Course Reflection

My first impressions of this course, were, unfortunately, nothing special. I think the introduction week was pretty slow and I can't say I learnt very much. I do have a lot of experience with blogging so I wasn't necessarily the target audience for that component of the course. In fact, I wouldn't say that this blogging exercise has been especially fruitful for me.

The other components, however, have been very useful. I'm thinking particularly about the individual work we did making and showing our own posters and abstracts. Although I've had to produce them both before in other contexts this was an opportunity for me to really sit down and think about what I was doing and why, and to discuss with others and see what they'd done.

The abstract work I found really quite difficult. Having to work with so few words seemed to make every single one much more significant. Getting feedback from my peers about my draft was very important. Mind you, I think the most useful aspect of that exercise was just getting the abstract to a draft state and thinking to myself that it would have to be at least good enough to show to other people without being too embarrassing. The actual feedback I received, while useful, only really served to highlight the points that I already felt needed more attention. Having a kind of template format turned out to be very useful in providing some kind of structure and a benchmark against which to test my own words. This generic structure came from reading other example abstracts and trying to identify what works and what why, which we conducted during one of the Friday afternoon seminars.

A general point I'd make was that the Thursday lectures seemed less valuable than our sessions on Friday, which were also more sociable and hence made the group feel more cohesive.

I was fairly pleased with my poster, though seeing other people's work made me think about things I'd do differently if I had another chance. One comment I received was that mine looked kind of bare. Perhaps this wasn't such a big deal with an A3 sized image, but I think it would be pronounced on A1. This is another interesting point, that looking at the poster on screen or on an A4 sheet of paper is very different to seeing it on a projector or big piece of paper. This is one of the things I learnt from the course, to check what the final piece will look like. I think a technique I might use for the future is to print out a draft as a series of 8 A4 pages, then hang them on the wall so that I can see how the overall layout and text size seems for real. The other thing to check in advance is colour - I noticed that on the TV screen in the lab the colours seemed washed out in comparison to my poster or monitor on my desk. I think Geraldine mentioned this as Powerpoint has no colour correction facilities. Other than that I thought it made actually a pretty good tool once I'd learnt how to use it like that. Initially I made several flat-coloured objects to act as borders for my text, which I created as separate text box objects, then linked the two together into a single group. After a while I realised that I could just add text to the first object and not have to worry about managing it as an additional step, so that's clearly a practical skill that I learnt. When it came to actually displaying the poster and talking about it I felt very comfortable. There was a lot of material I'd intentionally left out of the poster because I didn't want to distract or confuse the readers, just draw them in with a high-level overview of what I'd done and why. I'm happy with this technique as I think it functions as a lure, a hook to get them to read the paper. This is certainly what happened to me when I saw other people's posters at the HTC Postgrad Workshop last year. After skimming over the posters I spent a long time talking to their authors about the specific details I was interested in.

Having written the title, abstract and created a poster, the presentation almost wrote itself. I think on reflection working over the same material in a variety of media gave me a much better mastery of expressing the content in different ways. So much so that I feel I could now present my work in some other media - clearly an interactive medium would work well for my work as it's essentially an interactive project. In fact that would probably be the ideal way to present the work at a conference, with links to the paper for download, but me standing next to a live demo similarly to how I would with my poster. It's worth reflecting further on what this would mean though. When I gave my presentation I was able to spend more time on the motivation behind the project, which might become lost behind the application per se if it were just standing there for people to play with. The novelty of using the demo might be more interesting than thinking about the larger issues of accessibility. I might deal with this in the way computer games often do, by using cutscenes or dialogue to set the scene: "imagine what it'd be like to be blind, what you'd miss out on." In fact a nice way to represent this would be to allow people to play with Second Life as they normally would, or have a fly-though of someone playing it, but then fade out the visuals until only blackness remains. After a moment of shock and confusion fade up the audio / haptic cues. All the time a voiceover could explain what was happening.

I think that's a nice little thought experiment: what have I learnt that I could apply to other media? My description of an interactive presentation is perhaps a good indication of how successful this course has been for me personally.

Personality Types

I've taken a look at the personality profiling tools that were mentioned in class. Here are my results and thoughts.

First, according to Human Resources Skills Development Canada - WorkSearch I have the following learning styles

Doing: 63%
Visual: 63%
Hearing: 31%

The answers I picked to their questions are categorised as follows,

Usually:

I remember better from lectures with explanations and discussions.
I like to take notes and write down the information I read.
I remember best by writing things down several times.
I can follow directions on maps.
I learn to spell better by repeating the words out loud than by writing them down.
I understand a news article better when I read a newspaper than when I listen to the radio.
I chew gum or snack when I study.
I learn how something works by taking it apart and putting it back together.
I prefer to get information by reading about it.
I enjoy classes with physical activity and movement.

Somewhat:

I learn information more easily if it is written on the board.
I enjoy the use of posters and models in the classroom.
I enjoy working with my hands.
I am able to tell if sounds match when presented with pairs of sounds.
I am good at solving jigsaw puzzles and mazes.

Seldom:

I need verbal explanation of diagrams and graphs.
I enjoy making graphs and charts.
I do better at academic subjects by listening to lectures and tapes.
I like to play with coins, keys, pens or other objects when learning.
I feel the best way to remember something is to picture it in my head.
I would rather listen to a lecture than read the same material in a text book.
I grip objects in my hands while learning.
I prefer listening to the news on the radio than reading about it in the newspaper.
I follow verbal directions better than written ones.

According to HowToLearn.com I have the following profile,

38% Visual Learner
33% Auditory Learner
28% Kinesthetic Learner

The answers I gave to produce this result are as follows,

I more or less agree with these:

1. I prefer to hear a book on tape rather than reading it.
2. When I put something together, I always read the directions first.
3. I prefer reading to hearing a lecture.
6. I can always tell directions like north and south no matter where I am.
7. I love to write letters or in a journal.
8. When I talk, I like to say things like, "I hear ya, that sounds good or that rings a bell."
9. My room, desk, car or house is usually disorganized.
11. I know most of the words to the songs I listen to.
13. I like sports and think I am a pretty good athlete.
15. Without music, life isn't any fun.
16. I am very comfortable in social groups and can usually strike up a conversation with most anyone.
19. When I recall an experience, I mostly see a picture of it in my mind.
21. When I recall an experience, I mostly remember how I felt about it.
22. I like music more than art.
25. I like reading stories more than listening to stories.
26. I usually speak slowly.
31. I like spelling and think I am a good speller.
32. I get very distracted if someone talks to me when the TV is on.
33. I like to write down instructions that people give me.
35. I learn best by doing.
36. It is hard for me to sit still for very long.

And I more or less disagree with these,

4. When I am alone, I usually have music playing or hum or sing.
5. I like playing sports more than reading books.
10. I love working with my hands and building or making things.
12. When others are talking, I usually am creating images in my mind of what they are saying.
14. It's easy to talk for long periods of time on the phone with my friends.
17. When looking at objects on paper, I can easily tell whether they are the same no matter which way they are turned.
18. I usually say things like, "I feel, I need to get a handle on it, or get a grip."
20. When I recall an experience, I mostly hear the sounds and talk to myself about it.
23. I often doodle when I am on the phone or in a meeting.
24. I prefer to act things out rather than write a report on them.
27. I like talking better than writing.
28. My handwriting is not usually neat.
29. I generally use my finger to point when I read.
30. I can multiply and add quickly in my head.
34. I can easily remember what people say.

it's interesting that I get a similarly mixed result for both tests, and that visual is consistently ranked higher.

The HumanMetrics Jungian / Myers-Briggs test describes me as

ENTP

slightly expressed Extravert (11%)
moderately expressed Intuitive personality (25%)
moderately expressed Thinking personality (50%)
slightly expressed Perceiving personality (%11)

These results are equally mixed as the previous two, the only standout being (T)hinking which correlates to the visual learning style of the previous two tests (in as much as analytical thinking is usually expressed visually as text). Generally though these results seem fairly mixed. I wonder if this is common, or if it suggests that my personality traits are more diverse than most? I certainly am interested in cross-discipliniarity, and have a mixed arts / science background (mother's family were musicians, father's were engineers) which is represented in my academic qualifications too (Bachelor of Science Computer Science, Master of Arts in New Media). Indeed at school I was always more interested in English Literature and Philosophy than sciences, but I just happened to display enough talent to get a practical degree that would ensure me a good job. Even in work most of my tasks as a computer game programmer have involved close collaboration with artist and designers.

Given the Four Preferences,

E : Extrovert
I : Introvert

I personally feel that I identify more with Introversion, though some of the questions seemed to conflate the outwards appearance of extroversion with the internal motivation towards extroversion. In my thinking and attitude towards life and learning I'I'd identify myself as being introverted, but in my personal relations -when I'm not internally facing and doing my thinking - I feel like I'm very people-oriented. My intrinsic motivation could be described as introverted but I feel like I've learned how to appear extroverted when it's appropriate.

N : Intuitive
S: Sensing

I'm not sure which of these I feel more comfortable with as I don't think I relaly understand the difference between them.

T : Thinking
F: Feeling

I'm definitely a thinker, but I certainly believe that feeling is important for me too.

P : Perceiving
J : Judging

I'm more of a perceiver.

In conclusion then by my own estimation I'd say I'm an I?TP, so for an automated test ENTP isn't far off my own evaluation.

Recommendations for career include,

Science / Technical:

Education

Engineering

Natural Science

Information System Specialist

Management:

Counselling

Management in Business or Education

Well, of these I haven't ever explicitly considered a career in education, though I could imagine at some stage running courses on game development and working in a group with other university researchers.
I definitely would not make a good counsellor! I'm far too analytical and far less sensitive enough for that.
Perhaps for similar reasons I've never thought I'd make a great manager as I tend to prefer to do things for myself than look after others.

Engineering and Information System Specialist are careers that I've not only had but would also consider taking again in the future, so I'd accept that they're at least partly right.

This high-level description of my personality type describes me as

Creative, resourceful, and intellectually quick. Good at a broad range of things. Enjoy debating issues, and may be into "one-up-manship". They get very excited about new ideas and projects, but may neglect the more routine aspects of life. Generally outspoken and assertive. They enjoy people and are stimulating company. Excellent ability to understand concepts and apply logic to find solutions.

(Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Thinking)
The Visionary

As an ENTP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things rationally and logically.

With Extraverted Intuition dominating their personality, the ENTP's primary interest in life is understanding the world that they live in. They are constantly absorbing ideas and images about the situations they are presented in their lives. Using their intuition to process this information, they are usually extremely quick and accurate in their ability to size up a situation. With the exception of their ENFP cousin, the ENTP has a deeper understanding of their environment than any of the other types.

This ability to intuitively understand people and situations puts the ENTP at a distinct advantage in their lives. They generally understand things quickly and with great depth. Accordingly, they are quite flexible and adapt well to a wide range of tasks. They are good at most anything that interests them. As they grow and further develop their intuitive abilities and insights, they become very aware of possibilities, and this makes them quite resourceful when solving problems.

ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions.

ENTPs are less interested in developing plans of actions or making decisions than they are in generating possibilities and ideas. Following through on the implementation of an idea is usually a chore to the ENTP. For some ENTPs, this results in the habit of never finishing what they start. The ENTP who has not developed their Thinking process will have problems with jumping enthusiastically from idea to idea, without following through on their plans. The ENTP needs to take care to think through their ideas fully in order to take advantage of them.

The ENTP's auxiliary process of Introverted Thinking drives their decision making process. Although the ENTP is more interested in absorbing information than in making decisions, they are quite rational and logical in reaching conclusions. When they apply Thinking to their Intuitive perceptions, the outcome can be very powerful indeed. A well-developed ENTP is extremely visionary, inventive, and enterprising.

ENTPs are fluent conversationalists, mentally quick, and enjoy verbal sparring with others. They love to debate issues, and may even switch sides sometimes just for the love of the debate. When they express their underlying principles, however, they may feel awkward and speak abruptly and intensely.

The ENTP personality type is sometimes referred to the "Lawyer" type. The ENTP "lawyer" quickly and accurately understands a situation, and objectively and logically acts upon the situation. Their Thinking side makes their actions and decisions based on an objective list of rules or laws. If the ENTP was defending someone who had actually committed a crime, they are likely to take advantage of quirks in the law that will get their client off the hook. If they were to actually win the case, they would see their actions as completely fair and proper to the situation, because their actions were lawful. The guilt or innocence of their client would not be as relevant. If this type of reasoning goes uncompletely unchecked by the ENTP, it could result in a character that is perceived by others as unethical or even dishonest. The ENTP, who does not naturally consider the more personal or human element in decision making, should take care to notice the subjective, personal side of situations. This is a potential problem are for ENTPs. Although their logical abilities lend strength and purpose to the ENTP, they may also isolate them from their feelings and from other people.

The least developed area for the ENTP is the Sensing-Feeling arena. If the Sensing areas are neglected, the ENTP may tend to not take care of details in their life. If the Feeling part of themself is neglected, the ENTP may not value other people's input enough, or may become overly harsh and aggressive.

Under stress, the ENTP may lose their ability to generate possibilities, and become obsessed with minor details. These details may seem to be extremely important to the ENTP, but in reality are usually not important to the big picture.

In general, ENTPs are upbeat visionaries. They highly value knowledge, and spend much of their lives seeking a higher understanding. They live in the world of possibilities, and become excited about concepts, challenges and difficulties. When presented with a problem, they're good at improvising and quickly come up with a creative solution. Creative, clever, curious, and theoretical, ENTPs have a broad range of possibilities in their lives.

Jungian functional preference ordering for ENTP:

Dominant: Extraverted Intuition
Auxiliary: Introverted Thinking
Tertiary: Extraverted Feeling
Inferior: Introverted Sensing

Out of interest I considered the other descriptions to see how well I thought they described me.

ISTJ

Serious and quiet, interested in security and peaceful living. Extremely thorough, responsible, and dependable. Usually interested in supporting and promoting traditions and establishments. Well-organized and hard working, they work steadily towards identified goals.

This section didn't describe me.

Well-developed powers of concentration. They can usually accomplish any task once they have set their mind to it.

But I felt that this did.

Overall I'd say that this type does NOT describe me very well.

ISTP

Quiet and reserved. Risk-takers who they live for the moment.

No.

interested in how and why things work. Excellent skills with mechanical things. Usually interested in and talented at extreme sports. Uncomplicated in their desires. Loyal to their peers and to their internal value systems, but not overly concerned with respecting laws and rules if they get in the way of getting something done. Detached and analytical, they excel at finding solutions to practical problems.

Yes.

Overall: Yes.

ISFJ

Quiet, kind, and conscientious. Can be depended on to follow through. Usually puts the needs of others above their own needs. Stable and practical, they value security and traditions. Well-developed sense of space and function. Rich inner world of observations about people. Extremely perceptive of other's feelings. Interested in serving others.

No.

Overall: No.

ISFP

Quiet, serious, sensitive and kind. Do not like conflict, and not likely to do things which may generate conflict. Loyal and faithful. Extremely well-developed senses, and aesthetic appreciation for beauty. Likely to be original and creative. Enjoy the present moment.

No.

Not interested in leading or controlling others. Flexible and open-minded.

Yes.

Overall: No.

INFJ

Quietly forceful, original, and sensitive. Tend to stick to things until they are done. Extremely intuitive about people, and concerned for their feelings. Well-respected for their perserverence in doing the right thing.

No.

Well-developed value systems which they strictly adhere to. Likely to be individualistic, rather than leading or following.

Yes.

Overall: No.

INFP

idealistic. Interested in serving humanity. Well-developed value system, which they strive to live in accordance with. Extremely loyal. Usually talented writers. Interested in understanding and helping people.

No.

Quiet, reflective. Mentally quick, and able to see possibilities. Adaptable and laid-back unless a strongly-held value is threatened.

Yes.

Overall: Maybe.

INTJ

determined. Have an exceptional ability to turn theories into solid plans of action. Highly value knowledge, competence, and structure. Natural leaders, but will follow if they trust existing leaders.

No.

Independent, original, analytical. Long-range thinkers. Have very high standards for their performance, and the performance of others. Driven to derive meaning from their visions.

Yes.

Overall: Maybe.

INTP
Quiet and reserved,.

No.

hard to get to know well. Logical, original, creative thinkers. Can become very excited about theories and ideas. Exceptionally capable and driven to turn theories into clear understandings. Highly value knowledge, competence, logic. Individualistic, having no interest in leading or following others.

Yes.

Overall: Yes.

ESTP

action-oriented. "Doers" who are focused on immediate results. Living in the here-and-now, they're risk-takers who live fast-paced lifestyles. Impatient with long explanations. Great people skills.

No.

Friendly, adaptable. Extremely loyal to their peers, but not usually respectful of laws and rules if they get in the way of getting things done.

Yes.

Overall: No.

ESTJ

Practical, traditional, and organized. Not interested in theory or abstraction unless they see the practical application. Have clear visions of the way things should be. Loyal and hard-working. Like to be in charge. Exceptionally capable in organizing and running activities. "Good citizens" who value security and peaceful living.

No.

Likely to be athletic.

Yes.

Overall: No.

ESFP

People-oriented and fun-loving, they make things more fun for others by their enjoyment. Living for the moment, they love new experiences. They dislike theory and impersonal analysis. Interested in serving others. Likely to be the center of attention in social situations.

No.

Well-developed common sense and practical ability.

Yes.

Overall: No.

ESFJ

Warm-hearted, popular, and conscientious. Tend to put the needs of others over their own needs. Feel strong sense of responsibility and duty. Value traditions and security. Interested in serving others. Need positive reinforcement to feel good about themselves. Well-developed sense of space and function.

No.

Overall: No.

ENFP

Great people skills.

No.

Enthusiastic, idealistic, and creative. Able to do almost anything that interests them. Need to live life in accordance with their inner values. Excited by new ideas, but bored with details. Open-minded and flexible, with a broad range of interests and abilities.

Yes.

Overall: Yes.

ENFJ

Popular and sensitive, with outstanding people skills. Externally focused, with real concern for how others think and feel. Usually dislike being alone. They see everything from the human angle, and dislike impersonal analysis. Very effective at managing people issues, and leading group discussions. Interested in serving others, and probably place the needs of others over their own needs.

No.

Overall: No.

ENTP

and may be into "one-up-manship"., but may neglect the more routine aspects of life. and are stimulating company.

No.

Creative, resourceful, and intellectually quick. Good at a broad range of things. Enjoy debating issues. They get very excited about new ideas and projects. Generally outspoken and assertive. They enjoy people. Excellent ability to understand concepts and apply logic to find solutions.

Yes.

Overall: Yes.

ENTJ
- they are driven to lead. Excellent ability to understand difficult organizational problems and create solid solutions., they usually excel at public speaking. usually have little patience with disorganization and inefficiency.

No.

Assertive and outspoken. Intelligent and well-informed. They value knowledge and competence

Yes.

Overall: No.

I most identify with the following two:
ENTP (which I was identified as from the test) and INTP

And perhaps with these:
ISTP and ENFP.

In conclusion I think this exercise has given me a pretty good understanding of my personality and learning skills. I'm not sure how much practical use it'll be other than perhaps making me more aware of the diversity of people out there, and to try to make my (advanced) technical communication suitible for as many as possible. This attitude sits well with my research into accessibility anyway, trying to make media (in particular Second Life) accessible to all sorts of people regardless of their traits (in this case, physical or sensory traits such as sight or blindness). It also suits my attitude towards interdisciplinarity as this by definition requires resources or people from diverse backgrounds.

Accessible Game Standards

I've been thinking about game audio recently, and was having a conversation with a friend about Valve's Deathmatch FPS release, TF2. I watched a video of some gameplay footage to get an idea what the game was like and was surprised that I recognised some of the audio effects from another of Valve's seminal titles, Half Life (which were also used in HL2).



Specifically I recognised the 'heal' sound that the stations make when they recover your health, shields or ammo, and the weapon select confirmation noise (possibly also one of the pistols and shotgun?). While it's natural to use the same audio in a sequel (HL to HL2), I was surprised that they used the same effects in a title from a totally independent game world (TF2). It works extremely well, though. I instantly understood the significance of the audio cues and hence what was happening in gameplay terms.

This in turn made me think about gameplay mores, about the tropes and aesthetics that have become de facto standards, and how they help familiarise us to new games. But what then of audio games? I wonder if they suffer from underdevelopment such that no standards have emerged yet.

This reminds me a little bit of gaming during the 1980s. This period was characterised by the diversity of games that didn't seem to fit into genres yet. By the 90s I feel that the commercial market had evolved and certain conventions had emerged, for example using the WASD keys for navigating first person games.

This is a particularly interesting point for me as my MA dissertation dealt with embodiment in games, and developed on the extension thesis of Marshall McLuhan and the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, amongst others. The basic premise is that our sense of self is predicated on our sensory experience, which depends on our situated body and it's relation to the rest of the world. In a game environment, mediated by a keyboard, WASD becomes a naturalised and pre-reflective expression of our intentions. The reuse of this form allows us to build up what Merleau-Ponty refers to as the "habitual body image".

The absence of consistent interface semiotics in audio games as with the early 80s games results in the inability to transfer any continuity between any of them.

On the one hand the 80s was a very creative time which I think a lot of people yearn for in their renewed interest in retro gaming, but on the other hand the lack of a shared language of gameplay acts as some kind of barrier, or increasing the learning curve of each and every game. This in turn was an obstacle the had to be overcome on the way to mass commercial viability for the industry.

One possibility for the Second Life project I'm currently engaged in might be to investigate and define standards for audio interaction rather than to create a client. Another aspect of Second Life that is interesting in this regard is the possibility to own land and create environments which can be controlled to be more accessible. For example, I could imagine an island designed for blind users, where all objects emitted audio cues. This might be an easier way to prototype the requirements of a client.

This idea came from thinking about AudioQuake as a mod for an existing game. Second Life is more complicated because the environment is so much more diverse, volatile and not under control as it is in Quake or other games.

Also there's a problem with my current plan for developing a prototype client using just Linden Scripting Language: the only feasible technique for creating spatial audio is to create an invisible object that follows the target object and emits sound, thus indicating the target's location to a blind user. However, this audio will be heard by everyone, and especially the target, which, even though they have the ability to mute the emitter, is very anti-social behaviour! The optimal solution is to develop a dedicated client so 3D audio can be triggered on the local rather than server side, which is approach being followed by the National Science Foundation, and to a certain extent also evaluated in our project.

Perhaps the quickest and most effective solution in the time frame is to simply buy land on which to develop an accessible environment. However, this would require a modest investment of real world money as land in Second Life is sold commercially (at least for now, until the server is open sourced). Fortunately the University of Sussex has now launched our virtual campus so I could use that.

The ultimate solution is to customise the open source client, add support for Wiimote control and use the existing FMOD audio engine to produce 7.1 audio.

Half Life (Windows). Valve, Electronic Arts. (19th November, 1998).
Half Life 2 (Windows). Valve. (16th November, 2004).
Team Fortress (Windows). Caughley, Ian; Cook, John; Walker, Robin. (Australia: 1996).
Team Fortress 2 (Windows). Valve, Electronic Arts. (2007)

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1964)
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. The Phenomenology of Perception. trans. by Colin Smith (New York: Humanities Press, 1962). Originally published as Phénoménologie de la perception (Paris: Gallimard, 1945).
White, Gareth. Emboddied Evil - The Aesthetics of Embodiment in Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. (The University of the West of England, 2007)

Takiri's Game

In this post I thought I'd talk a little bit about some of the other activity I've been engaged in with ATC.

Computer games have become very popular in recent years, as forms of entertainment but also for more serious applications. Geoff's investigating how video games or simulations can be used as training tools. Over on his blog I posted several comments that I'd like to reiterate here as they're relevant to my work on Second Life too. One of the principle areas I identified as being compelling for getting blind users online is the great interest educational establishments have in using virtual worlds as learning tools. This becomes especially important when students are physically unable to attend class as in distance learning or if the student has physical mobility issues.

The question Geoff starts with is "What is a game?" This actually turns out to be important for SL too. A lot of people might mistake it for a game due to the way it looks, but paying a bit more attention suggests the differences that make SL a Multi User Virtual Environment (MUVE) rather than a game.

I start by pointing out some of the discussions that have been important within the game studies community,

Interesting post!

I did my MA on computer games, and in the field of game studies / ludology there are a number of definitions that might be of interest to you. Juul [2003] would be a good place to start. He’s a widely acclaimed ‘ludologist’ (theorist of game studies), and he also includes definitions from other significant scholars. Pay particular attention to Roger Caillois (for an in-depth analysis of the relationships between play and games), Sutton Smith (life-long scholar of play), and Johan Huizinga (classic analysis of the relationships between play and culture more broadly). Finally two that I haven’t read myself but which are also highly recommended, Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman (widely cited video game designers and scholars), and John Paul Gee (video games and learning).

All of these are top-notch reads, but they’re also all quite involved books so might be far too much information! On the off chance that you are interested in taking this further, I think you might be able to find some of them in the university library.

You might also find something relevant in The Journal of Simulation and Gaming (http://sag.sagepub.com/) to which I think the university provides an electronic subscription.

References:

Caillois, Roger. “Man, play, and games”. The Free Press, Glencoe, New York, 1961 (1958)

Gee, J. P. (2003). “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy”. Palgrave Macmillan.

Huizinga, Johan. “Homo Ludens - a study of the play element in culture”. The Beacon Press, Boston, 1950 (1944).

Juul, Jesper. “The Game, the Player, the World: Looking for a Heart of Gameness”
http://www.jesperjuul.net/text/gameplayerworld/

Salen, Katie & Zimmerman, Eric. “Rules of Play - Game Design Fundamentals”. MIT Press, Cambridge, 2003.

Sutton-Smith, Brian. “The Ambiguity of Play”. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.

I then followed up with some further information,

I just came across a reference for Gee in the ACM which you can access from university. It looks like a 4 page summary of his book! I’m going to read it myself now, but it does sound like it might be useful for you too,

http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/950566.950595

@article{950595,
author = {James Paul Gee},
title = {What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy},
journal = {Comput. Entertain.},
volume = {1},
number = {1},
year = {2003},
issn = {1544-3574},
pages = {20–20},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/950566.950595},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

In addition to these references I made some further comments about additional reading, and a conference that he might be interested in too, where I expect there will be several speakers discussing SL,

2nd European Conference on Games Based Learning
The Hotel Silken Diagonal Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
16-17 October 2008

One of the most exciting things for me as a student is being able to meet other people who have similar interests. As computer games (and simulations / MUVEs) become more mainstream the potential for the kind of cross-disciplinary collaboration increases exponentially.

At the HCT Postgrad Workshop last year I was amazed at the number of people studying computer games. It's a really exciting time to be involved in this area. I wonder how my experience differs from students in other fields though. Perhaps as this area is so young it's a lot easier to find a place to innovate in. Alternatively maybe we as researchers are more likely to follow dead-ends as there have been so few trailblazers.

My conclusion to this post is to emphasise community collaboration. I was very happy to be able to help Geoff with his research, and to meet and learn from other games researchers at the workshop last year. The spirit of open discussion on forums, blogs and mailing lists, manifest by the increase in conferences and journals, is probably the single most important feature of our burgeoning community. In other words: advanced technical communication.

Current community discussions

I've reviewed the literature and have identified major themes that are relevant to my work:

Audio for Navigation
Researchers at Helsinki University of Technology have produced some interesting work on using audio in virtual environments. Their experiments suggest that audio is useful for locating objects at a distance, but is a poor substitute for vision at close range.

@article{1101558,
author = {Matti Gr\"{o}hn and Tapio Lokki and Tapio Takala},
title = {Comparison of auditory, visual, and audiovisual navigation in a 3D space},
journal = {ACM Trans. Appl. Percept.},
volume = {2},
number = {4},
year = {2005},
issn = {1544-3558},
pages = {564--570},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1101530.1101558},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

@article{1058321,
author = {Tapio Lokki and Matti Grohn},
title = {Navigation with Auditory Cues in a Virtual Environment},
journal = {IEEE MultiMedia},
volume = {12},
number = {2},
year = {2005},
issn = {1070-986X},
pages = {80--86},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MMUL.2005.33},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society Press},
address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA},
}

@misc{ lokki00case,
author = "T. Lokki and M. Gr and o Savioja and T. Takala",
title = "A case study of auditory navigation in virtual acoustic environments",
text = "T. Lokki, M. Grohn, L. Savioja, and T. Takala, \A case study of auditory
navigation in virtual acoustic environments, Proc. ICAD 2000 ,(Atlanta GA,),
Apr 2000.",
year = "2000",
url = "citeseer.ist.psu.edu/lokki00case.html" }

@misc{ hn-utilizing,
author = "Matti Gr\"ohn",
title = "Utilizing Audio in Immersive Visualization",
url = "citeseer.ist.psu.edu/452324.html" }

@article{1101559,
author = {Matti Gr\"{o}hn and Tapio Lokki and Tapio Takala},
title = {Author's comments on Gr\öhn, Lokki, and Takala, ICAD 2003},
journal = {ACM Trans. Appl. Percept.},
volume = {2},
number = {4},
year = {2005},
issn = {1544-3558},
pages = {571--573},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1101530.1101559},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

Audio for real world navigation
There are a couple of different applications that seem interesting, both concerned with using maps of the real world. One approach uses 3D audio presented to the user of a GPS device as a guide to their exploration, a technique which would be easy to implement in SL. The other interesting technique is the audible representation of a map that the user can familiarise themselves with in order to help build up a mental model of a real world location prior to visiting. Similarly this should be relatively easy to implement in SL.

@inproceedings{1182492,
author = {Wilko Heuten and Daniel Wichmann and Susanne Boll},
title = {Interactive 3D sonification for the exploration of city maps},
booktitle = {NordiCHI '06: Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction},
year = {2006},
isbn = {1-59593-325-5},
pages = {155--164},
location = {Oslo, Norway},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1182475.1182492},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}


Real World GPS / Audio Maps
Games
Physical properties in the virtual world

Second Life Accessibility
A number of people are already discussing the issues and the following trends seem to come up:
Visual impairment.
Most people who are registered as legally blind do have some degree of sight left, so the most common issues are not so much to do with navigating without sight, but rather adapting the display to their individusal needs. This means being able to modify colours and their contrast for the colour-blind, and adjust magnification or screen resolution for low-vision users. These are simple tasks that could be accomplished with relatively little technical work, but my research project takes on the larger and more theoretical task of enabling access to users without the use of vision at all.

Alternate clients
This theme is largely oriented around making SL accessible to screen readers, with the leader being SLeek. These projects only expose a small portion of SL, typically limiting the information conveyed to lists of local objects and avatars, a chat interface and teleportation facility. This approach is the fastest way to get blind users onto Second Life, but gives them little more than a new instant messaging client.

GuideBot
In the real world it is not uncommon for a sighted person to guide the blind, especially in new environments. This theme takes the principle of assistance and tries to automate it by using software-controlled avatars (or "bots"). Josh Markwordt's project is one example, though I believe the complexity of SL, and the ability of users to search for and teleport to specific locations, will limit the usefulness of this approach.

Virtual Representation
Disabled people have a presence in SL already, but these are mostly people who have restricted mobility. Simon Walsh is the owner of Wheelies, a disability-themed nightclub. One of the issues that comes up is the representation of physical disabilities in the virtual world. Avatars can be customised to represent oneself in any way possible, and there is a trend amongst wheelchair users to incorporate representations of chairs in their virtual identities.

For a comprehensive review of the literature, see my other posts:
SLED Accessibility Threads
Disability in SL
Mailing List Fora
Accessibility Analysis


Haptics
Jeff VanDrimmelen, an Academic Computing Expert in the Office of Arts and Sciences Information Services, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill publishes research on a site called Haptic Education - Adding the Tactile Sensation to Virtual Learning.


VanDrimmelen's team have focused on another virtual environment called Croquet, but have also considered Second Life and make some interesting observations,

The creators of Second Life actually started their project out with a large haptic device, but soon abandoned it for more financially appealing options.

In Second Life the only way to navigate with a mouse is to bring up an on screen navigation menu that you have to click to move the avatar. It works okay when the avatar is flying, but otherwise you just end up using the buttons on the handle to move around. However, just in case anyone wants to work with the script, here it is.

In Linden's default client movement is controlled using the keyboard, but in my own research I have recently been able to control by walking and flying using a force feedback joystick (Logitech Wingman Strike Force 3D). This was made possible by using a free 3rd party tool called GlovePIE which VanDrimmelen's team also employed. The tool works by intercepting output from the joystick and injecting the corresponding keyboard signals, such that by moving the joystick left and right the Second Life avatar turns left and right, and moving the joystick forward and backwards moves the avatar forward and back. The same technique is used by VanDrimmelen's team to use the Novint Falcon as input device for Croquet. This approach appears to offer a very quick and easy way to prototype haptics in Second Life. VanDrimmelen continues, however,

It should be noted that about the same time we found the GlovePIE software Novint announced they are working on drivers that will work with not only Second Life, but World of Warcraft as well.

Currently both of these drivers are "in exploration phase" with no estimated completion date. Also in their (busy!) release schedule Novint also describe another interesting product, "Feelin' It: Blind Games™":

Novint will release a number of games that can be played entirely without sight. For example, in a bowling game, you will be able to feel the extents of the lane, feel the weight of the ball as it is thrown, and hear the pins crash down. After throwing the ball and hitting the pins, the game will bring up a touchable representation of how the ball traveled down the lane to guide the user's muscle memory for future shots, and the user will be able to feel with a 3D cursor which pins are still standing. All the information needed to play the game and become a true master, will be available without any graphics.

Further haptic research in Second Life is being conducted by Maurizio de Pascale, Sara Mulatto, Domenico Prattichizzo from the Haptics Group of the Siena Robotics and Systems Lab, in the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica at the University of Siena. In particular they have a paper called "Bringing Haptics to Second Life: A Haptics-enabled Second Life Viewer for Blind Users", which is due for publication at the "Haptic in Ambient Systems" conference, which takes place in Quebec City, Canada on February 11-14, 2008.

Judging from the screenshot, I would imagine that the Siena team are not using the Novint, but rather a different haptic device that has a stylus, perhaps one of SensAble Technology's Phantom range which seem popular in academic research.

Another research project that is of interest as inspiration for our Second Life work is the Haptic Torch from the Interactive Systems Research Group at the University of Reading.

"The unique design of the torch allows users to range from sighted individuals in low-light conditions to people who are both deaf and blind. The torch provides a method of alerting users to presence of potentiol hazards using non-contact measurement techniques. An subtle tactile (touch) interface conveys relevent information to the user while not interfering with other senses." [sic]

Whereas the Haptic Torch is only capable of signifying the presence of objects, the Falcon could be used to reach out and feel their shape, and this immediate physical stimuli will assist the users construction of a mental map of the virtual space.

Why Second Life?

I thought it'd be worth enumerating the motivations for this project and to explain a little bit about what people do in SL.

There's a nice summary called 12 Things To Do In Second Life That Aren't Embarrassing If Your Priest Or Rabbi Finds Out

I don't really blame the people who think there's nothing to do in Second Life. One of the areas where Second Life is weakest is in introducing newcomers to the world. The user interface is confusing, and, worse, once you've got that mastered, it's hard to figure out what to do. The newbie is confronted with an array of cybersex areas, online casinos, and sleazy make-money-fast schemes. But once you get past that initial barrier, you'll find plenty of things to do in Second Life.

I've categorised the typical activities into the following:

Visual
These pleasures are largely inaccessible to blind users. I don't know of any feasible way to overcome this problem, that blind SL users will inevitably miss out on the visual aesthetic of the world. Fortunately there's some potential to convert content into text automatically, for example when using /gestures which are like /emote commands from MUDs. These are quite often used and constitute an important form of communication in themselves. Indeed the categories I'm using here are not intended as strict divisions but rather as conceptual guides for non-players to get an idea of what kinds of things are possible and common.

• See the sights (Visit Amsterdam)
• Dancing

Content Creation
Inaccessible, but with some work scripting might be possible (see also Blind Programming). I have also had the pleasure to interview a blind artist called Amaya Summers. She's legally blind but has sufficient vision to be able to work with the SL client. The fact that she has a job in SL gives here a sense of purpose, structure and meaning that would be difficult to find in the outside world. As with all of these categories there is a large degree of overlap. In this case content creation and trade are tightly bound, and as most content is visual in nature it has a strong relationship to visual aesthetic, and finally the visual aesthetic of the way one customises one's avatar, land, buildings and props is itself a form of communication similar to body language and fashion in the outside world.

• Building and creating things

Trade

Important as a means of self-expression, but mostly oriented around the Visual, making it mostly inaccessible.

• Doing business
• Shopping

Communication
Clearly a major draw for everyone. Particularly compelling for the visually impaired if the interface was made compatible with screen readers. Often blind users find it hard to make new friends, so it would be great if we could make use of SL's potential to act as a venue for new friendships to form. In this category I mean to include everything from learning environments like universities, to performances such as live music streaming, etc.

• Talk to other people
• Listen to live music and attend other live events

Games
A sub-category of Social, and clearly compelling for everyone, perhaps less accessible due to game-specific visual qualities. This allows me to point out that while SL can be used for games, they are not a necessary feature of it as a Multi User Virtual Environment.

• Role-playing games
• Other kinds of games

Citations

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifI've been thinking recently about citations.
I had with Geraldine towards the beginning of this year where she showed me a document containing citations for lots of papers she'd read. We discussed how to save references like these, and I mentioned that in the past I'd relied on the facilities of my OSX computer to manage this material. During my MA I had to read a great deal of literature. I took a theoretical course so it was much more about reading than anything else. My strategy back then was to organise my work using a filesystem hierarchy like so:

University
- Module Name
- - Assignment
- - - References

In the references folder I'd keep downloaded versions of everything I'd read, however briefly. If I spent some time reading a piece then I'd create a text document to accompany the downloaded version which would include the normal citation data (author, date, title, publisher, etc). Following that I'd write up one or two paragraphs about the piece, trying to summarise the important points and give some kind of qualitative indication of what I thought about it. Having to sit down and summarise someone else work was a really useful practice that I think would be well worth including in future ATC courses. It forced me to really consider what the author was saying and to identify the core ideas they used. This practice reinforced my understanding of their work and I felt that it helped me to be able to recall who they were and what they did. In addition when I came to write up my dissertation and I had a lot of references to include it was really easy for me to copy and paste the citation itself, and also to rework my summary into a format that I could include in the body of my work. I still have access to this annotated bibliography and am sure that it'll come in handy for further work that I'll be conducting on video games.

Another thing to remember is to rename files that you download. Typically when I read PDF papers they have numerical filenames (eg, "2534595143623.pdf") which are probably only significant as they key to the database from which they originate. The format I use for renaming is similar to the format you'd use for writing a reference anyway:

Surname, Firstname. [other authors.] Title

Clearly this is much more useful than just a number. It also means that I can search my harddrive very quickly (using Spotlight) to find any documents by a particular author, say.

On reflection the trouble with this technique is that I get duplicates as I would file by module name. It's not unusual to use papers from one module in another - in fact if you're not doing that then it begs the question why you're keeping references anyway...

This didn't become a big deal though.

Geraldine's technique was just to keep a single plain text file with all of the citation info for each document. Simple but effective.

Since then I've been thinking about citations, and have gone off my original method of just typing out the typical data by hand. The problem with the manual approach is that different publications have different standards for references, so you might end up having to edit the format and/or data when you come to insert it into another document. Apparently this becomes a massive task when you have to write up your thesis.

The University of Sussex do offer a course on how to use EndNote, but I couldn't get on as it was full by the time I heard it was available. I took a look at a couple of different formats and decided that BibTex is the most human-readable version of a computer format, and so is probably the best format for me to store my personal annotated bibliography in. Being human-readable is especially important for me as I have an OSX laptop and a Windows PC, so I don't want to use an application that can only run on one of those platforms.

Compare the following for readability,

BibTex:

@article{1326555,
author = {Sergey Yekhanin},
title = {Towards 3-query locally decodable codes of subexponential length},
journal = {J. ACM},
volume = {55},
number = {1},
year = {2008},
issn = {0004-5411},
pages = {1--16},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1326554.1326555},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

EndNote

%0 Journal Article
%1 1326555
%A Sergey Yekhanin
%T Towards 3-query locally decodable codes of subexponential length
%J J. ACM
%@ 0004-5411
%V 55
%N 1
%P 1-16
%D 2008
%R http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1326554.1326555
%I ACM

I'm not entirely sure which is better. EndNote is more concise, but at the expense of having to memorise or infer what the % characters indicate. Either way, if I keep my own bibliography in some standard format then at any time I should be able to convert it into another format if I so desire.

One of the nice things that I've also been doing is maintaining my own personal blogs. Including references in them is pretty handy too because I can include a direct hyperlink to the original document. Having it online is also nice because it means I don't need to worry about syncing between the two computers, nor do I have to worry about backing up my data.

In fact I have another blog that I was using to keep some notes about my DPhil project (which I haven't actually started yet), and one of the draft posts is essentially a TODO list composed of (hyperlinked) BibTex references. This is a list of documents I should read that are relevant to my project. I've been keeping this blog and the list since September last year, so it's getting pretty big now!


You'll notice that in the sample reference above a hyperlink is included as a DOI. This is important (and something I've changed to recently) because it tries to provide a constant URL where the data will always be available from. Normal URLs have a tendency to "rot" or go "stale", that is, when the document is moved the URL no longer functions. This happens over time so it's important to keep your bibliography "fresh" by using DOIs wherever possible, especiially if it's going to be some time before you refer to a particular document again.

Another technique that I've been using recently is following hyperlinked references. Often when I read a paper I want to see the other work they reference, but manually searching for these can be time consuming. That's why I was really happy to see that the ACM list citations as well as references for documents in their electronic library, and many of these are hyperlinked. Following these can be useful to find similar work (that doesn't necessarily turn up in a search, or if you don't want to trawl through all the search results).