MakeHuman

You can't really see much of what I'm doing because the character I am supposed to create is Alice from the Wonderland books.  She's a little girl and the software I have been told to use to create her with, MakeHuman, does not yet support clothing.  I have played around with changing her size and shape atributes, her facial expressions, hair and poses.

I have read the users guide and the quick start guide and believe I have done pretty much all I can for Alice.  Alas, still can't get the hair to be blonde...

 You can see a little of what I have done below.

roll call calss 12 begin

faire fail

Creating stuff for Imprudence

Well, my group got Alice in Wonderland.

duplicating limbs to reduce editing time

So that's what I'mma does.

That's a lot of head for a little girl...

Lookin pretty good for a painted wooden doll.

Some hair - just another circle cut and placed over the other.

Roll Call Class 11 2nd

Imprudence Immersivness

Setting up for getting Imprudent

Met  up with everyone at the castle

Flyin around and found a pirate ship

Next we have a stone henge of sorts - probably doesn't tell much about the weather or seasons...

ooooh, a smoke house

Some crazy-ass spider web hut ?

went into a little castl thign to put on my bathing suit :)

Better look at the main castle inland

Nice little view from a tower

Shrooms dude

Chillin in the smoke hut after finding the shrooms.  Don't remember too much after this...

Roll Call 2 Class 11

Forum Questions

In-world (virtual) meeting and online forum discussion items:

1. Are video games addictive? Does it matter?
1. Yes games can be addictive, so is anything to the right person.  It matters as much as any addiction does.  All addiction matters and the treatment to it matters.  Because people can become addicted is not enough to blame the game..
2. How fine is the line between being engaged and addicted?
1. About 20 hours... :)  The lines are the same with any addiction.  I am not a psychology major and I am a gamer but I can say that if a person spends more time on a game, spends all their money, limits all other aspects of life to allow for more gaming
3. Are there "warning signs" that I should be aware of?
1. I would say they are the same for any addiction.  Loss of time with other personal life (friends, family, work etc), spending waaaay too much money on it.
4. Are there best practices or guides for parents and educators to follow for dealing with compulsive gaming behaviors?
1. Sure, as with any best practices for any obsessive behavior.  Don't allow for obsessive behavior. Don't let the student/child go crazy always playing.  Have a nice game of chess with them, go see a movie and have a couple drinks while talking about it after, get them out to a park and feed some squirrels.
5. Are learning games ever considered "addictive" or is it only traditional video games?
1. I guess it could happen, but typically Edutainment is not nearly as fun or engrossing.
6. What issues or questions should the panel be aware of for the next meeting?
1. Is there a way people can get involved in the medical community recognizing the addictiveness of gaming.

Virtual reality and higher education: Another perspective

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/teaching_in_vr_.html

Summary:
Aaron Walsh is interviewed about Immersive Education, video game addiction and other stuff.  He talks about what he did back in the 90's getting started with in the VR scene.  Walsh has coined the phrase "immersive illness" is sure to be a catch phrase and house hold term within the next generation.  Mentioning that, while we already deal with "addiction, alienation, mental schisms, and more", with "insanely realistic" virtual reality people are bound to get sucked in even more than they did in the 90's or today because for some reason it will be different, even though it's always been the same.  People get addicted.  They did in the past, they do now and they will in the future.  It is not about the technology it's about the psychology.  But Walsh is pretty sure "We're in for a very rough ride."

The advantaged of online classes are also discussed along with the disadvantages.  Commuting is a hell of a lot easier to your computer than to campus (even if you live on campus).  The shy folks don't have to worry about actual human interaction and can semi-anonymously speak their VoIP voices.  A lot of the early problems are non-issues these days with connection speeds and home computer equipment generally being up to snuff with the demands of his classes.  The only other issue mentioned was the ability to actually get his virtual classes to be virtual classes.  It was too hard to  try to incorporate all the learning material into the virtual world so the compromise was to use mixed media and go from Second Life (or Rocket World) to a browser then off to Wow and back to the browser. This makes sense though.  You can't teach a class on gaming from within a game and play another game in side the first game.

Walsh got a student voted award within  BC for pimping Immersive Education and is very excited about the future prospects.  Only "barely crawling", the technology has a long way to go.  I don't know how it will work out and if it will ever fully meet Walsh's expectations.  Statements like the following cast doubt for me:" Immersive Education is designed to immerse and engage students in the same way that today's best video games grab and keep the attention of players."  Immersive (or any other) Education will never be able to compete with gaming in that way.  What draws people to games has never and will never be the same for a draw to an educational tool.  No matter how cool the tool.  There need to be other reasons the students want to use the tool.  Like: Purpose, Function, Application.

Anyway, cool little interview.  Raised a couple question.



Me Being Immersed:

WoW addiction

Professor Aaron E. Walsh notes: This 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 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”:

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.

Roll Call Class 11

roll call 2