Virtual-to-Real World Play Patterns; Sims Used For Solutions?

Shaping Youth Correspondent Sara Grimes (at left) our hands-on research pro in the gaming arena and a smart as a whip academic to boot, (here’s scholarly Sara at ACT Lab) has helped us ALL by distilling the findings from a new study on kids, toys and online play, which she posted on her blog Gamine Expedition. (always on our sidebar if you lose the link!)

Here’s the scoop on stats, consumption, and other trend-tracking measures, but as I always say, consider the source. In this case? The Toy Industry Association (TIA), in collaboration with the NPD Group.

Don’t let that ‘dot org’ on the TIA site mislead, as it’s a nonprofit trade association of over 500 companies accounting for about 85% of domestic toy sales in North America. Not saying there’s bias, just saying ‘always know your sources.’ (for more media literacy, check out Sara’s insightful paper on ‘Researching the Researchers’ including child subjects and the conundrum of ‘informed consent’ ) Anyway, Sara sums:

“According to Virtual Worlds News, the report, entitled Online Play: Earning Mom’s Trust and Children’s Interest, is “designed to help industry players understand what’s driving moms and kids ages 2 to 14 to social, gaming and/or entertainment” sites.

Key findings include:

* 28% of kids who use social gaming/entertainment sites have “purchased either a physical item or digital content from these sites.”

* Many kids spend upwards of 16 hours a week in virtual worlds – “creating avatars, playing games, earning and spending virtual currency, and socializing.”

* Online-offline toys offer “enhanced play value and are the glue that bonds these digital natives…to a new generation of play.”

* Kids rarely go online alone, and siblings play a large role in the online experience. (“suggesting an opportunity for content that can appeal to multiple consumers with team-oriented participation.”)

* Gaming is the primary activity driving kids’ internet use ages 2 to 14: 76 percent of all kids on the internet are “drawn” to social and gaming sites. Furthermore, 75% of 6-to-8 year olds and over 90% of kids over 8 yrs are accessing online content.

Additional findings will be presented at the upcoming Virtual Worlds Kids conference (September 3rd in LA). A big thanks to Izzy Neis for the head’s up.” –Sara Grimes

Yes, THIS Izzy Neis. One and the same…

And if it seems like all of us in the ‘do-good’ arena are talking to ourselves, we kind of are, but for all the right reasons…to glean ‘best practices’ promoting creativity in positive ways! In fact:

Izzy just wrote about a ‘whoa’ heads-up for Club Penguin parents, as there’s a similar sounding “Club THE Penguin” horrid ANTI-animal, anti-eco, anti-conservation ‘edgy/pithy/aren’t we clever’ inappropriate game floating around from VizWoz that I find to be toxic in all regards. Deride me for ‘not having a sense of humor.’ Bleh. Toxic.

Why, oh, why, do people waste brain cells creating this damaging drek brimming with vapid values and ‘aren’t we cool to be using the knock-off name of our rival’ sarcasm.

This is one case in point where I hope Disney uses their clout to ‘club’ these eggheads for brand infringement and creating market confusion to halt this crud in its tracks.

Anyway, back to ‘the good guys’ —trying to do POSITIVE things with games and virtual worlds and learning and such…

Terra Nova has a great post along these lines by Bob McGinley called, “Blending Virtual Worlds and the Real World”

He taps into the many uses and vast potential of simulations applied to human behavior patterns in order to use our creative brains to think of (quel surprise) SOLUTIONS!

We’re talking containment of global epidemics, climate change eco-reversals, as well as the pragmatic sims already in use for virtual surgeries, pilots and even lawyers.

I’m proud to say I wrote the promo/branding for the Stanford Law/CLE’s Interactive Courtroom, “Eliminate the process of trial and error, because there’s no room for error in a trial.” Heehee.

Anyway, here’s what Bob McGinley has to say on why ANY of this virtual hoo-haw even matters…taking it FAR beyond the ‘coinage and consumption’ cues being served up to kidlets from the toy grabs that irks me.

Here goes:

“Its all fun and games, until somebody gets hurt. That’s what my friends and I would say to each other when we were kids and about to do something stupid and dangerous. Like wrestling while climbing trees or using homemade bike ramps to jump over neighborhood friends. Sure virtual worlds and games are fun until something more important comes along. This is starting to change.

There is a revolution of sorts occurring, and the revolution has to do with the remarkable success of some MMORPGs and the increasing popularity of virtual communities. There is a remarkable amount of time and energy put into these the environments, and a growing number of us would rather be in the VU than the RU. The question then becomes how to get people to be productive while being virtual, and this is where the revolution takes place.

It’s all about patterns. We humans see patterns everywhere. Patterns in language, patterns in biology, patterns in design, patterns in motion, patterns in sewing. We create patterns through our behavior and how we solve problems. Because we are self-aware, we can recognize and learn how we develop these patterns, and subsequently, we can teach ways to create new patterns. We develop patterns in our virtual communities and our games. The leveling treadmill creates a very recognizable pattern in many of todays games and team combat games like Planetside create an array of attack and defend patterns.

Lets say we want to study a pandemic emergency, and try to contain the breakout of a new virulent virus strain. These types of simulations already exist to show containment speeds and mortality rates, what they lack is insight into the effectiveness of containment steps and quarantine. Introduce the simulation into the virtual world and allow communities to apply variances to the model, and patterns begin to develop. As the masses collectively think through a problem, knowledge is gained.” —cont. on Terra Nova here

Yep. And he’s just summed up some of the research going on in Second Life right now, as well as HopeLab, Stanford’s Persuasion Technology Lab, and in sims like Virtual Peace.org (the humanitarian assistance training simulator)…even little ol’ Shaping Youth is doing homework in this realm…

How can this apply to kids’ solutions where they brainstorm ways to handle playground politics for example? Cyberbullying? Odd girl out relational aggression? Social status and gender issues for healthy boundaries? Could this help solve ‘date rape’ issues? Peer pressure judgments?

The canvas is vast…Paintbrush anyone? Lend us a hand…