Internet, Google Earth, Disney and collisions

Many of you that know me and have heard me rant about Second Life, Video Games and in general Virtual Worlds and how they could become the way the internet looks in the 5 – 10 year range. Another factor in what was running through my mind was the concept of combining Google Earth and Second Life into a real life version of the real world. While there has been a lot of talk on blogs and in the media about these concepts, we all have our own takes and visions of how it will play out.

Today three significant announcements leaped from the internet to give me a double punch. Two are from Disney, and one in general, but each one is very significant to what a lot of us geeky Virtual World people have been thinking and talking about.

The first is Google Earth. Now Disney world is in the latest version of Google Earth. Check out this info and video. Its a step in the right direction, but it is is singular experience, they will need to make it so that you have other people in there with you to really pull it together, you really need to immersion and interactivity between people to reach the level of engagement needed to hold attentions. They will also need to integrate the 3D camera’s and Nintendo Wii type controllers so your avatar will look like you and pick up your facial expressions as you do them and your movement. The 3D camera and Wii style controllers exist today and I have seen demo’s of them working, so I give it 12 months until its out there for mass consumption.

http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/06/video-disney-wo.html

The next significant bit of info is that a company of Disney’s size and scope sees that their internet division and Interactive media division are not separate, that the blending of the 2D web and 3D web are coming quickly. This move by Disney makes it very clear they see this blending happening sooner than later.

http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/06/disney-merging.html

The third is the estimates on the user base. Just how many people will be using these things? Can the average person learn how to use them and do they have the computer power and high speed internet to handle it? The answers are many people and yes and yes. The fact is that the newest generation is living these things now. Digital natives are so comfortable with these technologies that they can handle working within 3-5 at any given time. The largest amount of investments in Virtual Worlds today is focused on the age group 4 – 18. In essence we are training our children to operate in this new world. Another example is the intensity in which education is embracing this technology. With gas prices so high and the cost of travel so it it makes sense that we eliminated or substantially reduce it. Add in the overwhelming issue of the impact on the environment and its a recipe for a shift of this magnitude.

http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/1-billion-virtual-world-and-mmo-users-by-2018-383126

Mind you 12 months ago this stuff was still fantasy, now its a major leap forward and in 12 more months we will see a lot of work on integration and operability. The various segments will be defined. No longer will it be Virtual Worlds in general, but Virtual Worlds with a niche, such as Business, education, Entertainment and Medicine. This step is critical for the development of serious applications focused on the specific needs of each category.

Brian Regan

Second Life and VW’s some basics we have learned

Replied to an interesting LinkedIn question with the below, I added it here as it captured some of the positives we have found in our exploration of Second Life. 

 

Second Life is a very interesting space. My firm was the first staffing firm in and we have enjoyed some interesting results. Our island HumanResource Island is a professional build, meaning we use it for business purposes. Anywhere from internal Semper training and recruitment to sharing our understanding of interviewing in real life and Second Life with other SL residents for free in the for of free seminars in our virtual conference center. 

 

The fact is, that SL is not something that you drop money into and sit back and say, ok, let the success start rolling in. Its a lot more dynamic than that. Building is just the start developing and maintaining a community even an internal one is key. In other words, it takes constant effort, but effort that is reward with results.

 

Our results have come from successful recruitment of candidates from SL and placing them into real life positions. We have hired some internally or use them as contractors. Some of our training is gaining new levels of success as we understand and adapt to how powerful the immersion effect is on people and how it increases they attention span. We have even gained new areas of income generating business as we start to develop other companies locations in SL, even to the point where we may bridge this new off into a new company.

 

I clearly see a day where I have my 10 geographically dispersed offices working in one virtual office. Where managers can allocate teams based on needs of a geographic region. An office that people thousands of miles apart work shoulder to shoulder. Where their virtual desktops control the real applications they work in daily. A place where a growing number of people for various reasons work from their homes, yet still work in the same room as their teammates.

 

Very exciting times ahead.

 

Brian Regan

President

Semper International 

 

Virtual Worlds and Online gaming more than entertainment?

Great insights on the future of video games and virtual worlds at Cyberposium 13 at the Harvard Business School. The panel consisting of the following people:   

Cory Bridges – Executive VP at Multiverse 

Mark Kern – CEO of Red 5 Studios

Chris Carella  - Chief Creative Officer of the Electric Sheep company 

Curt Schilling – Pitcher of the Boston Red Sox and owner of 38 Studio’s a video game development firm working on a self funded MMO.

 

Philip Rosedale – CEO of Linden Labs, makers of Second Life 

 

Mike Hirshland – A VC that invests in entertainment, web and gaming. 

 

The topic for this great panel are Online games and Virtual Worlds more than just entertainment.  Which anyone paying attention to this space right now understands they are. Serious games and virtual worlds are making significant increases in awareness and applications from education to B2B applications. 

 

Picture of panel: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Semper International assists Second company into SL

The PIA/GATF build was a fun one for us. We learned quite a lot in its development from a flow standpoint. How to make it work well for people as they enter through the use of the roof top football game. Getting our hands around building a site with an association that services the graphic industry was a critical accomplishment.

All and all we are happy with this build and look forward to other small projects. Our focus is still on growing our own talentpool of people skilled in developing in SL and deploying them to the various large SL development firms, however, these side projects assist us in our understanding and also the development of our SL talent. I suppose you can look at it as a testing process for our dev team.

Brian Regan
President
Semper International

Printing Industries of America, Inc.
Graphic Arts Technical Foundation
200 Deer Run Road
Sewickley, PA 15143
Phone: 412/741-6860
Fax: 412/741-2311

Web site: http://www.gain.net/

News Release
For Immediate Release

Contact: Tony Vinski
412/259-1805
tvinski@piagatf.org

PIA/GATF Announces the Grand Opening of its
New Virtual Building in Second Life

Pittsburgh, PA, September 10, 2007— PIA/GATF has entered the virtual world and is showing printers how they can benefit by doing the same. During Graph Expo in Chicago, IL September 9–12, PIA/GATF will introduce printers to its new virtual building within the realm of Second Life. Printers will be able to explore the PIA/GATF building and discover the opportunities available to them without having to make any commitments or financial investment.

Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc., which gained international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. Within it, printers are able to hold meetings, train employees, interview job applicants, promote themselves to hundreds of thousands of potential customers, and even sell virtual products and services for real money in the Second Life marketplace, which generates over $1 Million per month. The possibilities are endless.

PIA/GATF is still exploring all of the possibilities that this new world has to offer the printing industry. The world of Second Life is still being defined. As it develops, PIA/GATF is taking a leadership role for its membership by offering hands-on access to its building, development assistance, and general information and guidance.

Those interested in learning more about this emerging technology and how their business can become involved are invited to visit the PIA/GATF booth at Graph Expo on September 12 at 2:00 p.m. for a 15 minute walk-through demonstration of the new PIA/GATF virtual building, including a virtual store, meeting space, and even a field goal kicking game on the roof. Our building was created by Semper International LLC. Semper International is the first staffing company to open a Second Life employment office and is currently assisting companies in many ways as it pertains to Second Life. PIA/GATF is working with Semper International LLC to offer assistance to member printers interested in pursuing their own virtual business.

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About PIA/GATF: PIA/GATF is the world’s largest graphic arts trade association representing an industry with more than 1.2 million employees. It serves the interests of more than 12,000 member companies. PIA/GATF, along with its affiliates, delivers products and services that enhance the growth, efficiency and profitability of its members and the industry through advocacy, education, research and technical information.

•Semper International™ Opens Video Game Staffing Division

Semper International™ Opens Video Game Staffing Division

Semper International™ Opens Video Game Staffing Division Most Trusted Name in Graphic and Print Staffing Placement Expands to New Market

Boston, MA – September 7, 2007 – Semper International, a company which has dedicated itself to offering flexible staffing solutions to the graphic arts and print community for more than 12 years, today announced it will be establishing a new division to service the video game software development community in the continually growing video game market.

The new division – built upon the highly successful equation which made Semper International the top solution in its target markets – will offer a wide array of skilled programmers, artists and animators to software development houses, whether large or small, across the United States.

“We are extremely excited to be opening our new video game staffing division because with the feverish pace at which the gaming industry is growing the need for specialized software development talent is likewise increasing,” said Brian Regan, President, Semper International. “By using our proven methods of talent acquisition and placement we are poised to revolutionize the way video game development companies acquire personnel.”

Semper International has studied and tracked the phenomenal growth of the video game industry and realizes the value of offering an adaptable, flexible staffing solution to those organizations in need of qualified talent, especially with the increasingly difficult demands each “next generation” gaming system requires. Semper International will be able to provide clients with talented contractors to handle a wide variety of projects – from basic game testing to complex programming and project management. The company will work hand-in-hand with both contractor and client to assure quality and timeliness in all situations.

Through its offices in Boston, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, Orange County (CA), San Francisco, Wayne (NJ), and Washington, D.C., and its online office located in the metaverse Second Life , Semper International plans to partner with both video game software development companies as well as the talent already existing in these markets. By utilizing its flex, flex-to-hire and direct hire solutions, Semper International will be able to easily and conveniently assist these companies with the rapid expansion needed in today’s competitive marketplace.

For more information, visit us here – Click

About Semper International: Semper International, LLC was founded and staffed by professionals who were raised and trained in the graphic arts and staffing industries. Since 1995, Semper has provided staffing solutions – flex, flex-to-hire and direct hire – for the design, pre-press and finishing fields. Its efficient and reliable business model has helped transform how a wide range of graphic arts and print companies, both large and small, fill important roles or stretch production capacity. Semper International now applies this model to the video game and metaverse (fully immersive 3D virtual space) markets. Headquartered in Boston, Semper International, can be reached at 1-800-954-4993 or on the web at http://www.semperllc.com.

Semper International updates its SL presence

August 22, 2007 01:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Semper International Opens New Island, HumanResource Island in the Virtual World, Second Life

New location coincides with company’s new venture into virtual world consulting

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Semper International, the leading placement firm for skilled help in the graphic arts and printing industry, and a growing provider of trained, technical staffing in other high-tech areas, particularly video games, announces it has opened a new island location, HumanResource Island, in the Second Life® virtual world.

Second Life®, developed by Linden Labs®, is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Opening to the public in 2003, it is currently inhabited by over 4 million residents from around the globe. Second Life is an exciting new venue for collaboration, training, distance learning, new media studies and business.

HumanResource Island has been developed to allow Semper to augment its current capabilities in Second Life. With the additional land they will have a much larger location to handle their growing uses for Second Life. The collaborative nature of the virtual 3-D Second Life world makes it an exceptional resource for a recruiting company to interact with clients and talent.. They are already using it as a forum for seminars for clients. The company is also successfully inviting candidates to Second Life to listen to presentations offering job search advice while, concurrently, prescreening them for possible jobs.

With its knowledge and experience in virtual worlds, and its extensive list of programming resources, Semper International has also built a business around Second Life consulting. The company provides expert analysis of whether a client is prepared to build a Second Life location, rules of how to culturally engage with other ‘residents’, and programming resources to build an appropriate site. Companies interested in exploring more can visit http://www.semperllc.com/metaverse/.

“I think it is important to note that our continued use of Second Life is not specifically as a marketing platform. We’re not lining the streets with banners,” explains Brian Regan, Semper International president. “We continue to be impressed with the non-marketing utility of Second Life. For example, the introduction of voice in Second Life has allowed us to use the virtual world as a collaboration tool between Semper employees from different, real-world offices. They are able to meet in our Second Life office for conference meetings. New ideas of how to use it are generated almost on a weekly basis, which is why we were willing to invest in a complete island.”

Semper International’s HumanResource Island can be found at http://slurl.com/secondlife/HumanResource%20Island/196/112/27. A Semper International blog that further delves into their Second Life experiences can be found at http://semperllc.wordpress.com/

“Second Life” and “Linden Labs” are registered trademarks of Linden Research.

- end -

About Semper International

Headquartered in Boston with branch offices nationwide, Semper International is a temporary help placement firm founded and staffed by professionals who understand the positions, equipment, and software essential to their core business areas, assuring a perfect employee-employer match.

To provide career growth, Semper University is an online training program to help employees prepare for upcoming changes in the industry. Realizing how the Internet is revolutionizing the industry, Semper also works with the most talented web designers, graphic designers, desktop publishers and production managers.

For more information, visit Semper International at www.semperllc.com. Semper International’s Second Life office can be found at http://slurl.com/secondlife/HumanResource%20Island/196/112/27.

Common myths about the video game industry.

Common myths about the video game industry.
By Tuan Pham (Contributing writer)

Whenever we chat with our friends in the game industry, there are a few common gripes that always appear. No matter if a development group is large or small, major issues always crop up. This isn’t just talking about lack of pizza or Chinese during Crunch Time; these are pretty serious.

1) Only young male teenagers or college students are into video gaming.

According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the average gamer is 33 years old and has been playing games for nearly 12 years. In fact, 38 percent of all gamers are female.

In fact, serious gaming, a genre in the whole video game industry, is dedicated to using video games as a solution in the fields of health care, education, training and public policy. This wildly deviates from the myth of all gamers are single males who hang out at the local GameStop or Best Buy.

2) Being in the video game industry is just like printing money. There’s a lot of it out there and everyone involved gets rich.

While video game sales are reaching record highs ($7.4 billion in 2006), not everyone is successful. With the release of every blockbuster, such as World of Warcraft, Halo and Grand Theft Auto, there are at least hundreds of titles that end up collecting dust on the store shelves.

3) Only games that are successful are violent bloodbaths.

In 2005, only 15 percent of all game sales were rated M for Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB. While action games do dominate the market to a degree, there are legions of puzzle, childrens’, sports and casual games that are stocked on today’s shelves.

4) Only established franchises or massively multiplayer online role playing games are successful in today’s market.

While franchises such as Madden, Halo and Grand Theft Auto and MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online dominate the headlines, there are other titles who have done well in the market. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games for a list of titles which sold more than 1 million copies. There’s a few that might be very suprising.

Last year, the eighth best selling game in the U.S. was Brain Age, a brain training game for the Nintendo DS. It sold even more copies in Japan. This brain-teasing serious game forces a person to take three educational tests each day to lessen mind fatigue over time. The follow-up, which has already shipped in Japan, will be released shortly in the U.S.

5) Staffing video game companies is cakewalk.

The pool of applicants for video game companies is extremely high right now. Schools are starting to tailor create game design degrees and people in the current generation have grown up with video gaming. However, there is a massive need for established project managers who have worked in high-stress, deadline-based environments as well as raw talent to think of the new games of tomorrow.

While degrees in game design or graphic design are valuable, one of the most important things to have is a solid portfolio of work when applying to game developer. Also, a major plus is experience in the software field in general.

As we chat with our contacts in the field, most of them do not have a game design degree. Some hold a degree in Computer Science, some in Liberal Arts, some that don’t even have college training. But, they are successful in their career.

Breaking into the industry has its challenges. Most, if not all, are surmountable.

Recruiting and Second Life – Blog posts

Spent some time on Friday evening googling “Second Life” and Recruiting. Found some interesting discussions happening from around the world. Decided to share some of Semper’s experiences and how we look at using Second Life as a business tool and as a recruitment platform.

Enjoy.

Brian Regan
Preident
Semper International

The first is from Fallon Planning. The actual blog post was rather short, but the people that posted responses had some good information. This is what I posted in response.

The issue as I see it that large corp’s just dont seem to want to put the effort into making the social networks work for them. I think they will put money into them and then jump out if it is not easily won success. Certainly they have their reasons and that is their call.

My firm Semper International is one of those first firms in, we were the first staffing firm in, although the big ones Like Kelly and Manpower are now saying they are.

These networks do work if you apply yourself to them and you develop the social side of it. We have been successful in Second Life in 3 primary ways.

1) We have extracted contractors out of SL and use them now.

2) We use it for Internal Semper training and communication.

3) We hold mass recruitment parties at our SIm and bring people into SL to prescreen them and pick the ones we want to interview in the RL. You can read more detail on our blog:

http://semperllc.wordpress.com/2007/07/20/semper-internationals-first-mass-presentation-and-pre-screening/

In the end, t takes a lot of people power and effort to message these things into a benefit. However, the next generation is going to be VERY adapted to this type of environment and that is something a lot of people need to understand.

I personally love SL for recruitment purposes.

The next Blog I hit was an HR consulting firm Engage. It was the third post of a three part serious on recruiting in SL.

First off I was flattered that they rightfully acknowledged Semper as the first one in and listed us at the beginning of the list in the first sentence, shows a lot of class. The write up on us was fair as well. They asked if any of the firms in SL wanted to comment, so I took that invitation.

I will respond.

Brian Regan from Semper International here.

I am loving SL as a part of our recruitment strategy. Sure being the first in was a cool PR thing, but we are not terribly interested in making PR posts about doing what we entered there to do.

The reality is that we use our SL presense for more than just recruiting residents out of SL. We actually bring a lot of new residents into SL for mass interviewing for our Video Game staffing division. This has been a great success in regards to mass pre-screening.

There has been a decent result in us extracting talent from SL and even more so, finding talented people for SL projects for us internally for non SL related things.

We tested voice last night and it was AWESOME, we plan on our first internal training seminar for our recruiters and sales force in the coming weeks, once the voice client is more stable.

In the end, we are making SL work for us. It is not a simple thing, but if you think it through and execute well you can make a very good well rounded situation for yourself.

True, some people should wait to enter. If your firm is not designed to be accustomed to change and adapt quicky it is likely better to let those of us that have entered learn and experiment and read our blogs or get the Recruiting in SL for dummies books etc.

Semper International uses Second Life for screening.

One of our Chicago recruiters took things to the next level this evening. She scheduled a mass presentation and prescreening event in Second Life. She targeted Boston and Chicago Game Developers we had received response from or had recruited ourselves and invited them to meet on our Island. They were the right group, game developers, designers and programmers would obviously have no issue with the interface and likely have the needed computers to handle it…she was right.

We had 20 people during the presentation and it went off quite well. We had a pre-scripted text presentation she simply cut and pasted into the dialog chat boxes and it worked perfectly. She had excellent control and everyones attention. We had her presenting, a person backing up things and managing what happened, a security person, an usher and another Semper recruiter.

We had two issues that the security person handled quickly. We had a good response and were able to cherry pick people from the group to interview in real life. We have confirmed interviews in Chicago at this time. It was an effective prescreening tool. You can tell a lot about a person from their ability to write and the types of questions they ask. By watching how they interacted with us and each other before and after the presentation we could really see what levels various people were at and even glimpses into the natural behaviors.

This was a good event for Semper, what we got from it was a sense of success, quality applicants and many notes on enhancements that will lead to much better presentations in the future.

Build your business a Second Life

Wrote up this blog post for Graphic Arts Monthly last month, but thought it was a good basic description for others to enjoy. Original Blog Post

B
________________________________________________________________________________

Build your business a Second Life
Brian Regan, COO, Semper International

There’s a new medium that will provide extraordinary opportunities for printers with vision. It is called Web 2.0. In general, they’re called metaverses, which, described in Wikipedia, are fully immersive 3D virtual spaces; environments where humans interact with each other— socially and economically—using the metaphor of the real world, but without physical limitations.

The most popular metaverse is Second Life. If you haven’t heard of it, you will soon. Second Life is a user-created 3D virtual world. It’s hard to believe that 2D websites will become a blended 3D/2D experience. However, virtual worlds have many advantages over traditional websites. The power to incorporate people viewing the same content brings tremendous advantages to marketing and business applications. As does the opportunity to add a powerful colabrotive tool for training, conferences and recruitment.

Residents make up the population of Second Life; characters that you can meet and interact with. A user moves through the world using an avatar, which is similar to a game character. You can make the avatar an extension of yourself, or a ‘new and exciting you’ that’s anonymous from the rest of the world(s).

Some residents earn their real world income through Second Life. They’re store owners, clothing designers, editors for ‘in world’ newspapers and magazines, graphic artists, web developers, programmers and others who help firms enter Second Life. They’re bright, creative and adaptive to these new environments. Some of them have become real life millionaires just from their ‘in world’ businesses.

Are there customers here for printing firms? You bet. The world is filled with creative people and many of them are marketers and graphic designers involved in real world advertising and design projects. Some of these people are registered with Semper International. We use them in the real world for graphic design, programming and work in Second Life for Semper clients that either want a new Second Life presence or want new features to the existing assets they’ve already built.

Tapping into those groups is a fantastic opportunity for printing firms. I have even seen a few printing firms that have created storefronts. If you can build a network of corporate marketers, who knows what opportunities exist?

Who’s in Second Life now? From the Corporate 500, it would be easier to list who’s not. I know that Fidelity Investments, and a host of other companies, are. Google the following: “Second Life” and IBM; “Second Life” and Xerox; “Second Life” and Coke…the list goes on and on.

What are these firms doing? Most are publicly engaged in marketing activities, trying to understand how to reach the ever-growing resident population. I’ve seen a wide range of promotions; from Coke branding activities to ‘educational’ Weather Channel programs about extreme conditions. Others use Second Life to recruit people. Semper is an active recruiting force in Second Life, as are TMP, IBM, Cisco, Verizon, Microsoft and others. There are lots of other corporate Second Life activities. Semper uses our location for internal training and development. In fact, many colleges currently offer classes within Second Life.

Should you jump right in? That depends. Many companies in Second Life are visionaries or early adopters of new technology. If you’re looking for a fast ROI, this is not a good option right now. Let the early adopters figure it out and buy the “Second Life for Dummies” book when it’s available. But, if you wait, you’re limiting your ability to make a significant impact, as the early adopters will have cornered much of the niches—but maybe some will look to be acquired.

If you’re thinking about entering Second Life, I strongly advise you to hire a consultant (like me!) who has a strong understanding of this new world to determine if you should enter it, help you understand the culture and build your presence. Often I persuade my clients not to enter Second Life. Then again, in many instances there ‘s a compelling business argument.

The metaverse is evolving and you should be paying attention. Web 2.0 firms like MySpace, Second Life and YouTube are changing how people interact and communicate. It’s wise to not only learn, but also adapt to these networks, so you can position yourselves for the future. Maybe your real print world can morph into something else.

Brian Regan is COO of Semper International, involved in recruiting operations for the company as well as consulting clients about Second Life, on behalf of Semper.
bregan@semperllc.com
www.semperllc.com