I checked out the Second China sim, it is what it was designed to do, an economical way of pre-training staff without having to send people over to China. As such, its really like a decor, dry, and the avatar-wearing-robots are really awful to interact with, I wish they look like themselves; a robot instead of wearing human skin and clothes. It has a dimension thats eery, as if these (Chinese) people are also rote-spulting robots only - I think the designer should put robots (if they really cant afford to pay real people to wear the avatars) - cute robots in its place - it will make the place more charming. Unless these avatars are really worn by real people, its not a good idea - it feels cheap, cheapens the training experience for the trainees!!!
Take for example, on Samurai island, I had a teahouse experience at my early days in sl, i was surprised when i was greeted by a maiko getup avatars, 2 of them! even they were only paid like 25cents an hour, students on summer job from Australia - i had a good experience, it was a human interaction. I was able to talk to them beyond the role of maiko - if all they were allowed to say were the mechanical maiko chat, how terrible would that have been? It would be exactly like a robot ! But because these greeters were real people, they behave in very subtle human ways with variations.
Trainees should be trained by real people, otherwise, you disrespect the value of the time trainees spent on the program and you also take lightly the opposite party whom you are trying to interact with. This is not kung fu training; where the va and viens is mechanical; its human interaction.
Avatar robots is a robot! Lets not pretend its human and cheapen our human relationship! Hire some real people, pay them something and the place will be more alive, with real experiences.
I think they should do like Samourai Island; hire some people.
The University could still do training - do it at specific hours, and mix it with real greeters, pay somebody. Dont skimp on this critical important part, otherwise you will be pre-training your staff to be robot like because your trainers are robots!
Right now; its a dry place; wasted time and opportunity for human enrichments, and presents a cheap image, along with poor experience to the training program itself.
Why not make things fun for everyone?
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http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/10/university-of-florida-puts-125m-grant-into-diplomacy-training-for-second-life.html
October 31, 2008
University of Florida Puts $1.25M Grant into Diplomacy Training for Second Life
University of Florida engineers have launched a project in Second Life to foreign service and other government workers for diplomatic missions to China. Second China is funded by a $1.25 million federal grant and offers generic Chinese city for visitors to explore and proceed through various activities. One, for example, simulates a visit to an office building for a conference event where the user must choose appropriate clothes and a gift, proceed through official greetings, and learn about seating patterns and rules. Another building features a tea house with history lessons for the user about politics and culture.
Oddly, though, the receptionist and other points of interaction aren't controlled by users. The researchers promote the use of bots as allowing, along with a Web-based tutorial, 24/7 access and a repeatable, measurable experience. I can understand those benefits, but it does seem to sidestep the bigger benefit of virtual worlds like Second Life for education--actual interaction. The team has spent the last year in development and will spend the next year evaluating Second China's effectiveness.
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