Class 10, Part 17: THE FUTURE OF IMMERSION, IN MY MIND

“What will happen as virtual worlds, video games and simulators become even more realistic, and ultimately photo-realistic, and the avatars we use to represent ourselves become indistinguishable from real humans?”

          When presented with the above question I cannot help but think of the movie "Gamer" starring Gerard Butler that came out in 2009.  Sometime in the not so distant future, immersive gaming has evolved to the point where players control actual human beings in large simulated environments with potentially lethal consequences.  The movie presents a dystopic view of a society that craves action, gore, and wealth so much that it revolves around two giant virtual reality games.  One of which is only a few technological leaps beyond Second Life  and another is a Deathmatch style game pitting prisoners against one another.   Personally, I think it's entirely possible that we could one day see Immersive Illness on a near epidemic scale.  Though, I don't necessarily see Virtual Realities degrading societies to depths worthy of Science Fiction movies.

          Immersive Illness and computer addiction is a relatively new phenomena, having really only been diagnosed within the past 30 years or so.  The addiction is very real, and in my opinion, no different than being addicted to alcohol or drugs.  Gaming can affect all the same neural triggers that narcotics do, even changing adrenaline levels and creating emotional swings within a person.  As a long time World of Warcraft player I have seen first hand the devastating effects a game like that can have on someone who needs an escape.  I have witnessed people pass up on opportunities like a new job or even just social outings so that they could maintain their raid schedules and be fully outfitted in the most powerful gear.  Fortunately when I started playing World of Warcraft, I had my life priorities in order and even though i competed at high levels for a time, I never let the game control my life.  If I ever found myself thinking about passing up on something so I could get more game time, I used that as  wake up call and immediately cancelled my subscription or took extended breaks (months or years).   I think it also helps that I made some mistakes a few years prior due to some video game addiction symptoms, so I knew what I was getting into.  

          

          When I tried College directly after Highschool my grades started slipping in my second semester because I was playing Counterstrike and Half Life a bit too excessively over the LAN.  I ended up dropping out of school and joining the Army instead.  It was not entirely due to video games but my binging was a symptom of my unhappiness in my choice to attend College rather than serve.  I was looking for an escape  Ultimately joining the Army was the best decision I ever made, and my Counterstrike experience prepared me for the warning signs I eventually saw in World of Warcraft and other games.  One of my good friends is still quite addicted to MMORPGs.  He has played all of the major titles and it has crippled his life advancement in my opinion.  In order to preserve his precious game time, he's passed up on job advancements, countless opportunities for self improvement, and sacrificed many of his personal relationships.  He is constantly making excuses to  justify his lot in life, saying there's nothing he could have done about this or that.  It is clear to those around him though, what the downfall is.  

          Couple the rise of the internet and Moore's Law which roughly states that                "computer technology advances 200% every 18 months," than it stands that the allure of immersive technology will only become greater. 12+ Million people played World of Warcraft at it's peak.  As the computing power necessary to facilitate virtual worlds becomes more accessible to people all over the world it only makes sense that addiction rates will rise as well.   Much like alcohol and drugs, Immersive Illness will threaten at risk persons at all levels of society.    Western society in particular piles a lot of pressure on individuals.  If companies keep going out of their way to produce games and technology that allow folks to escape the doldrums of every day life, I believe that people will start taking advantage of those escapes more and more.  The addiction is already well under way, but I do not think it's being adequately recognized or dealt with.  I do not think our society is heading for the dystopian ending that Gamer presents, but I do believe that Immersive Illness is real and should be respected.

  

  

Class 10, Part 15: Re-Blog - 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.

Class 10, Part 14: Summary - Immersive Education: Addiction in the Future

Summary:

         The interview starts off by briefly summarizing Professor Walsh's experience and history with computer based education initiatives and virtual reality at Boston College.  The article then moves on to discuss technical challenges that Walsh had  to overcome while establishing the Immersive Education Initiative.  In the late 90s students often did not have the necessary computing power on their personal machines to meet entirely in a virtual world. Nor did they have the available bandwidth to communicate.  Classes began as a hybrid in-person class mixed with some virtual reality and eventually evolved to near 100% virtual immersion.  Walsh is quick to point out though, that total immersion is not required or even necessary for students to succeed in his classes.

       
          Walsh also touches on the human challenges faced within an immersive education environment where some students thrive and others are hindered by varying degrees of comfort.  Walsh goes on to describe a future challenge to the Immersive Education approach to learning which he calls Immersive Illness.  Immersive Illness refers to an addiction to virtual worlds that can lead to social isolation, neglect, and even mental disorders.  Immersive Illness will naturally become more of a threat as advances in technology make virtual worlds/environments more accessible and compelling.
         

          At the time of this interview Walsh's focus was to bring the Immersive Education Initiative to more institutions around the world and have it be feasible and accessible.  He discusses the collaborative efforts being taken at the time to create an open standard and platform for educators to provide an immersive education experience.  Reducing the cost and complexity of such an undertaking is paramount to it's success.

See the full interview here:

• Virtual reality and higher education - Another perspective 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Class 10, Part 13: Video Game Addiction (Present Day)

DNN Story 2007 - Video Game Addiction:

"Game Over" - A Feature on Video Game Addiction:

Second Skin Trailer:

Class 10, Part 12: Video Game Addiction (1990)

QED - My Best Friend's a Computer (Part 1 / 3)

QED - My Best Friend's a Computer (Part 2 / 3)

QED - My Best Friend's a Computer (Part 3 / 3)

Class 10, Assignment 4: Making a Virtual Human

This is as close as I was able to make it given the tools at hand.  Makehuman would not let me create a bald head or a beard.  There was also no way to increase the handsomeness to over 9000 to accurately portray real life.

Messing with gender and some beginner facial features.

Figured out how to change skin color, hair, facial expressions, and add bad clothes.

Class 10, Assignment 3: Entering the Uncanny Valley

The Uncanny Valley:

More About the Uncanny Valley:

Ode to the Uncanny Valley:

Video Games & the Uncanny Valley:

Look Familiar?:

How About This Guy?:

Say "Cheese":

Synthetic Humans. Watch the Singing Robot:

Look Closely at the Eyes:

What's Going on Here?:

Lonely Robots:

A

B

C

D

E

Real or Fake?:

Real or Fake? (2):

Class 10, Assignment 2: Real or Fake (CG: Computer Generated)?

My Score:  34%   yikes...

Class 10, Assignment 1: Synthetic Humans, Moore’s Law and GPUs

          In this lecture we are being introduced to synthetic humans and the advancements in technology necessary to render a believable, synthetic human, virtually. At the time this lecture was given (circa 2008) rendering of 3D environments and objects in real time was barely possible because of the massive computing power required.  So typically, a user had to queue up the rendering process to be done offline in a process called Pre-rendering or by utilizing many computers in a rendering farm to produce results in near-real time.

Enter Moore's Law:  Moore's law loosely stats that the "density of transistors on a microprocessors double every 18 months for the same cost."  This essentially means that CPUs double their speed every year and half and have been doing so since the 1960s.
         
          2013 and beyond:  Technology has advanced and continues to advance at such a fast rate that every 9 months or so CPUs and GPUs are doubling in power to the point where rendering cinematic quality, synthetic humans in real time is now possible and has actually been possible for a couple years now.  We've come a long way since the lecture was originally given.

Class 8, Assignment 9: JavaScript Programming Path CLASS DECISION

          At this point is seems as if the class has decided to use Codecademy.  I'm not staying up until midnight to wait for any last minute opinions.    Overall, no one was particularly passionate about using Codecademy over Khan Academy as they both are different means to the same end.  The class seemed to agree that Codecademy offered a simple interface, that was accessible to all skill levels, and allowed folks to proceed at their own pace.  Codecademy also has fun incentives built in to keep you motivated.

Class 9, Assignment 6: Immersive Education Virtual World and Video games

          I would describe circus as a casual game.  There are no enemies, and very little violence, which makes Circus available to almost anyone.  It possesses different qualities of several game types, but in a very simple interactive environment.  The whole idea is that you attempt to earn all of the trophies.  You do this by acquiring currency (points) and completing challenges.  Points can be won and lost and gambled away.  Trophies can are discovered through problem solving and overcoming challenges.  The easiest way to accrue points is through using the cannon.  Even if you are not able to shoot yourself through the rings, you will get points every time.  I found a total of three trophies during my time here.  Certain games were really difficult for me (Knife Throwing, Wheel of Fortune, etc.).

About to enter the Circus!

Knife throwing!  My assistant doesn't care for me anymore.  

Roller Coaster!

Shooting myself out of a cannon!

Wheel of Fortune is a scam!   Tight Rope Uni-cycling didn't end well :(

Finally!  All I wanted to do was get enough points to get some Popcorn!

Class 9, Assignment 5: Casual video games

Toys for Tots Television:

echogenesis is a strange interactive game.  Using your mouse cursor you can interact with different objects in the environment and the background music will change.  If you explore enough you can find a way out of the initial cave into a couple different environments.

This game was actually similar to the bouncing balls we made in JoC.  Using your mouse you can grab the faces and throw them into one another causing them to bounce around in a low gravity environment.

In this game you moved the creature at the bottom of the screen to the left and right.  Your objective is to help bounce the other animals into the soft pile of leaves at the right hand side of the screen.  Over time this becomes progressively more difficult.

This is a light interactive puzzle game.  You control Alfie and you must run around performing tasks for Santa Clause.  

This is a simple coloring book.  I chose a picture of King Arthur pulling the sword from the stone.

This ping-pong game was actually pretty difficult.  As you can see, I barely managed to get one point.  Red Paddle has a lot more practice.

Angry Birds:

I was glad to see that Angry Birds was a browser based game.  The other games so far for Class #9 have been wreaking havoc with my video card.