Using Virtual Worlds and Games to Improve People Performance and Impact

1
Using Virtual Worlds and Games to Improve People
Performance and Impact

• James Lundy

2
Which Kind of People Would You Rather Have
Working in Your Organization?
Passive Paid to work Static Sequential Stand
alone Learn to do Single-tasking
Active Plays to work Dynamic Parallel
Connected Do to learn Multi-tasking
or
Is your workplace ready?
3
Key Issues

• What are the business trends and technology
  drivers for virtual worlds, gaming and
  simulations?
• How will immersive techniques and tools evolve
  through 2012?
• How can enterprises use immersive technologies to
  improve workforce performance and increase
  business results?

4
The Evolution of Games and Virtual Worlds
User-createdcontent
2.5-D gaming/simulation
3-D gaming
MMOG
Visualization/simulation
Addition of user-createdcontext
Virtualworlds
3-D virtualmicrocosms
Open-sourceMetaverse
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Technology Evolution Impacts Games, Virtual
Worlds and Platforms
Yesterday
Today
Tomorrow

• PCs, GUI
• Instant messaging
• Mobile phones, SMS
• Internet

• Wireless
• Rich media
• VoIP, Peer-to-peer
• Games / NVEs

• New chip sets(e.g., IBM-Sony cell)
• Web sites become "platforms"
• 3-D graphics

Games
Virtual Worlds
Platforms

• Bidirectional economy
• User-created content and IP ownership
• Persistent changes
• Undetermined goals
• Mastery Forever since content is based on
  personal interaction

• Knowable (simple) rules
• Intentionally difficult
• Immediate goals
• Designed for mastery in 40 Hours
• Live Versions extend game shelf-life

• Unidirectional economy (usually!)
• Limited content creation and ownership
• Predetermined environment
• Nonspecific goals

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Technology Attributes
Games
Simulation
NVE
Design Tools
Some
Many
Few
Programmer Skills
High
Average
Average
Collaboration
Common
Rare
Frequent
Reuse
Uncommon
Frequent
Possible
Days- Weeks
Weeks-Months
Apps. Deployment
Months- Years
Medium- Long
Learning Curve
Short to Medium
Short
Bus. Applications
Few
Many
Some

• Attributes for Business
• Risk Mitigation
• Predictive Analysis
• Time to Competency
• Performance

• Drivers For People
• Motivation
• Interactivity
• Productivity
• Experience

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Networked Virtual Environments Prototype Virtual
Marketplaces
NVEs have

• Social classes and structures
• Communications
• Career growth move to the next level
• Economies, currencies, wealth and poverty
• Products and services, real estate
• Crime, fraud, censorship, emigration . . .
• Prototypes for the future of virtual work
• Better and more entertaining collaboration than
  any tool your company has ever deployed.
• Your customers may be there already
• Customer communities, hybrid commerce
• New business models, "earning" digital goods,
  rather than "buying" digital goods.

...but, also present challenges and Opportunities
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Examples of SuccessMarketainment, Infotainment,
Edutainment

• UN World Food Program's Food ForceUses 3D gaming
  to teach about famine relief.
• Game-like Web sites using Flash or other rich
  clientsCar, kitchen, house walk-through.
• Unisfair virtual trade showsTrade shows and user
  conferences in a Second Life for business.
• Are your customers in MMORPGs?Product placement,
  advertising and viral marketing opportunities,
  advertising avatars.
• Avatar-based virtual communities for product
  support and loyaltySecond Life Islands for IBM,
  ABN-AMRO, Dell
• Simltyour company or industrygtSimulators for
  specific processes and decisions, tailored for
  individual companies and industries.

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Anatomy of an Immersive Environment
Commerce
Advertisement
Account Balance
Search
Map / Location
Socialization
My Avatar
Navigation
Presence and Messaging
My Stuff
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The Growing Shift toward Multiplayer
Collaboration
Virtual Worlds (NVEs)
Limitless(Free Play)
Multi-player Immersive Simulations
Immersive Simulations
Playstation Network
1-2 Player Consumer Games
Hard Coded Tasks
Xbox Live
Individuals
Teams
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New 'Worlds', Old Problems
Real World
Multiple NVEs
Time and Space
People Profiles, Behaviors, Skills,
Preferences, Performance
Modeling, Processes demographics, interactions,
transactions
Avatars Properties, Attributes, Settings, Scores
Real Environment
Explore, Experiment, Collaborate, Perform, Learn,
Analyze, Test, Anticipate,
Data collection, transactions, decisions,
estimation, innovation
Implement, Assess, Collaborate, Execute, Monitor,
Analyze, Fix,
Persistency, Presence, Interactivity

• Challenges
• Interoperability (multiple worlds)
• Integration (legacy apps, devices)
• Usability (commands, shortcuts)
• Standards (different interfaces per land, world)
• Security, availability, scalability

• Real Environmental Issues
• Culture, Time zones, Language
• Learning Curve
• Privacy
• Regulations, laws, currency
• Etc. etc. etc

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Contextual Analytics 'Play and Score'
Simulations, NVEs and Game-Based Scenarios
Predicting and Monitoring
Scores and Ranking
Skills evaluation assessment readiness
Performance
Management
Engagement
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Community and Interactivity Indicates the NVE
providers
Persistency
Community
SecondLife
CyWorld
Entropia
Gaia
There
Playdo
World ofWarcraft
Sims
HabboHotel
MySpace
Everquest
VirtualLagunaBeach
Focus
Amazon
Spore
GoogleEarth
EBay
E-CommerceWebsite
TypicalWebsite
Individual
Low
High
Interactivity
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Games for a Purpose When to Go Virtual?

• Real environment is hazardous or costly
• Environment encompasses large virtual spaces
• Large number of parameters manipulated
• Tasks are of a hands-busy nature
• Perspective is important
• Need presence to understand environment

High
Multiplayer Games Simulations
Single player Games
Facilitated discussion
60
Engagement
Problem solving (Teamwork)
50
40
QA
30
Collab. Case study
20
Lecture
Voting
10

Collaboration
Low
High
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Drivers to Target for Building a Business Case in
NVEs
Collaboration
Learning

• Ability to interact with others
• High degree of affinity with Avatar
• Good participation levels

• Live Teaching mode
• Embedded Simulation
• Compare/Contrast versus Traditional Method

Commerce
Marketing/Branding

• Events/Conferences
• Information Sharing
• Brand building
• General PR

• Pilot Information Sharing
• Link to Website
• Virtual Stores

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Countrywide's Case Study
Video Presentation

• Objective
• To reduce corporate new employee orientation time
• Solution
• Second Life as a possible technology platform
• 1 to 2 hours to explore the virtual corporate
  university to learn about how Countrywide
  generates revenue (Loan administration, banking,
  etc.)
• Metrics
• New hire evaluations
• New hire assessments
• Benefits
• Reduce orientation time
• Enhanced collaboration
• Business results improvements
• Lesson Learned
• Communicate what a virtual world can do for a
  company.
• When advocating virtual worlds to upper
  management, focus on terms they can
  conceptualize.

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ROI, VOI, Pilot Rollouts to Consider

• Low Risk Short Term
• E-Recruitment
• "On boarding"
• Performance improvement
• Promotional tool

• Higher Risk Long Term
• Training and Education
• Product Design
• Product Deployment

Tangible Benefit ROI
Intangible Benefit VOI

• Throughput
• Resources costs
• Travel expenses
• Facility cost
• Time
• Logistics

• Efficiency
• Safety
• Knowledge
• Motivation
• Risk Mitigation

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Challenges and Barriers

• Connection to Business Goals
• System Costs (equipment, space, people)
• Reliability and Network Bandwidth
• Security and Accessibility
• Content Appropriateness
• Development Complexity
• Proprietary technology
• Scalability (geography of scene, net distance,
  population, etc.)

Business justification will remain the biggest
challenge through 2010
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Summary/Conclusions

• Test and experience games, simulations and NVEs
  internally first.
• Make interactions and collaboration among people
  more productive and more dynamic.
• Target marketing, learning and communication
  opportunities first.
• Strategize the use of NVEs externally based on
  your business goals for your customers and
  partners.
• Remember NVEs are threats as well as
  opportunities, e.g. fraud, cloning, reputation