Listen

Description

Flat World Strategies: Online Games People Play

Overview:
According to wikipedia.com: MMORPGs are online Role Playing Games (RPG's) in
which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world.
As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (most commonly
in a fantasy setting) and take control over many of that character's actions.
MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the
number of players, and by the game's persistent world, usually hosted by the
game's publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away
from the game.

Today business and industry (including Intel and IBM) along
with academic institutions (including Harvard and the University of Washington)
are developing MMORPGs that provide education and training. In this session
we'll take a look at some of the common games and discuss how they could
potentially be used in our classrooms.

Social Networking
A social network is a social structure made of nodes
which are generally individuals or organizations. It indicates the ways in
which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from
casual acquaintance to close familial bonds. The term was first coined in 1954
by J. A. Barnes (in: Class and
Committees in a Norwegian Island Parish
, "Human Relations"). The
maximum size of social networks tends to be around 150 people and the average
size around 124 (Hill and Dunbar, 2002).

Social networking also refers to a category of Internet
applications to help connect friends, business partners, or other individuals
together using a variety of tools. These applications, known as online social networks are becoming increasingly popular[1].
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking

MMORPGs Your Future Students are Playing

Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom:
www.vmk.com
Good Article: http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/05/disneys_virtual_magic_kingdom.html

Cyworld: http://us.cyworld.com/
Good Article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_39/b3952405.htm


Ones Your Current Students are Playing

World of Warcraft:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml

EverQuest: http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/

Maple Story: http://www.maplestory.com/

Final Fantasy 11:
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml

Guildwars: http://www.guildwars.com/

Second Life: http://secondlife.com
Good article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm

OpenBC: http://corporate.openbc.com/en/the-company.html


What is Business Doing? 

IBM Second Life Story:
http://news.com.com/2300-1014_3-6135108-1.html?part=rss&tag=6135108&subj=news


What about education :

USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2006-10-05-second-life-class_x.htm


Second Life Community: Education
Link: http://secondlife.com/community/education.php

Example: Harvard Law
in the Court of Public Opinion

Course Link: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone

20 Minute Second
Life Harvard Tutorial Video: http://cm.dce.harvard.edu/2006/01/82002/P11/seg1/index_SingleHighBandwidth.html