1st Academic Conference held in the World (of Warcraft): "Convergence of the Real and the Virtual" Conference

So, I thought I'd just upload a few quick pics of the conference session that I attended, through the power of caffeine and some late evening visitors beforehand. The session I attended was on last Saturday at 12:30 Eastern US time (which translates to 2:30am START for me... how convenient.)

All of the discussions were held in guild chat, and it was interesting sitting around in a cavern full of avatars, all sitting and doing nothing. It seemed very unnatural for wow, and perhaps represents an attempt to colonise the popular phenomena that is WoW by academia. That said, there was some audience participation in the form of /agree /nod and /cheers at interesting points, but overall, it was an experience very detached from normal every-day WoW.

Here's a couple happy-snaps I took of the session that I attended (the 2nd session) and it was held in the Undercity.

Aww, lovely - we're fishing for Orks-es

Left hand side shot of the cavern it was held in

Accompanying right hand shot.

So, there were about 230 people online at the time, with maybe 200 of those actually in attendance. The discussion was kinda interesting, but not particularly illuminating. Constance someone from Germany made probably the most interesting points, and I've got a transcript that I've started editing and might include some of the more interesting points.

Like I said earlier though, the most interesting aspect of the conference was just gathering 200 academics from around the world and watching them interact. The build up to the conference and the activities where everyone got involved seems much more interesting, and I think they could support a conference type structure in themselves.

Coming soon: Update on the 'Call of Duty' presentation I gave to my Honours class, and some more ideas it spawned about VR and Immersion. Till then.