MORE LEVELING UP IN WoW

Here I am leveling up in WoW....I started a new character because I thought mine was a bit lame.

Here he is, I made a Worgen which is a Werewolf-ish character race that is new since I played. He's a Rogue. He's also my first alliance character on this new account.

Here he is, Garulfas!

Completing my first quest, I'm in my human form. I thought I could turn into a werewolf initially but was disappointed that I couldn't.

Turning in quests! SO MANY QUESTS! Not just this guy but another girl over yonder.

Next I had to seek out this chick and practice my new "FINISHING MOVE!" EVISCERATE. Fun fact, eviscerate doesn't just mean eliminate or own or kill or something unspecific, it actually means to disembowel (slash open the chest so the guts spill out). Pretty gross tbh. Also I got my 3rd levelup to reach level 4.

I had to keep playing until I got bitten, so I could turn into a werewolf. It happened just here. Also notice the cute adorable doggie dogs. I got one that would follow me around to detect things.

FINAL PROJECT: ADDING 10 NEW CONTENT ELEMENTS TO MY IMMERSIVE LIBRARY

Since I found adding PDFs to the world much easier than the downloading youtube videos work-around that my classmate found, I decided to upload 7 PDF files, and 3 youtube videos to my world. Plus, the work around we discovered for adding youtube videos I'm told only works for 2-4 minute videos. I have a bunch of TED talks in my research database, so I'm a bit limited on the number of youtube videos I can upload. I added additional 'arms' onto the wooden stand that I have arranged my videos and PDFs on. I like that there isn't a particular order to which link visitors mist click on. Rather they can start viewing videos or reading PDFs in whatever order they want in my world.

First, here are the pictures of me adding the PDFs to the world:

 adding another PDF

 Moving the page to just the right place

 All done with the PDF uploads!!


Okay now onto the videos! Adding arms to my wooden monster of immersive education video knowledge......

 This one kind of goes around in a circle.

And here is me adding one of the 3 extra videos...

FINAL PROJECT: ADDING 5 PDF PAPERS TO MY IMMERSIVE LIBRARY

I forgot to take photos for the majority of my adding of the first 5 PDFs, so unfortunately I don't have many photos. I decided I would have three groupings of media in my world that would come off of the spikes or arms that I made of the boxes. I didn't want to present the library in any particular order (like someone walking though a walkway being presented with information one after another) I like that you can click on whatever image/webpage you want in whatever order.

I couldn't upload a PDF directly, like everyone else in the class, however I inserted a webpage, so that when people click on the link they will be taken directly to the article where they can read online or download the PDF.

FINAL PROJECT: TESTING MY FELLOW CLASSMATES' IMMERSIVE LIBRARIES

So I looked at three classmates Museums, AJ's, Ryan's and Amanda's. These were my tests, observations and thoughts.

 Here I'm testing AJ's videos. This one certainly worked as planned. Also observe the paths, they are brilliant, I wish I'd thought of them. In my library I decided to go for a more natural sculpture garden aesthetic and my videos are on top of the sculptures. Visually I like it more but organizationally AJ's works much better.

 Here is AJ's documents, organized into one blog post. Earlier today they didn't work but since I wrote feedback on his post they have been fixed and now work perfectly.

 Here is my first [post about Ryan's library. I used the load screen because it best to highlight my main difficulty with Ryan's world. For some reason Ryan's world automatically loaded the soundtrack for all his videos all at once. Even worse they are all playing at once cacophonously during the load screen. Auditorilly it is a mess and it is even worse to try and understand the words during his videos. Also it meant the load took my computer 5 minutes rather than less than 30 seconds for every other world.

 Here I'm demonstrating that visually his videos work, the previous audio issue is still present though and so I can't hear the individual audio track really at all.

 Ryan's documents also wouldn't load as you can see in at least three of the web pages on this screen.

 This is Amanda's world, she also had issues with documents loading.

 Here embedded videos worked well though. 3D Printers are super cool. Feels like we are entering Star Trek!

Her videos work great as well!

BUILDING MY IMMERSIVE LIBRARIES/MUSEUM

 This first screenshot is of my first layer. It had me underwater, and I thought that that wouldn't be a very good place for a library......

 Whenever I tried to enter build mode last night, meshmoon would crash. This is why the assignment is getting in a day late

 More crashing....

 Finally I was able to get meshmoon working. I decided to go with and outdoor layer. Originally I had a construction site as well, but decided to turn it off. I placed a bunch of plywood cubes to be the stand for my 'about me' section. It gives it a construction site feel.

 My first photo! I have no idea why it ended up tilted, but I like it

 Adding photos of the things I love.... my girlfriend and the stanley cup

 This pic shows how I adjusted the images to arrange them on the platform

All done! As others have noted, Meshmoon no longer supports clickable images to websites, so I wasn't able to complete that part.

Immersive Education Libraries and Museums Article Summary

Note: The article calls itself a "Charter" for the Immersive Education (I'm assuming based upon context, "Libraries and Museums Technology Working Group". From now on for convenience I will shorten this to LAMTWG.

The LAMTWG is effectively (this description is coming from my business background) an advisory/supervisory board or commission which monitors and ensures the quality of Libraries and Museums that wish to have a relationship with Immersive Education.

Based upon its membership criteria the LAMTWG seems very open to people with a variety of backgrounds. This seems like a real asset for recruitment and hopefully produces a board with diverse perspectives to contribute (something which is generally an asset). The flexibility to get those with both virtual and real world museum experience seems intelligent. In addition the board accepts people with technical backgrounds in virtual worlds and other online environments and simulations.

Real world museums and libraries face significant challenges incorporating virtual and non-corporeal information and content into their exhibit halls and learning spaces. Despite this virtual, immersive and multimedia assets and ideas offer profound benefits to these institutions' missions. The aid they could provide in teaching must be seized. Still more than this, in my opinion these alternative information streams are especially key in helping non-traditional students. Many of us (such as myself) are primarily or partially autodidacts. For us being able to access and control the information we get is key to teaching ourselves (the method by which we often learn best).

The next few paragraphs before the objectives section consist of specific methods by which libraries and museums could benefit from utilizing Immersive Education. Frankly you would be better reading the article (linked at bottom) but to briefly summarize they most tend to break down into either Efficiency/interface Improvements and/or greater information to be accessed/incorporated without space limitations (though some fall a little outside, between or in both of these categories we are space limited).

The objectives section is hard to summarize in total specificity (listing all the objectives in summaries longer than themselves would be pointless and I can't use quotes) so instead I will again recommend you read the page in addition to my short synopsis. Basically the LAMTWG wants to help libraries and museums help themselves with immersive assets and ideas while simultaneously helping the Immersive Education Initiative translate the priceless information and ideas inside those museums and libraries to a virtual environment that its students can access. The case is presented as a win win which it certainly sounds like. Most of the specific objective points are around how to insure this process works well and standards are upheld.

The next paragraph is about the Criteria for Success of the LAMTWG. Basically it can be broken down (though again you should actually read it) as maintain the professional standards which would apply to real museums and libraries while figuring out how to translate this stuff into virtual worlds. There is also a point about helping at risk youth(*Note at bottom*).

The next section of use cases is best to read personally (please follow link) as they are esoteric and contain diagrams. Following that section we have a couple of general housekeeping notes on how the LAMTWG will meet and the confidentiality of its memos (possibly including this one).

Sources: Information From "Immersive Education Libraries and Museums Technology Working Group (LAM.TWG)" @ http://jied.org/1/1/8/

**From my 2+ years of experience teaching at risk youth (I worked at the Epiphany School in Dorchester and the Agassiz School (now closed) in JP) I would argue that the Immersive Education I have experienced would be very unsuited for teaching at risk youth who generally do not possess basic computer skills and cannot afford computer or internet access, outside of libraries. As you may know libraries are often far away from their homes, critically understaffed and have staff do not possess the time or inclination to assist the students with computer issues, also their parents don't know computers either**

Continuing to Level Up in WoW

So I got three more levels with Pandaphobe, my Panda(rian) Mage who is scared of himself. I completed many quests and vanquished many monsters. Below is a visual diary of my journey.

 I awaken, right where I went to sleep a couple weeks ago...am I narcoleptic? Only time will tell.

 And very quickly I am dead. I learned to my chagrin that my Frost Nova attack activates monsters who I'm not fighting with. I didn't get a shot of the combat but it was frantic and I lost very quickly when I Frost Nova-ed five monsters at once accidentally.
 But I was nonetheless able to complete my quest.

 

  After returning to the spot of my demise I was able to fight the supply thieves (why would walking plants need food meant for pandas anyhow? One of many unanswered questions) and had greater success when by vanquishing them one at a time in the more traditional manner. Here I am returning the quest.

 My next quest, find this guy, who got chased away from his cart. It was easy. I didn't even need to rescue him from the plant monsters, they just ran away saying "OH NO HIS FRIEND IS HERE!" or something like.

 Here I am proudly displaying/highlighting my new cloak. It was pretty cool to get my first entirely new item (the others all were replacements for starter items). It was a reward for rescuing the carter.

 Next quest I had to protect these guys while they did something (I skipped the quest text accidentally so couldn't see what). As you can see from my note I was super low. This was my most furious fight...that I survived anyhow. I almost died actually. You can't see quite how low I was regenerated a tiny bit of health before I could take the screenshot. I had about 1/3rd that.

 Now I'm fighting evil monkeys that invaded this town. As you can see from the pile of bodies I've gotten better at multi-enemy combat (or leveling up helped more than I thought). I fought all of those in a string (not at once but 3 at one time and the others came after).

 Turning in two quests at once feels pretty good!

 Afterwords I had to find this ghost guy. That was cool but then he attacked me. The fight was ferocious so I took no screenshots.

I'd like to say I sent him back from whence he came but I'm not really sure if that applies since he is a ghost. He did go back to where he started after I killed? de-manifested? whatevered him.

 These "cursed lakes" were pretty cool. THis one turned me into a frog. They are not as cool as TURNING IN TWO QUESTS AT ONCE! though.

Those two quests took me over the edge. I am now an extremely terrifying level 6 Mage, still afraid of my own species but otherwise awesome.

THE FUTURE OF IMMERSION, IN MY MIND

            This may sound contrary but drawing on my own personal experience I would argue that as virtual worlds get more realistic and intense (which they will) videogame addiction will fundamentally stay the same. For some background in high school I went to boarding school. I was considered one of the smartest kids in my class and didn’t find the work challenging. I had a lot of free time on my hands and very few friends. During this period my parents and many relatives and my psychologist all diagnosed me with videogame addiction. I was playing games 6 hours a day many days, having trouble sleeping and so playing for hours before bed and when I got home I would do nothing except play games.

            In my view (and I have convinced some of them to my view now) their diagnoses reflected a fundamental lack of understanding for why I played video-games. Especially why I played them so much at home. For me video-games were not an addiction in themselves but something that offered an escape from boredom and social anxiety in the real world. Coming home from boarding school (especially on short breaks like thanksgiving) was a massively stressful experience where it felt like I had no ground to stand on and where everything in my day to day life completely changed.

            This is the crux of my argument that videogame addiction will stay the same. Videogame addiction—for most people—has never been about the games themselves but instead about escapism from the difficult and stressful realities of often shitty lives (e.g. the loner nerd tortured in school or whichever other trope you choose). Obviously there are people with extremely addictive personalities who get hooked by games designed to hook people but I’m not sure this counts. I’ve found addiction prone people always find something to addict them to. Putting on my amateur neuropsychologists hat here addiction is generally a function of a messed up brain, which overvalues mental “rewards” through dopamine or other neurochemicals. As such the addiction really isn’t about the videogames themselves, but about the person being addicted.

            This concept of escapism is fundamental to my understanding of my understanding of my own videogame “addiction”. I was clinically depressed when I became “addicted” to videogames. I didn’t really like my life and it was very easy and comforting to have an alternative “life” in a mmorpg I could return to. A life, and this is the crux of it, where I wasn’t fettered and could make real progress (albeit artificial) on a day to day basis. In subsequent discussions with my psychologist he has come to agree with my point of view and admitted that he was incorrect to diagnose me with addiction to videogames and that it was just an outlet to get away from my life which I didn’t like. Or as he put it “your videogame play was a symptom of your depression and the anxiety disorder you still possess”. While this offers a different view from the articles and case study you had us read I believe it is an important view for the class (and future classes to appreciate). Nothing so complicated as addiction is ever simple and every case of something like addiction is individual from all others and should be treated as such. In my case (and I believe in many others) videogame addiction is totally symptomatic of other unaddressed problems, issues and disorders and should be treated as such rather than as the media or older people with less experience in the issue would treat it (possibly out of fear of this newer medium of videogames) as this amazing and terrifying new “interactive” media sucking our children (because videogame addiction is overwhelmingly diagnosed in children) into virtual worlds.

World of Warcraft: My Addiction

Professor Aaron E. Walsh notes:

The following account was written by "John" in July 2007. John was a student of mine. He was in my Discovering Computer Graphics course at Boston College (http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc), and was much more advanced with 3D graphics than the other students. When I asked why he was taking this class, when he clearly had enough experience to take one of my more advanced classes, he explained that he had no choice: he had failed out of school, and was starting over. After we talked  more as the semester went he explained why. I asked him to write it down for future students. Here’s what he wrote in one sitting about why he was “starting over”.

Video game addiction and related concerns are addressed by the Immersive Education Initiative’s Psychology of Immersive Environments (PIE) group. For details visit http://JiED.org/1/1/7

"World of Warcraft (WoW): My Addiction

I've played various MMORPG games over the years, some being fairly addicting, some not even catching my interest, but one stands out above the rest as the most addicting and life consuming thing I've ever encountered in my life. You might have guessed it already, but that game is World of Warcraft, a game that I would recommend everyone stays away from.

Like most addictions, it didn't start out that way. It was just harmless fun; I'd log on for a few hours every day and level my character, talk to some friends I had on the game... it was nothing that took me away from other things. I was in high school at the time, and was still managing to get on with my work at first, even though that was a struggle in itself sometimes, and I kept in touch with my friends and saw them regularly.

At first I was surprised at how little interest I had in playing the game for long stints, as I had heard some things about how enticing and gripping the game was, and the first few months were fine, until I started to get near the level cap. Approaching the maximum level I began to play the game more and more, as reaching the end game content opened up a whole new world. I became involved with a hardcore raiding guild, competing to be the best guild on the server, and it all went from there.

The first thing that changed was that I now had raiding times to meet every weekday evening in addition to the gold farming I had to do during the day in order to be able to afford all the potions and items I needed to raid, and somehow, my guilds progression through the bosses in the game became the most important thing to me in my life, and I slowly started to phase out my friends. At this point I was still going to school, so between the school day and the game, I had no time for anything else.

Contrary to what people might think, I didn't lack a social life at all, even without seeing or talking to any of my friends from school. In fact, it was quite the opposite, I had a whole new group of friends... in World of Warcraft. Now I didn't even have to leave my room to hang out with my friends, I could just pop on my headset and hang out with them in the game.

Now, to rewind a bit, I remember when I was creeping up on the level cap, and my parents were beginning to get concerned with how much I was playing the game, I kept telling them that it would be all over soon. Heck, even I thought it would! Little did I know, the game would be even more demanding of me after that.

I wanted to be the best, I wanted to have the best items, I wanted to have the most gold. I wanted to be popular with the people on my server, I wanted to be known. I wanted to top the damage meters on every single fight. I don't know why, I can't explain it, but the game was just the most important thing to me, I wanted to do nothing else. I wanted to play every single day all day and night and would do whatever I could to keep myself awake and at the computer. Whatever it took, energy drinks, amphetamines, I would keep myself awake for hours on end, not getting any exercise and rarely leaving the house.

The more and more I played, the more and more things I felt compelled to spend my time doing inside the game. It seems that they create the game in such a way that even though there technically is a way to have the ultimate everything and clear all the bosses etc.. etc...... By the time you get close they add more content to the game to keep you going, its a never ending story. I would pick up my prescription for amphetamines just so I could stay up all night farming items to sell for gold, I wanted to have the best enchantments and to get all the rare random world drops... and so much more. I completely stopped going to school, completely stopped seeing my friends.... and the most worrying fact was that I didn't really care. It just stole my heart and mind from everything else, gave me a false sense that everything was okay and that I wasn't ruining the rest of my life. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't stopped, I had stopped going to school and cut off social contact with everyone but the people I knew in the game, it was like a world within itself. I didn't even want to stop until I had a taste of life without it, a taste that was forced, however. If I hadn't been forced to live somewhere without a computer I don't know what would have happened."




So that you can see what WoW looks like, here are some screenshots of me playing the game for my homework in this class.

Immersive Education Addiction in the Future

This article is an interview with Professor Aaron Walsh by a former student who had taken his classes in the early 2000's. I thought it was interesting how it was mentioned that immersive education can be very beneficial for individuals who may struggle in the real world, or in typical classroom situations can really blossom in virtual education environments. One of the other benefits of immersive education that is mentioned is that it makes educational resources accessible to individuals all over the world who might not be able to make it into classroom settings for whatever reason. This resonated a lot with me, because immersive education allowed me to continue my studies at Boston College despite having to be in Ann Arbor Michigan for the semester.

The interview also covers the variety of virtual worlds that are available for immersive education. Similarly, it touches on the fact that immersive education is now more accessible than ever. In the past, making immersive education available to students would have been very difficult because many students would not have access to the personal computers required to participate in virtual worlds. Furthermore, even less students would have access to computers that have adequate power to display the graphics required for virtual worlds. Now, all relatively new computers are able to handle the graphics in vitual worlds. However now, virtually every student has access to a computer, so immersive education is more accessible than ever. The topic of possible downsides of using virtual worlds is also mentioned. One of the main downsides is the possibility of immersive illness, which we have been studying in our class homework this week.

The interview also covers advantages and challenges of bringing immersive education to other countries. While immersive education has the capability to bring important, and current educational experiences to individuals who might not have access to the same level of quality education, there is also the challenge of insuring that interested institutions have the computing capabilities and resources to support immersive education. Professor Walsh is therefore interested in reducing the cost and and complexity of virtual worlds and immersive education while still providing a high quality educational experience.

Here is the link to the interview with Professor Walsh: http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/teaching_in_vr_.html

Here are some screenshots of me in one of the virtual worlds we have explored a lot as part of this class, Cloud Party:

 

Here are my screenshots for the videos on 'modern' computer addiction. This week's homework was really eye opening....