Hello, Carrion Queen,Carrion Queen wrote: ↑Fri Aug 04, 2023 4:21 am I'm still gauging my time/energy levels/ other factors as far as participation but I do have a few questions.
1. Does there have to be two lunch periods? It says there's a lunch period where kids can go eat Cyber food in the cyber cafeteria but that doesn't provide any actual caloric or nutritional value, so does there have to be a second lunch period so people can leave Cyber and get a sandwich in the real world so they don’t pass out?
2. Is the school server inaccessible at night? When does the school server close, if it does?
3. If some of the things in the Cyber school are programmed to be as close to a real school as possible (the grass being dry, the food being mediocre) what are the advantages of going to the Cyber school versus going to the real school? Is the planetarium the only thing the Cyber utilizes to enhance the learning? What explanation do they give parents for some things being programmed purposefully of lower quality instead of perfect when they could be perfect and one assumes parents generally want things to be the best?
4. What is the cost of the headsets and computers capable of running Cyber to the students? Not an exact number, but are these things expensive? If you can't afford one, is there some kind of program to help with that?
5. Why are first-person shooter games relegated to the dark web instead of just coming with heavy warnings for the upsetting nature of the games? Those sorts of games exist for VR currently and I suspect they would be popular military recruitment tools. Are there military recruitment servers or government-sponsored areas that would use first-person shooters or ego shooters rather than them being shuffled to the dark web? Would this school have JROTC? I know it says there are fears this would allow dangerous people to learn how to use weapons, but it's not that hard to get ahold of weapons in the real world in America, even in California.
6. I see in the information that you can change the gender of your avatar but need to inform and presumably have the OK from school faculty first. I was thinking of creating an NB or gender fluid character. If someone is gender fluid and they want to change the presentation and gender from day to day, do they need permission every time? Are they in danger of getting locked like it says could happen with changes to hair length? If your avatar is generally androgynous looking or if you just change gender without changing appearance, how do they know you changed that? Is there some kind of symbol on your avatar? Is it in some kind of metadata or a profile?
Thanks for responses
We on the SOTF: Cyber official staff team apologize for the recent delays in maintaining the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) thread.
Students receive permission to log into and out of CR during the lunch period to eat and drink (much in the same way that a student in real-life distance learning would). The existence of a cafeteria in Cyberspace is (at least in the case of educational settings) a formality for the most part (as most students, save those who might want to take the opportunity to study, catch up on unfinished work, or socialize with their peers as a student in a physical school would do, feel little to no reason to eat in Cyberspace). As such, while there is the option to spend some or all of the lunch period in Cyberspace proper, most opt to eat outside of Cyberspace and remain for only some or even none of the duration.1. Does there have to be two lunch periods? It says there's a lunch period where kids can go eat Cyber food in the cyber cafeteria but that doesn't provide any actual caloric or nutritional value, so does there have to be a second lunch period so people can leave Cyber and get a sandwich in the real world so they don't pass out?
Yes.2. Is the school server inaccessible at night? When does the school server close, if it does?
As stated in the SOTF: Cyber: Setting, Location, Virtual Environment, & Abduction Information (Subsection: "Sycamore High School"):
Like most Virtual Schools, Sycamore High School's Cyber Reality Server is inactive and powered down throughout the weekend. It goes online, barring any server issues or cancellations, each Monday at 7:00 AM and offline each Friday at 7:00 PM; students are allowed to remain on the server even after school for club activities, studying, or to spend time together, though the servers typically close at around 7:00 PM each day.
Just as most schools now purchase their food from companies such as Aramark rather than cook it from scratch in-house, most meals served by Virtual Schools are standard assets, pre-programmed, purchased by the district, and distributed; to program and distribute their own tailored virtual meals (especially considering to the fact that many students don't spend their lunch period in Cyberspace) would require additional expenditures by the school district. Just as the standard public school cannot afford to purchase gourmet catering for its students, the average CR school cannot afford luxury digital assets of that sort (especially when there is a level of expectation of cutting corners in that area due to its lack of necessity in a CR environment; again, virtual lunch exists within the educational realm as a mere formality and for immersive purposes.)3. If some of the things in the Cyber school are programmed to be as close to a real school as possible (the grass being dry, the food being mediocre) what are the advantages of going to the Cyber school versus going to the real school? Is the planetarium the only thing the Cyber utilizes to enhance the learning? What explanation do they give parents for some things being programmed purposefully of lower quality instead of perfect when they could be perfect and one assumes parents generally want things to be the best?
As for the advantages and disadvantages of the Virtual Education Environment, there are many of both. The CR school system is not perfect—and there are plenty of detractors in-universe (especially those who prefer the traditional school system); part of the reason why the system hasn't entirely taken over as the standard is due to fierce pushback by vocal opponents who defend the old way of doing things. As you said, parents want the best for their children, but (as in real life) the "best" is not always the option that is present. The most significant advantage (and the reason for such a proliferation) is fiscal, as CR schools are run cheaper (in everything from construction and maintenance to supply and staffing). As such, mass adoption is not necessarily because the system is better but because it makes more fiscal sense for school districts.
That said, supporters point to examples such as planetariums (once common in public schools during the Space Race but which fell out of favor in no small part due to costs) and other facilities that would be impossible or prohibitively expensive as physical spaces that are however made possible by CR (which allow students to experience a range of curricular and extra-curricular options not available to students in physical schools); the level to which each school makes use of such advantages often depends on funding (as the construction of additional wings and facilities of a school require the purchasing of digital assets, programming help, and a significant amount of testing to ensure an acceptable level of stability). As a result, like in real life, schools with access to more resources will also have access to higher-quality and varied facilities.
Due to the cost savings achieved by the implementation of the Virtual Education Environment (VEE) as opposed to the actual costs of a physical school, as well as government programs designed to help propagate the technology (adopted in part by lobbying by CR tech companies such as Interface), all CR headsets used for education purposes are freely given to the students for the duration of their time within the Virtual Education Environment. Students receive their Cyber Reality Device (CRD) at the start of the year and must return it unmodified and undamaged at the end of the year. Much in the same vein as how a real-life student who chooses to deface, damage, or otherwise modify a school-provided laptop would receive a fine for its replacement or refurbishment, and so too would someone who did those same acts unto a school-provided CRD.4. What is the cost of the headsets and computers capable of running Cyber to the students? Not an exact number, but are these things expensive? If you can't afford one, is there some kind of program to help with that?
The reason that CR first-person shooter games ("ego-shooters") are relegated to the dark corners of the Internet, as stated in the SOTF: Cyber: Setting, Location, Virtual Environment, & Abduction Information (Subsection: Cyber Reality & Video Games), is because studies have shown them to cause similar psychological effects to that of real world violence; the cause is not currently understood, but theorized to be as a result of the high level of immersion present in CR that is not present in technology such as VR (with VR in particular lacking the sensory immersion that CR brings). While there has been consideration of the use of Government-created "ego-shooters" as a means of military recruitment, the idea fell through after public outcry regarding the potential psychological ramifications. As such, military recruitment in gaming is still (for the time being) limited to desktop and VR games (and has not yet spread to the CR space).5. Why are first-person shooter games relegated to the dark web instead of just coming with heavy warnings for the upsetting nature of the games? Those sorts of games exist for VR currently and I suspect they would be popular military recruitment tools. Are there military recruitment servers or government-sponsored areas that would use first-person shooters or ego shooters rather than them being shuffled to the dark web? Would this school have JROTC? I know it says there are fears this would allow dangerous people to learn how to use weapons, but it's not that hard to get ahold of weapons in the real world in America, even in California.
Sycamore High School does have Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) activities; these do not consist of anything firearms-related, instead being primarily composed of things such as the development of map and compass skills, orienteering, physical fitness improvement, and small group leadership development; most JROTC activities also occur in-person (as with other physical activities) rather than in Cyberspace.
The reason a gender change requires one to inform the school faculty is to allow them to implement the necessary changes to the avatar; the students submit their avatars and changes to their avatars to the faculty, who then implement them. In addition, the restrictions are in place to prevent frivolous requests (such as continuous changes to hair color, nail color, hair length, nail length, etc.), which waste faculty time and administrative resources. They are done manually at the discretion of faculty and administrators rather than automatically. Nonbinary or genderfluid students would likely have an existing plan with faculty (for example, having more than one implemented avatar stored to allow them to choose their manner of presentation instead of having to pre-approve avatar changes every day via the standard process.)6. I see in the information that you can change the gender of your avatar but need to inform and presumably have the OK from school faculty first. I was thinking of creating an NB or gender fluid character. If someone is gender fluid and they want to change the presentation and gender from day to day, do they need permission every time? Are they in danger of getting locked like it says could happen with changes to hair length? If your avatar is generally androgynous looking or if you just change gender without changing appearance, how do they know you changed that? Is there some kind of symbol on your avatar? Is it in some kind of metadata or a profile?
Student gender appears on school files and profile metadata; Avatars have no gendered markers. As a result, one would not be able to tell the gender of an androgynous avatar unless they were to have access to the school files (which only administrators and faculty members would) or the metadata (which only those handling the technical aspects of the server maintenance would). The metadata and files would likely have three options for gender based on self-identification: option M, option F, and an option X (for those who have a gender identity that falls between the other two or who may be questioning their gender identity)—in other words, the same selections present on California driver's licenses.
Best regards,
The SOTF: Cyber Team.
) but what servers and maps were available when CR was introduced and in the early years?
Perante "Payton" Losoa
Lucy Ashmore
