This is considered as a portfolio sample ONLY, and not submitted to IBO.

Coversheet;

International Baccalaurate

Information Technology in a Global Society

Portfolio Essay

Title

Virtual Game is a disease model

(Health)

Word Count : 837

Date

January 27 th , 2008

[Brian S.]

[]

[Cita Hati High School]

[Indonesia]

News Item :

Presentation of the issue
Virtual game can observe human behavior. From the experience we can observe how people behave in such crises. We can know people characteristic in their life, how do they solve the problem and work in their problem. In virtual games we can makes a new friend also, because virtual game is an online game.
Models are often used to assess the impact of isolation and quarantine on disease spread. (See "Mathematical Models of Isolation and Quarantine.") An important variable to consider when contemplating the institution of quarantine and/or isolation is "R 0," or "attack rate," which represents the infectiousness of individuals who have the disease. R 0 estimates the average number of people a sick person will infect. When R 0 is greater than 1, an epidemic is likely to occur. Obviously then, the goal is to get R 0 to less than 1. (http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/laura-kahn/20080114.html)

The IT background of the issue
Now, the technology is become more modern. Virtual game is also on of technology, so it has relationship with IT. Virtual games use a modern technology, because the technology is very higher. It is because of the virtual games isn’t a simple game, it can make the people feel if they inside of the game. It must uses higher technology than usual games. Virtual game has own happiness than usual games because we use all part of our body.
For example:
In September 2005, Blizzard Entertainment unleashed a highly contagious and virulent plague called "Corrupted Blood" in its virtual world, World of Warcraft. The epidemic quickly spread to densely populated cities that led to widespread death and social chaos. In the September 2007 Lancet Infect Dis journal article "The Untapped Potential of Virtual Game Worlds to Shed Light on Real World Epidemics," E. T. Lofgren and N. H. Fefferman estimated that the R 0 for the epidemic was 100 per hour for the cities, which is astonishingly high--not even influenza, which is highly contagious, has an R 0 (around 2) that high. In World of Warcraft, people are able to transport themselves to different locations quickly, which also helped the disease spread. While these variables would be extreme in a real-world plague, the virtual epidemic did simulate many aspects of an actual emerging infectious disease outbreak. For example, "Corrupted Blood" was a zoonotic disease transmissible between animals and humans. Many of the most lethal newly emerging infectious diseases (H5N1 avian influenza, SARS, and Nipah virus) are zoonotic. (http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/laura-kahn/20080114.html)

The impact of the issue
The players also can feel, if they in the game. So they feel inside of the game. “The players seemed to really feel they were at risk and took the threat of infection seriously”
Professor Nina Fefferman, from Tufts University School of Medicine. Professor Nina Fefferman, from Tufts University School of Medicine, also said: "Human behavior has a big impact on disease spread. And virtual worlds offer an excellent platform for studying human behavior. Virtual game is also impact the students, students who loves to play game will leave their “school stuff” or their homework. They will play game everyday. It can also impact the people who have some disease, such as heart disease. If they feel them inside of the game, they can get heart attack suddenly. The game maker can reproofable, because the game maker doesn’t give health screening.

A solution to a problem arising from the issue
The virtual game should provide health screening, so people who have disease can’t play. For example: If someone who have heart attack, he can’t play virtual game because he has a disease that can make the player die. The virtual game also should provide a program that can make the computer automatically off. So the players can’t play the virtual game to much, so the players don’t waste their time to play virtual game too much. Also when we want to sign up or make the new ID for virtual game, the virtual game must increase the security so not all of the people can play. Only some of the people can play the virtual game.

Selection and use of sources
http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/laura-kahn/20080114.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/health/6951918.stm

Expression of ideas relevant to the social issues
Virtual game can be played by many people. It can be very fun and refreshing our mind when we played it. So there is no problem deal with virtual game. We must know time and place to play. We should manage our time when or where we play virtual game. If we use wisely it will not influence our life. It depends how we use it. We manage our time by not playing virtual game too much, because it will affect our health, eyes, etc. Virtual game is also need a health screening so unhealthy people can’t play.

                                                            Brian. S
XI-IB