Experiment Plan In Progress

Ed James Evangelista
DAI 627
Spring 2009

Digital Worlds Experiment Plan


1) Experiment Title: MusicWorld


2) Experiment Scenario:
The experiment takes place in an open area wide enough for a large number of people to exchange and arrange music samples (all attached to objects shaped like notes).


3) Experiment Mechanics:
Players will all start off by choosing one musical note object for themselves, with each object containing a different sound. The players will then interact with one another and share their chosen notes so that they may increase their collection of musical sounds. Then the players will arrange their collection of notes into a “song” by laying them out on the public sandbox in a linear fashion. At the end of the time limit, a group of critics will go to each player and review the players' songs.


4) SL Location:
I'll be using the land provided by Chris Selig, Laura Munoz, and Steve Tse (thanks a lot for the use, you guys). 198, 175, 21 - DAI 627: Design of Virtual Worlds. (on Paradisiac)


5) Roles:
Players (testing single musical note objects) – This group of players will be using objects that are shaped like musical notes, all of which play the sound of a single note. After all of the single-note players obtain one note each, they will have a time limit of 15 minutes to share and collect more notes from other single-note players. The single-note players will then have 15 minutes to arrange a 10-second song with the notes they have collected. After the time limit is reached, players will each be called upon to “play” the songs they created.

Players (testing music sample objects) – This group of players will be using musical note objects that play a sample DJ sound. Just like the single-note players, the DJ-sample players will have 15 minutes after choosing their own musical notes to share and collect more notes from other DJ-sample players. The DJ-sample players will then have 15 minutes to arrange a 10-second song with the notes they have collected. After the time limit is reached, players will each be called upon to “play” the songs they created.

Documenters – The documenters will record all of the players' actions in the game, making sure to take snapshots of their activities and write down notes of their interactions with other players and their objects.

Critics – These are the participants who will review the songs that are created from the arrangement of the notes, providing constructive criticism and opinions.


6) Role Assignments:
Player (for testing single-note objects):
1) Karen Chan (SL Name: Karrie Bloobury)
2) Joshua Greutzmacher (SL Name: JD Mint)
3) I Wuen Wang (SL Name: Jackie Aljon)
4) Jade Liang (SL Name: Rococo Carami)
5) Zachary Rose (SL Name: Russel Skizm)
6) Kimberly Radich (SL Name: Bojangles Copperfield)

Player (for testing DJ-sample objects):
7) Danny Pan (SL Name: Spaceape Cryotank)
8) Delonzo Pope (SL Name: Pingwu MacFanatic)
9) Xiaomin Zhou (SL Name: Starlit Zimmer)
10) Laura Munoz (SL Name: Bomber Oller)
11) Chris Selig (SL Name: Endo Chrome)
12) Alisa Lemberg (SL Name: Aleezza Steamweaver)

Documenters:
13) Ed Evangelista (SL Name: Hugh Frostbite)
14)Stephen Zito (SL Name: Leif Ulrik)
15) Grant Chen (SL Name: Hisame Rae)
16) Martha Renneisen (SL Name: Cassandra Avedon)
17) Brandon Wong (SL Name: Tsuyoshi Kimono)
18) Tara Phettaphong (SL Name: Adele Oximoxi)
19) Zhen Tan (SL Name: Holypig Tigerfish)

Critics:
20) Jane Veeder (SL Name: Jane Valentino)
21) James Molgaard (SL Name: Jamesdaniel Juneberry)
22) Colleen Straw (SL Name: Momo Mohindi)
23) Steve Tse (SL Name: K2 Donogal)
24) Jose Ramirez (SL Name: Oengus Beeswing)
25) Micah Cash (SL Name: Wrest Aldrin)


7) Assets Provided:
Musical note objects will be laid out and awaiting pick-up by the players, who will all be limited to one note object each at the start. Then the players will interact with each other and share note objects at their own discretion to potentially increase their collection for music creation.


8) Participation Preparation:
Other than keeping in mind that the duration of all the sounds attached to the musical note objects is one second, no other preparation is needed.


9) Production Plan:
Not much will be necessary for the purpose of this experiment outside of the musical note objects and land space. The sounds for the musical note objects will be recorded from my own keyboard and uploaded onto Second Life with my Linden Dollars. The sounds will then be attached to notes, which I will build myself and distribute at the start of the experiment.

Second Life Cool Places, Features, Objects, and Scripting

Cool Places in Second Life:

1) PUBLIC SANDBOX Platform - Advert, Mauve (104, 106, 34)

This place was interesting because it was one of the first relatively empty sandboxes I visited, which allowed me to toy around with a lot of things. Plus, there were a whole bunch of freebies and objects left around for visitors to try around (from free clothes to a bicycle to ride in the area). And it had furniture shaped liked Tetris blocks, which was funny.


2) Chaos - Home of Phobos Design & , Chaos (27, 225, 67)

I thought this place was cool because of the futuristic designs applied to the many buildings there. It had a futuristic hotel with a pool, a store filled with various clothes for purchase, and other interesting things.


3) Magicland Park, Bracket (252, 72, 30)

This place was cool because it was an homage to theme parks like Disneyland, going so far as to recreate the Magic Kingdom. There were a good number of rides that did a good job imitating the kind of things you would see at Disneyland.


Cool Features:


1) Building Objects (How To Link = http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sculpted_Prims)

Just being able to build your own custom items is a very awesome ability to grant to a user of this game. If you have the patience to learn, you can make all sorts of things that express your personality and interests.


2) Scripting for Playing Sound (How To Link = http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LlPlaySound)

This feature was particularly useful for me to learn, because it will provide a way for me to test out my Musicworld game concept through Second Life. I've managed to attach two different types of musical note sounds to two objects, and hopefully I'll be able to do more when I get more notes.


3) Creating Teleport Links (How To Link = http://cterport.ed.uiuc.edu/technologies_folder/SL/teleport.html/)

Being able to run and fly in Second Life is great, but for people like me (who tend to get sick after roaming through 3D game realms for long periods of time), teleporting is a great help. It saves time from looking around for places by movement and lessens the amount of motion sickness I suffer.


Building Exercises:

1) My Hat (Made with Wings 3D)



2) My Glasses (Made with Prims in Second Life)


3) My Glowing Music Note (Made using Particle Script)




Scripting Exercises:

1) Musical A Note

After recording an A note onto my laptop using my family's keyboard piano, I uploaded the sound onto Second Life. Then I used the PlaySound script from the tutorial and attached it to a note-shaped object. The script was fixed so that the A Note would play when the object was touched.


2) Musical G Note

The same process from the A Note was used here. I recorded a G Note onto my laptop and uploaded the sound onto Second Life. After typing and attaching the appropriate PlaySound script to another note-shaped object, I had the new note play the G Note when it was touched.