Terra Nova

Gamification

Nick, your wish is granted. Gamification!

What is it? The effort to remold standard practices, mostly in business and learning, as games. Earlier, I was a supporter. Now I am not sure at all.There's a lot of strength in the concept but there will be major misunderstandings too.

My gamified syllabi in classes, for exampled, have bombed. Students *really* don't want their grades determined by MMORPG mechanicsms. That's because one of the essential conditions of XP acquisition - that you can try and try again indefinitely - are missing in a classroom. In teaching, time is limited. So are mob pulls; you can't have as many shots at challenges as you want. In a classroom, you have a few challenges, time runs out, and somebody - me - has to judge how you did. Also, there are not enough opportunities for loose, flowing grouping; every teamwork exercise in a class is forced-grouping which, we've learned, people hate. Add to that the fact that ultimately the class is serious and not play. This means no one can say "settle down, it's just a game." And therefore, they DON'T settle down. They get almost homicidal when another team-mate screws up their grade.

I am not sure this means that the classroom cannot be gamified. To the contrary, I've argued to myself that the classroom already IS gamified. The standard syllabus has survived endless threats and adaptations, and there it is. Do projects, take tests, participate in class, receive an individual score relative to an absolute standard. Maybe that's just the best possible game under the circumstances.

If true, the perception that the classroom is already the best of all possible games implies problems for the Gamification Movement.

Terra Nova Antiqua Bona

After a careful, mature, scholarly, 3-minute discussion interrupted by a YouTube video of an electric rabbit, the founders of Terra Nova would like to announce nothing.

You see, an issue came up. It was said that virtual worlds are dead, and TN, as the blog of virtual worlds, has lost its way. It must therefore focus on something more current. Games, social media, Lady Gaga - something. 

However, casual examination - it's the only kind we know - reveals quite clearly that virtual worlds have not died but rather have undergone a powerful and gushy sporogenesis. When the world stepped on MUD, it went Poof! And now its children are everywhere.

Birth is messy and Terra Nova has best served its purposes by getting its hands dirty. It's most fun for us, and least work, when we can write about things we don't understand at all. Sure, it's a big category, but we aim high. Like, who understands Farmville. Really. And Twitter - who knew chat would turn into that? Our puzzlers are sore just thinking about it. Sore in a good way.

Therefore why should we avoid such subjects just because we are "supposed" to talk only about things that look, today, like World of Warcraft looked in 2004? If folks think that's what Terra Nova is about, we need to correct that misunderstanding. TN has always tried to live on the frontal messy edge of online social media gaming stuff. That has not changed.

Reflecting on our lack of innovation, therefore, we offer the following Policy Statement (tm):

"It has come to our attention that some in the Terra Nova community have been laboring under the misapprehension that there is a meaningful ontological distinction between, say, Second Life and FarmVille. We regret the confusion and would like to clarify that discussion here is and always has been open to any topic related to digitally mediated spaces dedicated primarily to forms of social play, generously defined."

There, we said it.

Now, at some point, when we decide to do some work on the blog, we will clean out the sidebars. A lot of old information there. We'll also rewrite the About page to reflect our failure to become a blog dedicated to the virtual worlds of 2004. And we will be getting to that bit of administrative work soon. Right around noon the day after tomorrow; or next week. Actually, we'll get back to you on it. But soon! Very soon!

The Emperor’s (New) New Clothes

Producers and users of virtual spaces are heading toward difficult times. These could be made worse through increased regulatory intervention by various countries. I suggest that it is in the best interest of users, produces and nation states alike that those online service providers that use virtual items and currency form self-regulatory body. I suggest further that sport provides a ready-made governance model that the online industry should adapt and adopt.

I thus propose the formation of an: Online Dispute Arbitration Board (ODAB)*

*An academic treatment of this was first presented at The Game Behind the Game by myself and Dr Melissa deZwart.

 

Predator Detection Bots

Crisp Thinking announced today that its community management platform will be used by Jabble, a new children's social networking site. Says Crisp Thinking:

"The technology has an independently tested accuracy rating of 98.4 per cent by Cambridge University in the UK in the detection of online predators. It uses a combination of machine learning heuristics to detect long-term behaviours, concept analysis, filtering technology and reputation analysis to help keep children safe online. The Platform operates in multi-languages and ensures communities, social networks and online games remains COPPA compliant."

Lehdonvirta: Knowledge Bank of the Virtual Economy

Under the sponsorship of the World Bank and the IFC, Vili Lehdonvirta has authored a masterful overview of the phenomenon of virtual economies. This is a must-have resource for anyone interested in how virtual economies function and what they are all about. Especially innovative is the focus on using virtual worlds to spur development, a direction first indicated by Richard Heeks at Manchester. 

Riftancing

TN has heard rumours that Blizzard, makers of World of Warcraft and Trion makers of Rift are jointly testing out a technology termed Rifitancing^TM.