Gaming, 3D and Augmented Reality

The use of gaming technologies, once the province of teens and nerds, increasingly is a part of online life. Whether in Second Life or on numerous gaming sites, gaming is playing an increasingly important role in everything from human interface design to navigation – and these developments are set to accelerate rapidly. Rather than superimposing gaming technologies on existing technologies, the most effective use will occur when services and systems are rebuilt from the ground up.

Just as the graphical user interface (GUI) in the 1980s and 1990s made it possible to do things that previously were either inefficient or not possible, gaming technologies hold the promise to enable the next generation to engage in electronic interactions in ways that were heretofore impossible. For example, gaming is thought to be a particularly good medium to provide training in hard-to-master skills. Gaming also provides a clear structure for collaboration, and enables both open authorship and “protovation” (prototyping and testing of experimental solutions) that augment knowledge and talent. Through such protovation, it is possible to use gaming to go through multiple iterations and experience different options that can lead to success. The technology also can enable the users to participate effectively and efficiently in the process of inventing new products and services, and to test market assumptions.

A key element of gaming technologies is the creation of an avatar, which is the representative of one’s personal image and being within the gaming world. As the technology is advancing, these being are becoming much more life-like. As a result, instead of having to issue commands to create movement, it is becoming possible to show natural gestures and emotions through facial expressions and movements. Soon it will be possible to hold lifelike conversations, meetings, and classroom sessions, which will make international communications far more efficient and effective, and reduce the need (and cost) of travel.

Regarding Second Life in particular, those who have been working in this area recognize that it ultimately may not be the platform of choice, but in the meantime it is a means to “support regular instruction, experimentation, virtual labs, seminars, panels, community engagements, and collaborations” among higher education and cultural institutions. It is also a means to gain competency with 3D technologies.

As a branch of gaming technologies, “augmented reality” is described as a means to let “users mash up real-world actions with digital information.” One such example is the Nintendo Wii gaming system, which allows users to move their bodies to make the avatar act accordingly. Another example is Microsoft's Surface, a tabletop computer that lets users manipulate digital content with natural motions, such as hand gestures. The Gartner Group lists this as one of its top ten disruptive technologies, and says that “this sort of real-world-meets-virtual-reality mashup will become more common.”

Sources

• Jane  MacGonigal.  “Making Alternate Reality  the New Business Reality.”  Harvard  Business Review (February 2008: 29).
• Judith  Donath.  “Giving Avatars Emote  Control.”  Harvard Business Review (Feb.  2008: 31).
• Jeffrey R.  Young.  Colleges Are Building in Second  Life, but Is Anyone Visiting? August 16, 2007   http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2307?=atwc

This page is part of the Environmental Scan, one of NELINET's Planning, Assessment & Accreditation Initiatives.