Productions built the game and provided a significant presence on the sim to aid the early players. The concept reminded me of a very simplified MYST filtered through the lens of film noir. It's the most engaging game I've seen in-world. I don't want to let any spoilers slip, but the game proceeds in a series of "scenes", each of which is represented by a room-sized build. Moving from scene to scene triggers a holodeck-type device which removes the old set or scene and replaces it with the next. It would seem that the approach could be used quite effectively for serious games as well.
The Kaaos Effect , Orange Island (63, 22, 29)

This past weekend, I attended several sessions of the "Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference 2009". Saturday provided a couple of eye-opening presentations. First up was a mini-sim (8,000+ sqm) devoted to the exploration of the teachings of some of the most notable psychological and psychiatric theorists, called (naturally enough) "The Theorists Project". Montclair State University professors AJ Kelton and Edina Renfro-Michel worked with undergraduate and graduate students to create an environment that lets visitors experience the ideas and approaches of Adler, Frankl, Freud, Gestault, Jung, Maslow and Rogers, although several areas aren't ready for public viewing yet. Freud's area includes a recreation of his office and allows a visitor to learn about Freud by conversing with a "Freudbot" while lying on Freud's famous couch, of course! The Freudbot utilizes a link to a web-based server hosting "Freud" using AIML - the Artificial Intelligence Markup Language. The depth of the exchanges with "Freud" rather surprised me. From the office, one can explore Freud's id, superego, and ego by ascending through layers of an iceberg. This is truly one of the most impressive uses of a virtual environment to explore some rather abstract concepts that I've encountered.
The Theorists Project, Montclair State CEHSADP (78, 199, 23)

While the Freudbot was impressive (& I'll be exploring that technology more in the future), I was quite impressed with a new tool being developed by Anne Ogborn (Annie Obscure in SL). She's been designing "guided tours" for SL builds, the chief distinguishing feature of which is that the "guideposts" (my term) are not a permanent part of the build. "The Pathways to Knowledge Quest Framework Tool" parts are rezzed only when requested by a visitor. This "impermanence" allows the same build to be used for education purposes (think museum) and for role-playing (think renaissance faire). An added benefit is that when the "guideposts" with their included scripts and accoutrements are put away, they don't impact the performance of the sim, but are available for use as needed. Again, this is something that I haven't seen in a virtual world before. Annie Obscure plans to have the Tool available soon. I suggest that you IM Annie Obscure in SL for more info.

I'll likely post more as I digest everything I saw and heard in-world this weekend.