Will's Visit

Will’s visit was great. I’m glad I had the opportunity to talk with him over lunch and dinner. Dave and I were lucky enough to listen to Will sing a little Supertramp during the drive back to his room. On Will’s suggestion, I checked out the open-source role-playing game Second Life. He described it as more of an experience than a game. Second Life is like The Sims, a reality simulator. Second Life even lets a player purchase property. Some people are able to make real money by selling virtual items (like hats) for use in the game! Sadly, my computer cannot run the program. So the character that I created, Matt Semyorka, is somewhere in Second Life standing idly.

Professor Reid also referred me to terranova , a scholarly blog about Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). I read an article by Aaron Delwiche that discusses the unique social community that MMORPGs create and his reflections on having taught undergraduate classes; one using Everquest and another with Second Life. One of the requirements of Delwiche’s courses is to play the game for five hours a week. While students are in the game, they are to interview other players about their gaming experience and report on their findings. Interesting idea.