“The reason we started funding the development of these games was to teach soldiers”, Dr Macedonia told the website Gamespot. “That was our audience–not civilians or kids in high school, but soldiers”. To Macedonia, the AWE [Asymmetric Warfare Environment] wasn’t a game at all. “Our thing is not making people shoot better; it’s make people think better”. It was the role-playing, not just the point-and-shoot features, which made the There game engine so appealing to the US Army. “What’s a soldier’s experience in Iraq or Afghanistan? Who’s the enemy? How to I get these people to not necessarily like me, but to relate to me? How can I keep a riot from starting when the food runs out?” Macedonia said.
Tim Guest, Second Lives: A Journey Through Virtual Worlds, p.196
Inhabited virtual worlds (or multi-user virtual environments) encourage role-play. We construct and present personae through our avatars that may effectively assume a life of their own. This may present dilemmas, offer opportunities, and [t.b.c.]
language learning [t.b.c.]
etc
