Game Crazy using Lively to Advertise an XBOX 360 Promotion

Game Crazy is using a Google Lively room to advertise an Xbox 360 giveaway. Going to the room will allow you to check the scrolling displays for the different regions of the US to see if a local Game Crazy near you will be participating in the promotion. Also prominently displayed in the center of the wall is a large screen showing game trailers. This is a unique use of Lively, and probably one of the first experiments by a large retail chain in this space.

I went and checked out the space. It uses one of the default rooms layouts and stock assets. In moving around the room and reading the scrolling displays I did find it awkward to view the Northwest screens without fiddling with the display. There was a large column that was getting in my way of viewing the screens. If finally had to use the Viewfinder view to position my view for easy reading of the display.

There is no “in your head” view like in other virtual worlds and MMO’s (at least not that I could find). So really, using the Viewfinder seems like the only good option for unobstructed views. And while you are in this view you are having an “out of body” experience and will appear as a zombie to others in the room who may be trying to get your attention.

It would be very useful to have a way to set viewpoints in a room. You could set a view like the one above for a streaming video and then a user could simply click a view icon or hover over the screen to get an icon to click to lock the preset viewing angle for streaming media. I’m sure there will be many changes made to this environment now that a lot of people are kicking the tires and giving their opinions on how to improve it.

You can check out a full article with a link at Virtual World News:

Game Crazy Using Lively to Get Sale Message Out

LA Times – Lively Article

The LA Times has an article up about the new Google offering, Lively:

Google unveils a Lively virtual world

There have been several reviews in the media about the new Google virtual world platform, or as I like to call them ‘Private Virtual Worlds’ or PVW’s. Follow the link and read all about this promising new platform. Oh, and did I say it’s free?

The 3D Internet Will Change How We Live

The Wall Street Journal has a story today about how virtual worlds will change the Internet as we know it in the not too distant future:

The 3D Internet Will Change How We Live

The article has the obligatory negative stereotypes mentioned right up front, as all too many stories of this type do these days, but quickly shifts gears into future trends towards the merging of virtual worlds and the Internet. Some of the more telling quotes from the articles are these:

“Virtual worlds may look like toys for the geekiest of geeks, but they have quietly slipped into the mainstream.”

“The financial marketplace, of course, hasn’t missed this opportunity – $345 million was invested in 39 virtual world-related companies in the first half of 2008. Last year, Gartner Research predicted that 80% of all active Internet users will have a virtual-world presence by 2011.”

“IBM has made a particularly strong commitment to virtual worlds, and regularly holds meetings on a sprawling, privately firewalled Second Life campus.”

“Finally, we are becoming an increasingly networked society. Eighty-two percent of American homes now have Internet access, up 11% percent from 2006.”

“If current trends hold, the Internet will evolve into a 3D space, and virtual worlds will become an integral part of human communication. Real life will never be the same.”

As Jeremy Kemp (San Jose State University) pointed out on the SLED Listserv, a lot of what was in this WSJ article was stated last September by Justin Rattner, Intel CEO. You can read the WIKI for his “Virtual Worlds – The Rise of the 3D Internet” and even watch a video of his talk.

As virtual worlds push closer to mainstream, and more businesses adopt these platforms for business communications and collaboration, educators need to take note. If you are not at least researching these trends you will likely find yourself falling behind in a few short years.

Virtual worlds have already far surpassed the virtual realities of the late ’80’s and early 90’s. Virtual worlds have been trying to shake off the negative image of the virtual reality hype for the past ten years. We may finally be witnessing the shedding of this image and a general acceptance of virtual worlds as being something more than a video game.

The New Kid in School – Google

There’s a new kid in class, his name is Lively and he comes from Google.

Google Lively Download

This is a new virtual world platform that can be embedded into web pages. Currently it only runs through a plug-in for IE, but that will change in the not too distant future. There are already rumors of a Mac plug-in. I downloaded Lively and gave it a test drive. For a post launch client it’s pretty clean and looks pretty good.

This is the test room that Terra Nova blog put up for their visitors to play with. The one thing that takes a little getting used to is the avatar movement. You basically can double click to jump your avatar to a new spot, or you can drag your avatar and it will walk to the new location. Once you know this you’ll stop pressing the ASDW and arrow keys and start to move around the room smoothly.

Chatting is the same as most any other MMO. There’s no content creation at this point. Google has this to say on their webpage about content creation:

“Most of the avatars, clothing, and objects were created by vendors working for Google. We’re also working with a small number of trusted testers, vendors and creative agencies as part of a test for creating custom items.

We hope to enable user-generated content and even more customization soon, but until then we’ve given you tons of choices from the catalog to help personalize your Lively experience. “

If this is going to be adopted by educators, there will need to be educational objects available for use by instructors wanting to develop online classes. And ultimately, educators are going to want to make their own objects (as well as the students). But the absence of content creation now should not stop educators from exploring this new platform.

Rumors were flying not so long ago that this platform was being tested at Arizona State University. I posted a few blog entries over on another blog about this rumor. Well, the rumors were true. The Applied Learning Technologies Institute at Arizona State University was where the testing was taking place. Here’s an article with screenshots of a test classroom environment developed at ASU. The code name for this project was ‘My World’. ASU has announced that it will use Lively by Google to teach AP Calculus classes.

World2World has a panel discussion on Saturday July 12 @ 5:00pm PST discussing the recent launch of the Lively platform. The discussion will take place in Second Life and be streamed to the Internet.

World2World Lively Panel Discussion

I think that this new platform will have great potential for educators. Google is large enough that they will have the resources to develop this into various OS’s and browsers, and to make it one of the top free platforms. It will likely be opened up in the future with API’s and content development (they already have SketchUp in their portfolio). They will put pressure on others who are entering this market to not fall behind Google (Sun Microsystems?). And, with the upcoming Android phone OS, this could easily become the first portable virtual world fully accessible from a phone (will Android be first, or will the iPhone get it running first?).

I was up at scout camp when Lively was launched. Of course, there was no pre-launch hype involved, it was stealthily released into the wild with little fanfare. I came back and saw a flurry of messages on various listserv’s, webpages and blogs about the launch. At first educators were dismissing this as simply a graphical chat client, a useless platform devoid of content creation and prospects for serious education. Take a peek at the comments over at the Terra Nova post about Lively for some examples. And there were many on the SLED listserv (Second Life Educators) that were dismissing it as well.

It would be a mistake to dismiss this platform. I can’t think of too many projects that Google has launched that were broken, useless, or did not later play a part in a much larger plan. Out of the gates this platform looks pretty good. As they open it up, add other browsers, and expand their base, I think Lively is going to surprise many. If it does nothing else, Lively will likely expand the base of virtual world users exponentially from where it is today. That Gartner Study of last year on virtual worlds doesn’t seem so far fetched after looking at Lively and its potential to reach the mainstream on the Internet.

It’s my opinion that educators would be making a grave error in dismissing this platform this early in the game. Download the client, go explore some rooms, and start to think of the possibilities for your students. If nothing else, embed a Lively room in your teacher webpage for homework help where students can come to get help from their peers.