The Rise of Photo-Realistic Animation

The bar keeps bumping up higher for quality animations in a videogame. Word came out this week that Afrika, a new safari photo hunt game for the PlayStation 3, would provide ultra-realistic shots of wildlife on the savannah and make good use of the PS3’s graphics capabilities. The game required a mere 25 developers, compared to the 100 or so that many big titles take, and Sony’s sales expectations are modest. Still, the possibilities revolving around photo-realism add to the expectations for future games: serious, educational, and traditional entertainment titles alike.

On the anthromorphological side of things, check out this video, She’s Not Real, from The Times Online in the UK. If you weren’t told ahead of time, it’s possible you wouldn’t know you were watching an animated human … at least at first. Toward the end of the minute long footage, the programmers give a taste of what they can do with an animated person, in a game for instance.

Military Outreach: Giant Videogame Lures Recruits

Joseph De Avila has an interesting front page article in The Wall Street Journal this morning about Virtual Army Experience, a life size videogame the Army trucks out to state fairs and other events to give potential recruits a taste of military action.

There are four versions of the exhibit, which cost about $9 million to develop. Almost $10 million is spent each year setting up the exhibits at various venues around the country such as Six Flags Amusement Parks. The exhibits are huge, almost 20,000 square feet, and involve life size Humvees, helicopters, and “guns” that visitors can use to “shoot” bad guys on large video screens.

Participants enter a dark, inflatable dome. They climb into one of six modified Humvees or two Black Hawk helicopters. Each vehicle, mounted with fake M-249 Squad Automatic Weapons and M-4 rifles, faces three huge screens where the videogame is projected.

Players fire air-pressured guns, meant to mimic the recoil and kickback of real ones. The ethnicity of the bad guys they shoot at is ambiguous. The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire blares from the game’s speakers and the Humvees shake from the simulated blasts of roadside bombs. Some participants hoot and holler. Despite the nature of the game, there is no blood or guts on screen.

Scores are higher if players only shoot people in uniform; they lose points for firing indiscriminately or at noncombatants.

After the videogame experience, players meet with real soldiers in a sort of “debriefing” that focuses on a positive military message. Participants fill out contact information before playing. Those meeting the Army’s criteria are contacted by recruitment personnel shortly after. About 55,000 people visited the exhibit last year, and about 2,200 met criteria and expressed an interest in volunteering for military service.

The military always faces criticism for its recruiting efforts, from being kicked off college campuses and in some places chased out of town. Naturally, the notion of using videogames for recruiting has faced sharp criticism, too. De Avila spoke with one young man who brushed it off, saying, “Beer companies have hot women. They have a videogame.” Due to complaints at a music festival in Wisconsin, the Army modified the game portion of the exhibit so players shot targets instead of the usual race-neutral terrorists.

References:
De Avila, J. (2008, July 28). War games: Army lures civilians by letting them play soldier. The Wall Street Journal. p.A1.

Last Lecture Author & Alice Founder Pausch Dies at 47

Randy Pausch, a pioneer of educational videogaming, passed away this week from cancer at age 47. Pausch’s “Last Lecture,” videotaped at Carnegie Mellon where he taught, became an internet sensation last year. I linked to The Wall Street Journal article by Jeffrey Zaslow last September, and inadvertently misspelled Dr. Pausch’s last name. Google sent hundreds of visitors to this blog who made the same mistake.

Zaslow went on to co-author a book with Pausch, which has topped the best seller lists. Pausch is beloved by educational videogame enthusiasts because he was one of the founders of Alice, a popular software program for creating animation projects and teaching aspiring programmers how to code. Alice continues to be hosted by Carnegie Mellon. Dr. Pausch will be missed.

PSP Mini-nets Show Small Group Potential

Here’s an interesting story from The Wall Street Journal about the growing popularity of the Sony PSP in Japan thanks largely to the Capcom game Monster Hunter. A key feature of the game is its social aspect, primarily engaged using the mini-network features built into the PSP. Groups of friends can gather in one location and play together while keeping others out.

Among Monster Hunter’s fans is Hitoshi Morita, a 37-year-old Tokyo-area architect, who recently went on a weekend retreat devoted to the game. Dividing into groups, Mr. Morita and 14 friends, who included a doctor and a few corporate executives, played the game for several hours at a time.

“It was an opportunity for us to forget our professional titles and social standings and play with each other like when we were kids,” says Mr. Morita, who is already planning another Monster Hunter retreat in September. “I’m not crazy about games, but I love Monster Hunter because of the social aspect.”

Reporter Yukari Iwatani Kane notes the two games in the Monster Hunter series are the best selling PSP titles in Japan, with over 4 million sold. The teamwork aspect of the game has overcome Japanese disinclinations toward social networking thanks to the exclusive capabilities of the PSP mini-nets, according to Kane.

Osaka-based Capcom, better known outside Japan for titles like Street Fighter and Devil May Cry, launched Monster Hunter as an online multiplayer game for Sony’s PlayStation 2 console four years ago. Sales weren’t huge. Many consumers shied away from the game, which was best played with other PS2 users over an online network.

But Ryozo Tsujimoto, the producer of the portable Monster Hunter games, saw a big opportunity for a PSP version because the device could be carried around easily, so gamers could introduce the game to friends. Sales figures soon showed he was on to something.

The possibilities of harnessing the mini-net features of the PSP are striking. Small groups could be set up with the PSP to tackle a project together in an educational game. Excluding other players from the groups would allow a room full of students working on PSPs to organize into teams working on objectives within the game.

References:
Kane, Y. I. (2008, June 24). Game device belatedly clicks. The Wall Street Journal, p.B1. [Online]. Available: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121426677949598525.html

Caterpillar Grades Joystick Controls

Previously I’ve blogged about the military using console controllers on new equipment such as robots. The controllers are easy to integrate into computerized military machinery, as they are USB-based and provide an intuitive interface for young soldiers raised on videogames.

Now, American construction equipment leader Caterpillar has performed extensive corporate research resulting in a motor grader controlled by two joysticks. Ilan Brat over at The Wall Street Journal reports:

While older models of the earth-moving machine, which is used to smooth and level dirt on roadways and other construction projects, had as many as 15 levers in addition to a steering wheel and several foot pedals, Caterpillar’s latest version has two of the controls normally found on videogame consoles.

Brat states the new controls are the fruit of seven years effort involving 900 customers and an amazing 110,000 hours of field testing. Care was taken to ensure that “old” operators, used to the previous controls, could handle the new controls as well as before.

The old way of operating graders often involves a “whole body” experience that is tiring on the driver. It also is difficult to skill up, and learning curves can be steep.

The new joystick method is much easier on the body, and easier to learn. As a new generation takes over construction and road maintenance, they’ll find some familiar controls to maneuver heavy equipment.

References:
Brat, I. (2008, June 23). A joy(stick) to behold. The Wall Street Journal. p.R5. [Online.] Available: http://www.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121372801482581657.html

Virtual Lemonade Stands Earn Real Money

Training for the epic flying mount skill in World of Warcraft costs 5000 gold. As I pursued this amount, mainly through cornering the auction house market on various primal cloths (at one brief point I was commanding prices of 95 gold each), I remarked to my wife how nice it would be to make money this easy in the real world.

So it was with interest I read that rather than toiling in RL this summer, some high school and college students are translating their virtual labor into real cash. The Wall Street Journal generated buzz with this article by Alexandra Alter about kids pursuing money making opportunities in games and online worlds rather than flipping burgers or some other typical summer job.

The key site for raking in the bucks, according to Alter, is Entropia Universe, where one teen profiled in the article claims to have earned $35,000 over four years, or about $730/month. Not bad coin.

In the real world, summer jobs are in short supply. Only about a third of teenagers are expected to work this summer, the lowest levels in 60 years, according to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. Summer youth employment has fallen from about 45% of teens in 2000, a downward trend made worse this year by the faltering economy.

But money-making opportunities in virtual worlds have grown as such sites go mainstream. Research firm Gartner Media estimates that by 2011, 80% of Internet users worldwide will have an avatar, making animated online personas as common as screen names. Such companies as IBM and Adidas have moved into Second Life, helping to drive employment.

The differences between Second Life and Entropia Universe appear to revolve around the need for heavier programming skills in SL. Skilled programmers can design virtual clothing or architecture in SL, for instance. In Entropia Universe, “crafted” items are in demand that involve time on the part of players to develop. These can then be sold to other players, much like “crafted” items in traditional MMORPGs. Activities like hunting, mining, and tailoring are offered in EU.

So, essentially, EU offers many of the activities a traditional MMORPG offers, with the possibility of earning real money from time and effort spent in the world. Users can add or withdraw real money, converting it into or from virtual funds through an ATM card.

Most of the research around the SL and EU economies seem to stem from marketing firms, although SL also has a strong history of academic interest.

References:

Alter, A. (2008, May 16). My virtual summer job. The Wall Street Journal. [Online.] Available: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121088619095596515.html

Coin-op Kiddie Rides Make a Comeback

Occasionally I’ll take a break from blogging about videogames and discuss one played in RL. Most recently, I noted an article about the world’s last pinball manufacturer, for instance. Now, Raymund Flandez over at The Wall Street Journal writes about old style coin-op kiddie rides making a big comeback, thanks to some TLC from Kiddie Rides, USA.

The company buys up the old coin-op rides, once ubiquitous outside grocery stores and elsewhere, restores then sells them for $2,000 – $6,000 to nostalgic baby boomers or companies seeking unique décor.

Denver D’Rozario over at Howard University gets a nice quote, noting that marketing vintage games requires a special touch:

Authenticity and uniqueness of the product needs to be a part of the appeal of the nostalgia market, says Denver D’Rozario, a marketing professor at Howard University in Washington. But “you’ve got to show me how it’s different today” as well. “Some products have to be “restaged or redesigned,” he says, “to appeal to a different generation — the children or grandchildren of the baby boomers. They have to strike a balance.”

References:
Flandez, R. (2008, March 25). Nostalgia helps put old kiddie rides back in play. The Wall Street Journal. [Online]. Available: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120641207836961459.html

Electric Football Still Draws a Crowd

The Wall Street Journal had an intriguing article yesterday by Mark Yost on electric football. Like many of us, I had one of these as a kid. Who could resist turning on the electric playing field and watching 22 figures move around in random directions as the sheet metal vibrated? And best of all was getting to “kick” that little cotton football across the room.

Alas, my game was lost in the mists of time and parental housecleaning. I was interested to learn, though, that fans of electric football still exist. There are leagues with playoffs, and an official electric football Super Bowl. The game, originating in the 1940s, is still being made by Miggle Toys.

Fanboys spend time customizing the player figurines, much as model railroad or toy soldier aficionados. They also seek a competitive edge, altering the bases of linemen so they don’t move as much (better blocking), and of wide receivers so they “run” faster.

Such simple pursuits really gin up the nostalgia in people. I suspect Miggle Toys will see a nice boost in sales from this article, considering that WSJ is one of the nation’s top selling newspapers.

References:
Yost, M. (2008, January 30). A Super Bowl for kids who never grew up. The Wall Street Journal. p. D10.

A Run on Virtual Banks in SL

The Wall Street Journal has taken note of the run on virtual banks in Second Life. In the old days, SL allowed free reign for most anything. Folks could set up virtual casinos. Banks could be operated by anyone, and deposits could earn interest. It was play money, but the play money was bought with real money.

Then came draconian American online gambling laws and the lawyers for SL corporate parent Linden Lab said it would be best to shut down the casinos. You see, even though it was play money, users spent real money buying the play money, and American law would likely not lend a kind ear to such arguments.

The banks struggled on for a while. There were fears of money laundering. Say a bad guy opened up a bank in SL and deposited ill gotten gain in the form of Linden dollars. Then his accomplice withdrew the play money and turned it into real money in another country. So now, Linden Lab has deemed that only banks in the real world can open a bank in SL. And so, folks who deposited money in the virtual banks want their money back, and some have closed.

Robert Bloomfield, a management prof over at Cornell gets a nice quote (“There is not a whole lot that is fake about this”). So does grad student Joshua Zarwel over at NYU, who actually runs, uh, ran, a virtual bank in SL. His bank, aptly named SL Bank, offered 24-30% interest on deposits, with about $25,000 deposited.

What’s fascinating is the opportunity for studying the simulations of real world behavior that can take place in virtual worlds. Researchers can follow the effects of mass virus outbreaks on populations, economic scares, and market theory. Human behavior remains the same, whether in a virtual world or the real world.

References:
Sidel, R. (2008, January 23). Cheer up, Ben: Your economy isn’t as bad as this one. The Wall Street Journal, p. A1.

First Hello Kitty, Then NeoPets, Now JewelPets

The Wall Street Journal notes in a recent article that Sega Toys and Sanrio Co., seeking to capitalize on past successes like Hello Kitty, are coming out with a line called JewelPet. The line of toys and other merchandise will focus on girls, each of 33 pets associated with a different jewel. The article states that “Internet and mobile related business” will be part of the marketing and merchandise brew, so look for another effort at capturing tween’s attention online, perhaps in a virtual world ala Webkinz.

For a look at other upcoming tween virtual worlds, check out Izzy Neis’ blog entry here.

References
Kachi, H. (2008, Jan. 16). Sega Toys, Sanrio craft successor to ‘Hello Kitty’. The Wall Street Journal. p. B14.