"...that the guns may fall silent..." - On the importance of virtual Truces, and real Change

The trenches are sifted with a layer of white snow, and more is falling. The lights in the medical center tents glow warmly, and a momentary quiet seems to drift down over our shoulders. Approaching the front line, the silence is broken here and there by the sound of distant singing, in German.



It is Christmas 1914 in the World War I poetry sim at Frideswide, and a few footballs litter the ground. The guns are silent. From before the holiday, and through 12th Night (January 6th), Csteph Submariner has effected a decided change in the look of the sim, to reflect the Christmas Truce of 1914. Visitors to the front line can hear Henry Williamson, a Private in the London Regiment, give his eyewitness account of the Truce.

I first visited Frideswide a few months ago (here's the original post) and walked the muddy, rat-ridden trenches. The impact of teaching a period of literature from within the environment where that literature was created, most particularly that of World War I, was what struck me at the time. As I revisit the region and note the visible changes, as well as those things that have remained the same, I am struck by another item: the impact change has on a simulation.

There has been much said about the impermanence of regions in Second Life, especially as much-loved places disappear for good. However, the flip side of that coin is the good that comes when things can and do change rapidly within virtual environments. Change can be used for powerful narrative effect over time, or to teach a different point about the same subject, within the "environment" of chronology. Change makes us pay attention; it makes us return and rethink. A beautiful sim that does not change is still beautiful, but a region that does change has extra power. The power comes from a deepening of information and experience created by the fact that Second Life and simulation platforms like it allow for new developments over time. Bravo to Csteph Submariner and the WWI Poetry Sim - I look forward to returning again and seeing what comes next.

A Different Immersion: Old Hobbies

Location: Modeling Table

I spend less time in virtual worlds, now that my class that included Second Life has ended. And in that interim, old hobbies are quite literally coming out of the closet. I just don't feel up to doing a December road-trip in SL, because--to be honest--I'm a little bored with virtual worlds right now. I'll regain my explorer's spirit soon enough; this is actually a typical pattern for me, after spending enough time writing, gardening, or doing paper-and-pencil gaming.

I find, as I finish work on a 1/72 scale B-52D Stratofortress, that I regained the sort of "lost in time" immersion that good online engagement permits. I can labor at a model kit for hours, and the hours pass in the twinkling of an eye.

The same applies to my playing board games of the old "Conflict Simulation" sort popular in the 1970s. As I play the Avalon Hill classic Russian Campaign, I forget where I am as I push my Soviet Guards across the steppes to stem the invasion by Nazi Germany.

When the spring comes, the day will pass in the twinkling of an eye in my garden or doing some outdoor carpentry work.

I wonder if many of my most committed friends in virtual worlds are also hobbyists when away from the computer. Are non-hobbyists as likely to take up online worlds?

If you find yourself with any free time during the holidays, it's worth a thought.

Do Clothes Make the Avatar?

Location: Student Wikis

I've been wondering about the curious situation my students encountered this semester, especially those men who became females for a short time, as part of an assignment to change gender or race.

Only one female student became male. She felt that her positive reception as a dark-skinned man got influenced by a well made, non-stock suit I provided her avatar, and she focused on racial stereotypes in SL, not gender.

How much a role does clothing play in how we get treated? Another female student who dressed very provocatively, as a black woman, was hit upon constantly by male avatars.

What about the fellows who changed gender?

One student, who dressed fairly conservatively, had no offers a reasonable chat with a male avatar new to SL. The student felt that "this avatar just wanted to have conversation and didn't have any ulterior motives." Soon, however a flirtatious male came by, quickly noting his interest in dancing, "especially when he is with a girl and they are dancing 'slow and romantic.' " When my student didn't take that bait, the man stated that "he has a girlfriend in Second Life and that he didn't want to mislead me."

The irony makes me grin as I type these lines. Another male, pictured at the top of the post, went--with the chuckling assistance of a female classmate--for the naughty schoolgirl look so popular in Second Life. He had a very different series of encounters, but he too never got propositioned. In fact, several residents gave him advice about clubs to visit. His worst encounter involved being muted, when he tried to enter a conversation.

Not all students took the experience very seriously. One student made his female avatar a parody, with huge breasts and oddly fitting high-top sneakers. Some thought his avatar to be a griefer, and I enjoy this exchange:

My first attempt at conversation was. . . in a courtyard of the welcome area. I asked him what does he think avatars should look like. He said “not like you”. Then I asked well why not, and he responded with “I am uncharming and I should have a good life”, and with that being said, he casually walked away. As he walked away, I decided to make it seem as a soap opera by saying “don’t act like we had nothing, you were in love with me!”.

In love with getting away from a strange-looking and pushy avatar, surely.

We don't know in most cases who's behind an avatar. But at least we can counsel our students to dress their own avatars modestly. Beyond that advice, I have no clear answer for colleagues teaching with SL. As my Magic Eight Ball used to advise me "Reply hazy, try again." I hope that other faculty will study how clothing, in the same settings and on the same avatars, influences the reactions of others.

See you all in the New Year. Happy Holidays!

Metaplace Virtual World to Close Jan. 1

Location: Metaplace

I'll post the following from Raph Koster, at Metaplace. I wish them well and look forward to their next venture. This appeared in the Metaplace forums just a little while ago. Thanks, Raph, for all the Meeps!

Over the last several years, we here at Metaplace Inc. have been working very hard to create an open platform allowing anyone to come to a website and create a virtual world of their own.

Unfortunately, over the last few months it has become apparent that Metaplace as a consumer UGC service is not gaining enough traction to be a viable product, requiring a strategic shift for our company.

We’re sorry to announce today that Metaplace.com will be closing to the public at 11:59pm on January 1^st, 2010.

This is a bittersweet moment for us. Metaplace Inc the company will be continuing on – in fact, we have big plans – but what you the users have known as Metaplace will be going away. We are also losing some friends and colleagues here as part of this strategic shift.

We’d rather dwell on the good than the sad. You, the users, have done amazing work here, and we want to celebrate it. We may not have managed to reach our goals with Metaplace.com and Metaplace Central, but we still had a lot of fun, watched creativity flower, visited amazing places, and made a lot of friends. We’ve had amazing guest speakers, more parties than we can count, live concerts, movie premieres and art shows; we’ve seen you make adventures and schools and churches and games and countless other sorts of worlds that would otherwise never have been created.

In that spirit, we want to treat these next two weeks more as a celebration of the good times. We invite you all to come back to see all of the amazing worlds that you have made. Registration will remain open, so you can show off to your friends. Remote embeds will remain active until the last day as well.

We’ll be turning off billing immediately, and refunding everyone for all purchases in the month of December as well as subscription payments that apply to December and future months. This month is on us. We are suspending regular customer service, but the support site will remain open for now in case there are any critical billing issues.

We know many of you have done work here that you would like to preserve. Please do use this time to capture screenshots, data, scripts, movies, and assets. We have a FAQ that explains how to retrieve assets from the service.

When other worlds have reached a sunset point, people have lost touch with each other. We’ve made a lot of friends here and we’re sure that you have too, so we don’t want that to happen. We have created a forum site at http://www.metaplaceveterans.com that will be operational soon, so that you can all keep in touch with one another.

Finally: we want to treat the 1^st of January as a celebration, rather than a sad moment. Please join us on that day for a party, starting at noon Pacific time. If Metaplace.com has to go, we want to go out with style, with joy, and with the same sense of fun that we have always had. Let’s celebrate the journey, not the ending. There will be meeps – count on it.

We’re sure you have many questions about all of this – and there’s a detailed FAQ that we hope answers them. Click here to read it.

In the meantime, we want to thank you all for your support, your effort, your creativity, and your loyalty. We know that many of you will be disappointed by this outcome. We are too. We are embarking on a new and exciting direction, and it feels strange not to have you all along for the ride.

It has been a privilege to have had you here with us on this great adventure, and we hope that this community – this wonderful, engaged, passionate, friendly community – lives on and on.

We’ll miss you -- and we hope to see you again.