The Isle of Zapp
I was recently gifted an island in SecondLife and haven’t managed to pry myself away from it since. It’s not something I would have thought to do, but having been given the opportunity I’ve embraced it and have been quite surprised with the results. Along those lines I’ve made several observations that I’d like to discuss here.
The first observation was that building in the virtual world immediately introduced a sense of vested interest and ownership in the project. Perhaps not surprisingly this has resulted in an increased sense of purpose when in-world. Whereas previously I’d wander aimlessly wondering “what I’m meant to do in this place,” I’m now content to widdle away the time on the island experimenting with ideas and generally exploring the possibilities.
In that sense I’m beginning to think that one of the key values of SecondLife lay in the dynamic - in the building of new things and the planning and design processes that go along with it.
When I decided to terriform one portion of the island I didn’t arbitrarily start digging; I did research first. I sourced photographs and images that depicted island geologic structures and landforms and considered notions like the local geologic history. The logic being, unless you now how the land is formed and evolved, you can’t effectively sculpt it.
For example, when building mountains you are mimicking a naturally-ocurring process characterised by lifting and erosion. In order to produce realistic looking virtual mountains you must replicate these agents and consider factors like water drainage routes and how this would alter and affect the landscape.
Biologically speaking there are matters if climate and corresponding species to consider. For example you wouldn’t see a Giant Panda and Kangaroo side by side in the wild. So unless you’re building a virtual zoo they shouldn’t be on the same plot of land. The same goes for plant species. In order to maximize realism you need a solid grasp of the ecosystem and what exists within it.
Thirdly, I’ve been paying much greater attention to shapes, colour, proportion and geometry in real life lately. In Secondlife the building process involves linking together lots of small shapes until gradually they resemble something recogniseable. Maximizing realism requires recognising the fundamental patterns and shapes that make up the object.
At first a project doesn’t look like much, so you have to think in terms of detail and aggregate at the same time.
In the sense of the built environment and landcaping there have been layout and architectural considerations. The same rules that apply to designing realworld homes apply to virtual ones as well. And in the case if virtual instance constraints like budget don’t apply; so you can really push the boundaries.
The jury is still out for many people regarding the uses of SecondLife in formal education, but one things fairly certain - it definitely caters to experiential learning.
Monday, August 4th, 2008