ThinkBalm storytelling series issue #1: "Role-play redux: 'Convince the curmudgeon'"
By Erica Driver and Sam Driver.
Click this image to read or download the report in PDF format.
On December 4, 2008, fifteen members of the ThinkBalm Innovation Community gathered in an immersive environment for 90 minutes to try to convince our curmudgeonly “boss,” a role played by community member Christopher Simpson of George Brown College, that our fictitious organization should be making Immersive Internet investments. The group met in the community’s region on ReactionGrid, an OpenSim grid. We met at “The Precipice,” a simple meeting space ThinkBalm set up atop a cliff, designed to be conducive to risk-taking. We sat around a large board room table, with Christopher Simpson at the head of the table sitting up a little higher than the rest of us. Christopher started the conversation by stating some of his objections to enterprise use of the Immersive Internet, and then the rest of us jumped in and fired off a steady stream of arguments in favor of it.
With the help of seven eight ThinkBalm Innovation Community members — Alexander Casassovici, Chris Hart, Christopher Bishop, Donald Schwartz, Jeff Lowe, Leslie Ehle, Marc Sirkin, and Robin Gomboy — we wrote ThinkBalm’s first issue in the Immersive Internet Storytelling Series, titled “Role-Play Redux: ‘Convince The Curmudgeon:’ The ThinkBalm Innovation Community Shares Lessons Learned.” For a PDF of the article click this link or click the image of the article’s cover.
© 2008 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.
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I read with interest your report on Roleplay Redux, but unfortunately think it was rubbish:.1, the Reaction Grid, like all OpenSim grids is limited in usability when compared with Second Life. 2. Most the roleplayers were obviously not immersed in virtual world technology with the admission that they hadnt or couldn’t use voice/VOIP/ or other means of communication seamlessly (Experienced SL roleplayers, if they use voice and most don’t , were using Skype etc in world long before SL voice came on the scene. 3. Most experienced and immersed roleplayers turn off their avatar typing text mode – a facility within SL – because it interferes with AOs, sitting animations, tool using animations, gestures etc. 4. Text is used in most roleplays to allow a degree of scene setting to convey feelings, thoughts etc. 5. IMs are normally used as an OOC backchannel as are group IMs. 5. The setting for you roleplay lacked the normal virtual cues for this sort of decision-making. 6. Although the participants may have learned the initial basic rudiments of roleplaying with this exercise, it could in no way be said that this was actual roleplaying. 7. I would suggest to get immersed in roleplaying one should take roleplaying lessons on simulations like Incorrigible, Ancient Ireland etc. It is only then one will know how roleplaying can be used in a work environment. Otherwise exercises of this nature are a weaste of time and effort.
John: Thanks for your comment. To be sure, a role-play like this one — and the follow-on one we have scheduled for early December — are not for everyone. The purpose of these events is for participants to practice communicating the value of immersive technologies to business decision-makers. In this kind of session we all learn from one other.