WEEK 5: Virtual Worlds and MMOGs

This installment totally and immensely had me written all over it. I am a nightly visitor to the Ysera realm of Azaroth and accompanying continents in the World of Warcraft. I have several toons, characters...avatars, but one "main." Her name is Angenavive and she is a Human Destruction Warlock and has ascended to the maximum level of 80. Her family (guild) by choice is called Draumaless which has around 300 total toons (some of which are "alts"-alternate characters of someone's "main"). My alts are Moonprowler (level 73 Night Elf Druid Healer), Miseri (level 60 Draenai aka Alien Holy Paladin), Chicamuerta (level 61 Human Unholy Death Knight), and Magentila (level 41 Human Fire Mage). Judging by the levels you can see that I am very active in my online virtual world. This particular world is referred to as a MMORPG (Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game). Actual role-playing is optional based on ones personal taste in types of play. This and games of this type are goal orientated war type games and W.O.W. in particular has over 10 million subscribers.

Now the type of virtual social worlds referred to this time is somewhat close however the bottom line purpose is to have a community of collaboration and commerce and essentially learn while you're not looking. Key elements introduced in relationship to these virtual worlds are as follows.
-Creates a sense of self (avatar)
-Creates a death of distance (through instant portals or flight)
-Creates a Power of Presence (sharing an event or experience)
-Creates a Sense of Space / Perception (size can be manipulated)
-Creates the Capability to Create (while documenting accountability and reputation)
-Creates a Pervasiveness of Practice ("How Do I..?" is part of the learnscape, culture or community)
-Creates an Enrichment of the Experience (breaching disability or distance)

An acronym of significance:
F low
R epetition
E xperimentation
E ngagement
D oing
O bserving
M otivation

No matter which virtual community interests you, the typical intent is to escape reality or augment reality in some way. Each and every day more and more people around the world discover and embrace this very important tool that is beyond web learning 2.0 and into web 3-D.