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Underground > Laboratory >

The Virtual Conference Room

17:29 / 14.11.07

So a bunch of NASA engineers doing related projects all over the world needed a virtual environment to share their discoveries - something that allowed 3-D visual recreations of different environments, replicas of equipment and a means of verbal communication.

So they've moved onto Second Life.

I think that's kind of freaky, but whoah. Cool.

Who's going to be next? How can these goofy little games change the way science and business happen?

23:50 / 14.11.07

I think probably the most encouraging thing about this is that they seem to be using their own Second Life accounts. Watching my own workplace go from youthful, pro-Facebook exuberance to the confusion of rule-breaking bifurcated time there with two log-ins has really brought home the possible limitations of these massively public spaces.

I'm not really sure SL is a "goofy little game", though, except in the way that this place is, and I also don't know how much it isn't just shoring up cracks that have emerged in the way current business is conducted (diffusely) versus the actual needs of that business (real time conversations; cool shit).

The combination of eradicating physical distance, fanboy architecture, and fucking SPACE is supercool, though.

14:36 / 15.11.07

They're building rockets in there for real!!

I can't help but picture the Rebel briefing from Star Wars, you know?

Holographic tables and stuff....

14:51 / 21.11.07

Does The Sims count as a "goofy little game"?

Because the Navy are using it to model Iraq.

There's an aesthetic here that simultaneously disgusts and fascinates me. The first Persian Gulf War was said to be a videogame war, all smart missiles and targets on TV screens. This one is a... what... social simulator war?

The service has issued a call for a developers to build "a highly interactive, PC-based Human, Social and Culture Behavioral Modeling (HSCB) simulation tool to support training for military planners for handling insurgencies, small wars, and/or emergent conflicts."

We are looking for innovative ideas that explore and harness the power of “advanced” interactive multimedia computer game technologies (e.g. "sim games”), that offer single or multi-player interaction via single computer, network or internet. The system should incorporate the best-practices of the videogame industry, including intuitive controls, story-telling, user-feedback (for performance assessment), scenario editing, and high-quality graphics & sound.

But don't think you can just use the Unreal engine to gin up some pixelated Mesopotamia. "Although, high-quality 3-D graphics and 3-D interaction are desirable, we will not be considering games based on first-person shooter (or equivalent) technology for this solicitation," the Navy notes. "The current solicitation is not aiming to build entertainment, but a highly accurate and advanced simulation platform."

More at the link (Wired's Danger Room).

20:40 / 21.11.07

At least they've stopped using their "training tools" to market their shit to kids.

And yes, SimCity does count as a goofy little game; I should say my comment was about how Second Life is a more like a tabula rasa on which people can make their own goofy little games, but doesn't really have a goal in itself.

Unlike SimCity, which asks you to manically over-manage people, and then set Godzilla on them.

I do wonder what it means, for our daily lives and for game-playing, when we don't seem to be able to think of one without thinking of the other (now how do we use the software to have a cross-fora discussion?)