Sunday, December 4, 2011

2013 1stHELP: Linden realms. Starting Second Life as a game.

"How do you play this game?"
An answer at last.  Along with just-in-time learning.
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Portal to Linden Realms
A call for help
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Many people come into Second Life expecting a game.  Actually, there are a lot of games.  The  Destination Guide lists about 37 in its Games section.  But now Linden Lab has developed a new game, specifically for new people. 
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Not just to entertain new people.  To create a learning environment for building the skills that are important for enjoying Second Life.
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Destinations
Linden Realms
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Tips
Skills to be developed
Move
  • Double-click on the place you want to go (on the ground or on the map).
  • Walk: press the up arrow key.   
  • Run: Press Ctrl r.
  • Turn: press the arrow key pointing in the turn direction
  • Sit: Right click on  the object., select sit.  Note Stand up button 
  • Map: Open, locate places, double click to go. Map button (folded paper)
Look around
You can look around without moving.  I call that "zoom and roam your camera."  Here's how:
  • Put your cursor on what you want in the center of the picture.
  • Press Alt and hold it down. The cursor will change to a rectangle with a plus sign in it. 
  • Scroll back and forth with the mouse scroll wheel;
  • Press each of the arrow keys you normally use to move;
  • Press page up and page down.
  • Learn from what happens when you make these moves
  • Press Esc to return to normal camera view
  • See See, Zoom, roam, and tag
Design goals (my guess)
  • Beginner level
  • Teach as well as play
  • Incremental quests
  • Play "at your pleasure"
  • Play alone or with friends
Just-in-time learning and gamification
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Just-in-time instructional design: 
  • Offer just what the learner needs to know, 
  • just when the learner needs to know it.
The gamification maneuver:
  • Use the game to create a need point for each learning objective.  
  • Then you know when to supply the instruction.
Illustration:  the gamification maneuver in Linden Realms
  • The quest is to collect crystals from a dangerous valley
  • The "Look around" method (above) lets you search in safety.
  •  JIT learning would mention "Look around" right at this point. 
Background: The gamification of learning

Just-in-Time Knowledge -- The World of the Web

  • Don't just know. Understand.
  • You can talk about what you have been taught. 
  • You can do things with what you understand.
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  • Annotated screen shots made with Jing
  • Creative Commons License, attribution only.
  • Second Life, Linden, SLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
  • This blog is not affiliated with Second Life or anything else.  
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2 comments:

  1. FeeJanuary 26, 2014 at 5:37 PM

    At the time you wrote this post, I was working as a contractor for Linden Lab and it wasn't really appropriate for me to comment... but actually this game was anti-educational for Second Life! All sorts of things worked differently for Linden Realms than for the "real" Second Life, and many of the conventions which the game player had to learn were not the way things were done in the "real" world - from walking through portals on to attaching the HUD and so on. I think it was a real missed opportunity to demonstrate proper gamification of educational material. It could have been used that way, but really wasn't. Quite apart from any other consideration, there really wasn't time in the development period allowed.

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