How to Grow Up in Virtual Worlds

Yesterday I read this article from the New York Times with curiosity:

Web Playgrounds of the Very Young. The article highlights the fact that many adults are probably still not aware of what's going on in terms of a shift from passive forms of media, such as TV and movies, to more interactive forms of media. As DVD and box office sales continue to disappoint, companies such as Time Warner, Disney, Mattel, and Lego are all preparing for increased demand:

"Get ready for total inundation,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at the research firm eMarketer, who estimates that 20 million children will be members of a virtual world by 2011, up from 8.2 million today.

While various adult worlds like Second Life sit amuse adults briefly, but then fail to attract return "business," kid-oriented sites are generating healthy revenues, and the companies behind them are preparing to expand their offerings with movie and physical product tie-ins.

The fact is that many adults aren't able to relate to the experience of virtual reality, and they don't necessarily see how it mixes with their 'real life.' However, if a child is introduced to the concept of virtual reality from a very young age, then might we assume that those children wouldn't necessarily sense a 'disconnect' of experience? Groups such as Disney are currently developing a scaffold of product experiences (in exactly the same way that they've done traditionally), in order to draw children into their virtual magic kingdoms, even as they grow older. In much the same way that children can begin with stuffed toys, and then advance to building blocks, and so on to more sophisticated toys, they will so be introduced to to age-based virtual worlds.

Online worlds can provide children with opportunities to problem solve, and to receive feedback that they wouldn't receive on their own - even if the feedback is based on 'artificial' intelligence. These worlds can be innocuous, fun, violent, money-grabbing, educational... or all of the above! The choice of a safe environment or 'world' for children to play in may be an initial decision for parents, but it probably shouldn't stop there. Actually talking to children about their virtual environments, and occasionally 'walking you through' their private universe is an essential way to link the physical to the virtual.

A concept that seems to be missed frequently is that the online worlds that children play in are not entirely virtual: they consist of an initial layer of programming, and then a complex interactive layer of real people sitting at their computers or their game consoles. Children who know each other in real life often explore virtual worlds together, and they discuss their worlds in real life - I've certainly heard kids talking about their adventures in Starcraft, Runescape, or World of Warcraft. Shared experiences can act as cultural touchstones to bridge from virtual to physical interaction - which is also where some of the risk lies.

The smarter companies in the gaming world have instituted safety technology, and they also employ staff to monitor the safety of their 'digital playgrounds.' However, as an extension of this, I wonder whether truly smart companies can give parents even more of what they want - not just 'parental controls' that give kids access to the Internet or 'safe sites' for a limited time each day/week, but 'smart worlds' that automatically give kids time outs, or vary their experiences, or provide them with educational opportunities on top of the gaming.

It's not healthy for anyone to be stuck inside a pattern of taking care of a virtual pet...or a family of SIMS beyond a reasonable length of time, therefore, I hope that the gaming industry is thinking about building 'automatic variability' into their computer-mediated experiences.