‘From Swords to Hairstyles: Bridging the Divide Between Massively Multiplayer Game Design and Second Life’
The JISC-funded Open Habitat project is piloting the use of Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) or ‘virtual worlds’, as they are sometime known, with art and design and philosophy students. It hopes to take advantage of the sense of presence or embodiment that can occur in these environments, the persistence of objects created and the social effects of being ‘in world’ with friends/peers. The art and design students are undergraduates on a face-to-face degree at Leeds Metropolitan University, and the philosophy students are distance lifelong learners who have studied on online courses with the University of Oxford. This is a summary of some of the points that were raised in a presentation given at the ALT-C 2008 conference entitled ‘From Swords to Hairstyles: Bridging the Divide Between Massively Multiplayer Game Design and Second Life’.

Why Attempt to Bridge the Divide?
Some of the most sophisticated activity in immersive environments takes place not in MUVEs but in Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games such as World of Warcraft – commonly known as the online ‘dungeons and dragons’ genre. These games share the ‘persistence, presence and peers’ factors with MUVEs but, in contrast to a MUVE, players of MMOs share motivations to progress through the game and become part of a culture that is reinforced by the games’ designers at every opportunity. Players are nurtured from their very first contact with the environment through to the higher levels of play, learning the interface, economy, culture and narrative of the game world. This type of structured progression is not promoted by the designers of MUVEs, even though using a MUVE involves similar challenges to those faced by MMO players – learning how to navigate a complex environment while attempting to understand criteria for success, negotiate legitimate activity, and gain a sense of in-world identity.

Both environments contain emblems of social capital – that is, visible signs of success or expertise. One such symbol in the MMO is the sword: its size and the colour that emanates from it can be directly linked to the success and commitment of the player who owns it. In a MUVE such as Second Life, elaborate dress, complex hairstyles or a distinctive look visually mark the individual’s commitment to the world. Unlike emblems in MMOs these material trappings are subject to interpretations of style and fashion, and could also have simply been bought rather than earned. It is the subjective nature of the social capital within MUVEs, coupled with a lack of overarching narrative or ‘point’, that can make them alienating and unsatisfying.

It is possible to learn from the extensive experience of the MMO games designers when planning teaching and learning in a MUVE. Games such as World of Warcraft can be a useful ‘mirror’ to hold up to the flux of activity in creative environments such as Second Life. The MMO can be likened to a novel, intricately plotted but open to interpretation. This is contrasted with the scrapbook-like conception of the MUVE: full of possibilities but often lacking in structure. It is the educational designer’s responsibility to provide the correct level of pedagogical and ‘physical’ scaffolding[1] around the MUVE to ensure that learning takes place without repressing creativity, collaboration and communication.

In this context the initial piloting activity of the Open Habitat project with the art and design students and philosophy students has foregrounded a number of issues, three of which are outlined below.

Building is Easy
One of the great advantages a MUVE has over an MMO is that it can allow its users to express themselves creatively by designing clothes, buildings, topography – anything that can be realised in 3D graphics. The free-market economy that arises from the production and trading of goods helps to drive creativity and the distribution of designs. In contrast, the MMO cannot allow this level of freedom because the structure of the game would instantly be corrupted by players creating the equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction and wiping out the carefully designed metrics of the game play. Unfortunately the ability to build in MUVEs is often overlooked as a creative or educational opportunity, as it is considered a high-level technical skill, one that should be taught after ‘foundation’ skills such as communication, navigation and avatar appearance[2]. However, to teach art and design students by taking this path would have risked disengagement as the MUVE in question, Second Life, appears irrelevant to their practice until building skills are tackled.

To mitigate this problem the art and design pilot was run in keeping with the programme’s ‘in at the deep end’ pedagogy and encouraged the students to experiment with building as soon as they sat down at the computers. To achieve this the pilot separated the social from the practical by employing an open-source version of Second Life called OpenSim[3]. This allowed the tutors to provide one island each for the students in which they could experiment, building with very little social risk and without being distracted by the presence of other avatars. The OpenSim platform also provided a standard ‘Alice’ avatar whose appearance could not be adjusted; this also reduced socially driven activity. Joining two islands together (after about an hour’s building practice) encouraged the students to move and communicate as a second avatar appeared alongside them[4]. Using this process the students quickly picked up basic building skills and could see the ‘point’ of the environment relative to their practice.

A Fraternity of Dots?
When entering an MMO the player ‘steps into’ a pre-defined character chosen from a selection presented by the game. This character comes complete with a distinctive look, a back story and a ‘tribal’ narrative or motivation. It is clear from the beginning that the player is stepping into a fantasy world in which to a greater or lesser extent they are role playing. In contrast to this a student attending an art and design session or a philosophical discussion in a MUVE has to make numerous choices about how they choose to present themselves and what might be appropriate behaviour. Are they role playing? Is this possible if they are already known to the group in real life? Should their avatar be a virtual version of themselves or more experimental? No clues are given by the environment and only through a process of social negotiation[5] can the students become comfortable with their role in world.

Upon entering Second Life the art and design group immediately became distracted by the presence of other avatars, and felt a social pressure to individualise themselves by adjusting the default avatar they had received. About 45 minutes of modifying hairstyles and trying on different clothes followed. The students also spoke of a suspicion of other avatars, many of whom appeared to be significantly more experienced than them. The avatars that seemed to be role-playing made some of the students uncomfortable, with one commenting that some of the other avatars appeared to be taking their in-world persona ‘too seriously’. A number of the art and design students reported the suspicion that there could be a disconnect between the identity of an avatar and the identity of the person controlling that avatar; this was felt by the students to be a form of deception rather than a form of role play.

Once the group were transported to the more private space[6] Leeds Met island they became more comfortable and started to experiment with building on their allotted area of land. Over the course of the pilot the students generally remained wary of avatars outside their immediate group but began to consider the larger community within Second Life as a potential audience for their work and as an untapped pool of knowledge and advice. The understanding that the ‘little green dots’ on the map were other individuals was, for some, a motivating factor as they experimented with their emerging art and design practice in the MUVE. The motivation was similar to that of a student who knows their work will be displayed in a public gallery for their peers and others to view. While learning in a public space such as Second Life can be risky and initially uncomfortable for the students, the benefits in terms of motivation can be significant.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (an avatar)

To begin with the main focus for the MMO player is to complete set tasks, to collect objects and to move up through the skill levels. There is little need for subtle social communication beyond gathering the knowledge required to complete these tasks. While a game such as World of Warcraft does have demarcated ‘role play’ areas the focus in the early stages of the game on completing tasks means that initially much of the communication between players is functional. The character on screen becomes simply a ‘tool’ which the individual is using to progress through the game. There is a clear distinction between the identity of the on-screen character and the identity of the player at home[7]. In a MUVE this distinction is less clear as activity is not always within the context of a framing narrative, and there is a shared understanding that the look of the avatar has been chosen (to a greater or lesser extent) by the individual. There is an underlying assumption that an avatar represents elements of the individual’s character, whether this be a fantasy persona or simply an extension of their day-to-day personality[8]. From the user’s point of view other avatars become anthropomorphised ambassadors for the emotional state of the individual who owns them. Most of this effect comes from a superficial reaction to the look of the avatar, as it is generally understood that they are relatively inexpressive in non-verbal terms. The apparent emotional state of the avatar, and by association or embodiment the individual who owns it, can of course be deliberately manipulated in the services of role play. Often, however, in the context of an educational session, the individual wishes to project a picture of their true mental state.

Taking this into account, and given that individuals are generally visualised as humans, it is of note that there are few options for subtle non-verbal communication in the default set of ‘gestures’[9] in Second Life. For the most part the avatar’s apparent emotional state remains disconcertingly blank, even while the user communicates a range of feelings in the text chat. In discursive situations emotions are more often expressed through ‘text speak’ shorthand rather than via the visual embodiment of the avatar. This became a problem for our philosophy students, who ceased to express their opinion on the subject under discussion as soon as they stopped typing. This was typified in a moment when the tutor enquired if a particular student was ‘ok’, to which the response was ‘Yes, I’m thinking’. There was of course no visual clue as to whether the individual in question was disengaged, confused, thinking or any number of other possibilities. As a result of this we hope to provide a set of ‘edu-gestures’ such as ‘I agree’, ‘I disagree’, ‘I’m confused’, ‘I’m thinking’, etc., for the project’s next round of pilots. The use of these gestures will be taught to the students in an orientation session as a key skill for in-world discussions.

From the piloting activity of the Open Habitat project a number of these principles will be generated and expanded upon. This will provide teaching practitioners with useful guides, both practical and theoretical, for taking advantage of what MUVEs can offer in terms of teaching and learning. For up-to-date information on the project please visit http://www.openhabitat.org. The project runs until March 2009.

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[1] This may simply involve a low level of facilitation or mentoring.
[2] In a social virtual world such as Second Life the ability to individualise one’s avatar is a key skill. Each avatar within a community has to have a unique look as an indication of a singular identity, to aid social communication.
[3] http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page
[4] The two avatars were owned by students in the same real-life room. This caused some confusion as they were undecided if they should communicate through OpenSim or by simply shouting across the room.
[5] This social negotiation was facilitated in the pilots by running informal activity sessions. In this case a bridge building competition for the art and design group and a trip to the ‘pub’ for the philosophy group.
[6] The island is not technically private but non Leets Met avatars are unlikely to visit unless invited.
[7] This is one reason why the use of voice to communicate is less alienating in an MMO than it is in a MUVE. The use of voice is better suited to a situation where a specific goal is trying to be reached, rather than in social communication within a MUVE where the avatar becomes disembodied as soon as the voice of its owner can be heard. This could be to do with our innate understanding of telephone communication and etiquette.
[8] For many the avatar becomes an ‘amplification’ of their real-life persona.
[9] Avatar animations that can be triggered at any point.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc52xz7n_22gtrggsgv