Ao Kilara on Second Life work and Simology

Announcement: Abeja Arbizu has taken on Simology!

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:22:51 +0000

I have been operating Simology since 2006 in the virtual world of Second Life(R) doing simulation design for clients in Japan, Norway and the US. As the use of virtual worlds has grown and digital life expanded, it became clear that Simology could take on an expanded roll and move out of the virtual world into the real world. I am happy to announce that my colleague Abeja Arbizu (Amy Pilling) recently took over Simology, formed an LLC and will be developing serious games and educational simulations for clients. I will work with Abeja on Second Life projects and continue to have a role in the operation and development of Simology LLC.

Abeja will be re-launching the Simology blog, a website and other materials providing more information over the coming months. I will probably not be updating my blog very often! Please see the official Simology LLC blog www.simology.wordpress.com for further developments from Abeja and please contact her with any inquiries via email. apilling@simology.us.

Thanks and have fun in the digital realm. Below are posts of interest to me on virtual world topics.

Virtual Reality Training Video from Ford

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:32:45 +0000

This is an interesting link for anyone wishing to see how virtual reality simulations work as training tools for industrial processes. It also gives one a sense of the experience from the point of view of the trainee.

These Ford training sequences are for contained processes and designed for individual training. In virtual worlds or MMO (massively multiplayer online games, see Wikipedia on MMOs) one can combine this effect with live interaction, instruction, and team or collaborative training.

From the Ohio Supercomputer Center website (about Ohio Supercomputer Center)

Ford Virtual Reality Training Video

Nick Wilson of Clever Zebra on Virtual Worlds

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:49:11 +0000

Nick Wilson provides a good summary of Virtual World platforms used by businesses for collaboration, meetings and training. It is refreshing to find posts and articles from the business and education sectors focusing on ways that Second Life, and VWs in general, really shine and are flourishing as immersive education tools. There has been plenty of controversy and hype about businesses using Second Life for advertising and more conventional purposes in the past, much of it negative. But other communities are simply sidestepping the controversy and getting down to excellent, serious work that will likely deepen and transform the role of VWs in the future. I look to the education, serious games or game-based learning communities to provide the next wave of innovation. See link below for full Clever Zebra post:

Clever Zebra – Nick Wilson on VWs

‘Game Over’ – Fast Company article on business simulations

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:54:41 +0000

First in a series of posts exploring corporate games and training simulations, virtual and not

RE: Fast Company article

Game Over

By: Peter CarbonaraTue Dec 18, 2007 at 5:41 PM

I have been foraging for articles on simulation applications across industries or fields. I found a good one in Fast Company on business simulations. Read it here: Game Over This is a very interesting application (was called Project Challenge) with lots of possibilities for curriculum and modeling in existing free virtual platforms.

I see the beginning of this in Second Life within the SL educational community but less so in the business community which has tended to focus on doing business rather than simulating buisness for education in Second Life. I will focus on other relevant links over the next few days. I see great opportunities here.

Companies such as Forio have developed software tools for DIY, contained, non-virtual, business simulations. The one I looked at apparently takes about 3 hours to complete and is modeled on a business development scenario. This looks like a great educational tool. Would love to try this myself.

Simology photos featured on Flickr Hive Mind again

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 07:36:24 +0000

Simology pix have turned up again in Hive Mind under the categories of “stone” and “virtual.”

About Flickr Hive Mind:

This is an interesting concept my Nathan Siemers of FivePrime.org. Here are some excerpts from the Hive Mind site:

Flickr Hive Mind is a search engine as well as an experiment in the power of Folksonomies. All thumbnail images come directly from Flickr, none are stored on Flickr Hive Mind…

Flickr photo searching of Interestingness, Tags, Users, Groups (discussion) Courtesy of Fiveprime.org and MalcolmMacdonald.org. Flickr Hive Mind is a data mining tool for the Flickr photography database, allowing search by: metadata tags; Flickr photography groups; Flickr users and their contacts and favorites; text annotation; the Flickr Explore algorithm for interestingness.

The World’s Best Photos of: stone and virtual

On the Article: First Responders meet Second Life

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:17:51 +0000

Just received this great article in the Medhill Reports – Chicago, from Michelle Miakos (UCSA International) forwarded to her by one of the Linden family:

First responders meet Second Life: Public health enters the virtual world

by Liz Hoffman and Chris Kelly
Feb 04, 2009

This is a great article about how to creatively use virtual worlds, in this case the 3D, immersive virtual world called Second Life owned by Linden Labs, for real life training and scenario simulations. This is a growing field; a few companies are developing simulations and offering full services to support training and meet this demand. UCSA International is one of them, offering similar services to other government agencies for training, collaboration and meeting purposes.

Companies, governmental agencies and educational facilities would do well to determine how they might effectively use virtual world simulations to save money, increase training retention, and, above all, create simulated scenarios that will enable employees or trainees to practice real time responses otherwise extremely difficult to pull of without an exorbitant budget and logistics. The possibilities of this are endless for any type of business. The field is new, so I look forward to working on many upcoming design projects that involve 3D design of effective serious learning environments, curriculum design and other aspects of this work.

Kudos to the team that developed this. I was very happy to see this fascinating article. Follow this link to read the full article.

First Responders meet Second Life

US News & World Report on Simulation Development – “Ahead of the Curve” Occupations for 2009

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:05:22 +0000

Simulation Development, (broadly defined in all of its manifestations including everything from game-based learning to virtual world simulations) was listed in US News & World Reports list of 30 Best Careers for 2009 that offer strong outlooks and high job satisfaction. The short description lists specific applications used by corporate, educational and other entities.

Interesting to watch and participate in the wave of innovation using new technologies to improve learning, business and expand creativity.

30 Best Career for 2009 – US New & World Report

By Liz Wolgemuth

Posted December 11, 2008

Forrester Research analysts on Second Life

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:58:36 +0000

Two interesting articles on Virtual Worlds at the end of this post – log into Forrester’s website to get free copies. Also watch UCSA International for presentations, look for UCSA International on LinkedIn, or contact them in Second Life – search “UCSA International”.) Gene Leganza of Forrester Research spoke in January ’09 on Enterprise Architecture at UCSA International’s sim in Second Life. Very interesting.

Should You Be In Second Life? by Jaap Farvier, Vice President / Research Director at Forrester Research
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,44748,00.html

Case Study: Michelin Uses Second Life for Enterprise Architecture Training by Erica Driver, former Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, co-founder of Thinkbalm
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,46085,00.html

More info on:Thinkbalm

Qlock – a great tool for those working across time zones

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:25:59 +0000

Machinima in Second Life

Simology LLC :: Sim Design/Building :: Serious Game Design — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 04:30:57 +0000

Sanders Beaumont just sent a link to his animation: Lost – Viva la Vida – Coldplay. Click now and watch! It’s beautiful and a wonderful use of SL for great effect.

What is Machinima? From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima):

Machinima (pronounced /məˈʃiːnəmə/ or /məˈʃɪnəmə/), a Portmanteau of machine cinema,^[1] is a collection of associated production techniques whereby computer-generated imagery (CGI) is rendered using real-time, interactive 3-D engines instead of professional 3D animation software…

Machinima is an example of emergent gameplay, a process of putting game tools to unexpected ends, and of artistic computer game modification. The real-time nature of machinima means that established techniques from traditional film-making can be reapplied in a virtual environment…

I have a film background and love animation, but I have not been paying much attention to machinima in Second Life. This piece opened my eyes to the possibilities. Thanks for the link, Sanders, and good luck in the competition!