Venture Beat

Venture Beat, (Silicon Valley), April 17, 2009:

Rita J. King

I am writing this from Lafayette, Louisiana, from the Digital Workforce conference hosted by 3D Squared at the Lousiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE), where teams of young virtual environment and game designers are currently practicing the presentations they will deliver today to a live audience that includes legislators. The demos are based on games intensively designed in Raph Koster’s brand-new web-based virtual world, Metaplace under the guidance of 3D Squared.

Spencer Zuzolo, president of 3D Squared, said the program shows that young people have a natural affinity for 21st century workforce skills and that they need academic programs that help them more formally transform their interest in games and immersive virtual environments into realistic career and education paths.

These students, who earnestly introduce themselves as programmers, concept art designers and producers, are on the edge of a new era in which their skills and passion will be put to use in a changing global culture and economy. A student named Charlie, 14, spoke like a showman about his team’s game, “War of the Wetlands,” that centers on preventing coastal erosion through educating people in an immersive environment.

All of these students are working tirelessly to create thriving lives for themselves. Their work demonstrates that the digital culture is an opportunity for serious thinkers to tackle intrepid challenges with innovation, and that in creating immersive environments they are also inventing a vibrant future for themselves, their local region, and the world.

http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/17/guest-editorial-how-i-became-a-virtual-world-believer/