Second Life in 3600 seconds

sep

t 20

07

Andy Powell, Eduserv [email protected]

www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation

Second Life in 3600 seconds

or “My life in the bush of avatars”

sept 2007Oxford Brookes Business School

Second what?

• 3-D virtual world

• run by Linden Lab

• ‘proprietary’, but public commitment to open standards and OSS

• populated by avatars, aka residents

• a ‘metaverse’ (from the book: Snow Crash)

www.secondlife.com


So it’s just a game right?

• can use SL to build games – including shoot ‘em ups

• but such activities frowned on in public spaces

• looks and feels like a gaming environment

• but no purpose as such

– use it to buy / sell, entertain, learn, collaborate, …

• do not approach it simply as a game – you’ll be disappointed!

image by J0@nn@ @ flickr.com


Ain’t you got a first life mate?


Joining SL

• two steps– register

– install client software

• note technical requirements


What does it cost?

• basic accounts are free

• need to pay monthly subscription ($10) to own land

• land can be quite expensive

• ‘land use fees’ for owning more than smallest plot


Naming / identity

• every avatar has a name

• chosen at registration

• can’t be changed

• though can have ‘Alt’s

• mine is Art Fossett - not an anagram!


Identity / appearance

• on the Internet no one knows you’re a dog

• in SL no one knows you’re a bloke

• appearance can be changed instantly

• wings and tails (‘furries’) seem oddly popular!


Communication

• chat

• IM

• group IM

• IM <-> email

• voice – however support for voice fairly recent and not clear what impact it is having


Getting around

• walking

• flying

• teleporting– locally via scripted

objects

– longer distances via ‘landmarks’

• in-world search engine

• locations exposed to Web as SLURLs


Virtual land

• rent or buy

• needed for permanent buildings

– shops, galleries, universities

• mainland areas

• private islands (~$800 for non-profits) plus monthly land use fees

• issues with ‘land barons’ buying up available land and selling for profit


Land-use fees


Building stuff

• anyone can build

• in sandboxes or on own land

• objects made out of basic building blocks – prims (cubes, spheres, …)

• prim limits usually apply

• prims can be textured for realism – but uploading costs L$10

• objects as HUDs


Scripting• scripted objects

• C++ like, event-driven language

• move, change shape, etc.

• interact via clicking, chat, sensing the env.

• modify avatar behaviour

• in-world physics engine


Multimedia• limited integration of

audio and video files

• SL client has built-in support for Quicktime

• can play anything that QT supports

• pulled in from URL associated with land parcel

• however, significant limitations currently


SL and Web 2.0

• scripting language can issue HTTP GET and POST requests

• can integrate with Web 2.0 services

• but significant limitations currently

• no built-in HTML, XML or JSON parsers so need to parse externally

• SLURLs can be bookmarked in del.icio.us

• some good examples – Second Talk, SLoodle, SLtwitter, BlogHUD, RSS readers


IPR

• IPR on in-world objects rests with creator

• e.g. rights to game designed in-world subsequently sold to Nintendo by its creator

• however, objects essentially remain locked in-world


Money

• in-world currency

• Linden dollar (L$)

• $1 = ~L$280

• fluctuates

• but supply influenced by Linden Lab

• currency market to buy and sell L$


Commerce

• many big brands in SL

• hype => presence

• some criticism from older residents that SL is becoming a ‘brandscape’


Entertainment

• hard to tell hype from reality

• some experimental use of SL to host events and/or mirror RL events

• e.g. BBC One Big Weekend, SecondFest

• but significant problems with scalability


Machinima

• the use of SL to create movies

• application in film studies and related areas

• of interest because the techniques are the same but costs significantly lower


Crime

• not a significant issue (yet!)

• some anti-social behaviour

• some reports of people pretending to be shop owners when they are not

• some reports of fraud around land sales

• one major incident of hacking into SL databases

image by ay1ene @ flickr.com


Hype

• SL very over-hyped

• significant complaints that stats are misleading

• i.e. worse than Web stats

• LL have improved the way they report usage but…

• SL also (inappropriately) touted as Web NG


Usage statistics


Demographics

Country %

United States 31.19%

France 12.73%

Germany 10.45%

United Kingdom 8.08%

Netherlands 6.55%

Spain 3.83%

Brazil 3.77%

Canada 3.30%

Belgium 2.63%

Italy 1.93%

Australia 1.48%

Switzerland 1.29%

Japan 1.29%

Sweden 0.95%

Denmark 0.88%

China 0.61%

Age %

Average Age Adult Grid

13-17 1.23% 33

18-24 27.16%

25-34 38.88%

35-44 21.13%

Average Age on Teen Grid

45 + 11.61% 15

F M

2006 September 43.76% 56.24%

2006 October 42.65% 57.35%

2006 November 42.14% 57.86%

2006 December 41.42% 58.58%

2007 January 41.11% 58.89%

2007 February 41.07% 58.93%


Student attitudes

July 2007 survey of 501 students aged 16 to 18 from across the UK,commissioned by the JISC http://tinyurl.com/yw8mvx


Student attitudes (2)

Second Life appeared to be an idea for people older than themselves, for the generation above who were interested in technology for its “own sake”. This is perhaps why the idea amused our participants and why they felt it was “sad”. The implications here for HEIs are that they cannot assume that presenting new technologies automatically makes their institution more youth-friendly – this new generation like to see the concrete benefits of technologies.

When discussing Second Life, students felt that games and virtual worlds as part of learning could easily become “tragic” – technology being used for its own sake, and used rather childishly. They would need to understand the educational benefits of virtual worlds or games, it is not enough that they are simply ‘new’.

http://tinyurl.com/yw8mvxJISC, July 2007


Uptake in UK

• July 2007 snapshot of use of SL in UK HE and FE

• undertaken by John Kirriemuir

• funded by Eduserv

• fragmented and somewhat cloudy picture

• activity happening at multiple levels – sometime within same institution – not always visible, even within the institution

• series of snapshots planned over next 12 months

http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/sl


Major findings

• some SL activity at 43 institutions

• 15 of those building an institutional presence

• what are they doing?– small-scale activities…

– hosting exhibitions of students’ work

– researching possibilities

– building tools


Eduserv-funded projects


Time

• SL runs on US West Coast time (GMT-8)

• many events tend to run on that basis

• SL tends to be empty during our working day

• actually, SL tends to look empty, full-stop!

• in-world daylight hours run on 4 hour cycle


Gambling and porn

• both used to exist… in abundance!

• porn now banned

• as with early Web, both areas quick to exploit the technology

• indicative of flexibility?

• causes problems because of load on ‘sims’

• not possible to choose who your neighbours are!


SL rules

• code of conduct in public spaces– no griefing / hassling of other

residents

– no use of offensive language

– no nudity

– no public sex

• no police as such

• but breaches can be reported to Linden Lab

• areas can be explicitly marked as ‘mature’ (or for gaming)


Politics• RL politics surface in

SL every so often – anti-war, anti-NF, …

• SL politics also feature – pricing, land policies, IPR, open sourcing of SL software


SL and learning

• widespread interest in use of SL in education

• explicitly encouraged by Linden Lab

• not clear that people really know how to use SL yet

• but some interesting examples of use

• arts, social sciences, law, psychology, archaeology, languages, …


Teen Second Life

• note that SL is segregated

• Teen SL (14-18) and SL (18+)

• no cross-over allowed except in limited cases (e.g. teachers)

• well enforced

• presumably to prevent threat of legal action in US


SL and research

• even less clear what is possible here

• but note that Nature Publishing have an island (‘Second Nature’)


SL in context

• SL is one of many virtual worlds

• there.com, World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Active Worlds, Croquet, Metaverse, …

• not clear that SL is the answer

• SL client now released as open source

• clear demand for server to made OSS also

• some commitment to this by LL (partly because people are reverse-engineering the server anyway)


Finding out more

• SLED list – run by Linden Lab, US-centric but is the main forum for learning-related SL issues

• [email protected] (UK list)

• in-world UK Educators group (open and free to join)

• UK Second Life Educators Facebook group

• pointers to other resources on the Linden Lab Second Life Grid education page

http://secondlifegrid.net/programs/education


Conclusions…

• too much hype

• no clear best-practice (or even much practice) around e-learning

• high technical requirements

• impact of voice not clear

• but… useful experimental environment

• building and scripting environment very powerful

• seems likely that 3-D virtual worlds of some kind will be part of the future

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Conclusions…

• sustainability, ownership and privacy issues around use of and reliance on US-based commercial-run, externally hosted service

• unclear what student perceptions and attitudes are

• but generally accepted that SL is a minority sport at the moment and is likely to remain so

• SL appears to be most suitable for active, constructive learning styles

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