Virtual Activities: Virtuous Or Perilous?

Three University Of Southern California experts discussed at AAAS 2007 in San Francisco.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN VIRTUAL WORLDS

JOSHUA FOUTS, director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, discussed: the first competition to develop an online game that promotes public diplomacy; the center's use of its island in Second Life as a laboratory for experiments in virtual public diplomacy by the State Department, foreign ministries of state, and prominent think-tanks; and the advantages of virtual worlds over web sites or other media for public diplomacy and cultural exchanges.

VIRTUAL THERAPY FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES

SKIP RIZZO, research scientist in the USC Institute for Creative Technologies and clinical psychologist, plans to take a cautious position on the ethics of virtual therapy. While acknowledging the value of virtual worlds for support groups and other applications, Rizzo discussed the possible consequences of patients choosing to forego professional care in favor of self-diagnosis and treatment in-world. Rizzo has developed several virtual reality applications that extend rather than replace conventional therapy, such as a game-based treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

EXPANDING THE LITERARY MIND BY VIRTUAL PLAY

DOUGLAS THOMAS, associate professor in the USC Annenberg School for Communication, argues that massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), such as World of Warcraft, provide a fundamentally different type of learning than available through traditional education. A longtime MMOG player and scholar, as well as editor of the journal Games and Culture, Thomas believes MMOGs allow players to form "conceptual blends" that provide a better understanding of both the physical and virtual world.

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Contact: Carl Marziali
University of Southern California