Daily Trojan USC.edu

Issue date: 1/23/08 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Candice Yoo | Daily Trojan

USC's Information Technology Program's annual scavenger hunt was set to begin Jan. 22, but met an mediocre reception.

Response to the scavenger hunt was so low that it has been postponed until more students sign up.

Last year, about 150 students joined, but this year just six students had signed up as of Jan. 18.

The scavenger hunt's rules are undeniably simple: Solve three clues over three weeks and be entered into a lottery that pays out an iPod nano, an iPod shuffle and a $30 iTunes gift certificate.

So what's the catch? Participants will hunt for the clues in a virtual world. They will look for them in the game Second Life, a 3-D online virtual world in which users create avatars, play, do business and interact in a convincing simulation of - big surprise - a second life.

While the change is offputting to those unfamiliar with the scavenger hunt, I consider this to be the type of proactive change an information technology department dedicated to cutting-edge technology is supposed to make.

ITP director Ashish Soni said using Second Life is becoming more popular in academia. There are more than 200 universities using it, Soni said.

Santa Clara University unveiled its island in the Second Life last year to a mixed welcoming. Many students were irked by the island's $20,000 price tag - nearly two quarters' tuition spent on virtual buildings.

USC's Information Technology Program, however, says its island was developed in-house and was produced at no additional cost.

Last year, the department limited the hunt to objects in the real world and sent clues to student participants through text messages.

With a more realistic simulation, switching the hunt to a virtual world is very beneficial.

Second Life residents exchange genuine greenbacks. Want Mini-Me to look good? Fork over 50 cents for the latest designer jacket created by a musician in Tempe, Ariz. or a mom in Toronto.

What players create in the game is their own intellectual property. Since the demand among players in the game for virtual goods is so high, they exchange real dollars.

Players can purchase everything from furniture, weapons, body parts or haircuts; build custom character animations or clothes from scratch; or construct swimming pools, plan office parties, and, yes, even visit strip clubs - there are many strip clubs.

Second Life has been estimated to churn a monthly economy of more than $6 million and has already produced its first real-dollar millionaire.

So how can one consider this, or other massive multiplayer online games, to be mere virtual hobbies?

But that's the point. They're not. Second Life's 10 million players don't think so and neither do its emerging advertisers.

Real companies - American Apparel, Wired magazine, Sony, Toyota and Adidas - are spending real money to build replica stores in the game. Wells Fargo built its own Stagecoach Island on which Second Life players "explore the island and its hidden secrets, connect with friends and make new ones," and at the same time learn smart money management.

Sounds quaint. Even Reuters has a full-time beat writer reporting stories from this virtual world.

Television and print ads are no longer effective at catching people's media-saturated eye.

Corporations have turned to interactive media such as forums and videos, but their attempts seem cheesy and fake.

How many people actually read Procter & Gamble's blog?

Cyber communities like Second Life and Facebook are corporations' next attempts.

It's tempting to label these virtual worlds as crass advertising by the companies or psychological escapism by their players.

But I disagree. Internet-based games are multifaceted and present their users with new opportunities to innovate and communicate.

Do they border on the absurd? Sure. But they're also part of our economic reality, and, for that, any technology- or business-based department should be smart enough to entice students to become more familiar with them.

I'm not saying that digital life is a replacement for the real thing. I am saying that the medium is as much about art as it is about advertising. And it pays to understand both sides (in this case, literally).

My hunch, though, is that new technologies are expanding too fast to follow.

People are having trouble staying technologically literate and are hesitant to take the next step and join a virtual world they don't yet understand, which is why turnout in ITP's scavenger hunt is so low this year.

Still, the department is pulling in the right direction.

Now, what was I supposed to be looking for?



- Daniel Tkach is a senior majoring in English.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools