What Are Your Virtual World Predictions & Resolutions for 2018?

Happy New Year, NWN readers! Here's an open forum for favorite predictions and resolutions for 2018. Anything related to Second Life, High Fidelity, Sansar, Sinespace, and any other virtual world, along with any other VR product or platform, and even virtual currency, the more specific, the better. To get things started, I'll start with some of mine:

Resolutions: Start a new book or major feature article on the new wave of virtual worlds/VR. 

Predictions:

• Second Life will enjoy a small burst of user growth. Say 100,000 more monthly active users from the 800,000 or so (counting new users who usually churn out).
• Sansar and High Fidelity won't see mass growth in 2018. I'd be surprised if either gains more than 50,000 monthly users, mainly because they're still optimized for high-end VR rigs. (See below.) 
• High-end Rift & Vive VR install base will remain low. Holiday sales haven't been counted up yet, but my guess is the cumulative remains below 2 million this year. (It was roughly 1 million toward the end of 2017.)  
• Bitcoin's daily transaction rate to remain well below 500,000 a day. (The major media may finally notice this instead of writing about the irrelevant sales value.)

Will check back on these in 2019. NWN readers?

Pictured: Mixed reality New Year's party featuring VR fan Deadmau5.

Comments

[Pathfinder]

"Bitcoin's daily transaction rate to remain well below 500,000 a day."
Probably, unless something amazing happens with Lightning Network.
But Bitcoin is just the tip of the spear.
Watch *Ripple* in 2018 when it gets listed on Coinbase, enterprise use perks up, banks flee from SWIFT, and adoption spreads beyond South Korea.

And if Magic Leap's hardware actually gets out there with a killer game (think original-Halo-on-original-XBox level of popularity), well, then things will get more interesting than anyone could imagine.

[Willow Dion]

Second Life will enjoy a small burst of user growth. - I disagree on the direction of the change. Yes, is will be a small change but SL will continue is slow loss in the number of users. SL has too steep a learning curve to attract new younger users and Linden Lab’s continual shooting itself in the foot and it’s disrespect for users will continue drive long time users away It did with me! I know LL apologized for the incident with Strawberry but for me it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I just couldn’t put up with LL’s cluelessness about SL any longer.

Sansar and High Fidelity won't see mass growth in 2018. I agree. I have tried both using an Oculus Rift and there is little reason to put on that head piece. I got the Oculus HMD in early September. Now it is just sitting under covers gathering dust. The entry of Amazon into the field will make this even more so for Sansar since for what I can tell they are trying to attract many of the same customers.

High-end Rift & Vive VR install base will remain low. Yes, it will. The HMD’s are just too uncomfortable and even with the Oculus price drop they are still too expensive.

Bitcoin's daily transaction rate to remain well below 500,000 a day. While I’ve studied and studied trying to understand Bitcoin and still don’t understand it very well but I agree a transaction rate is way too low.

[ArtByteMe]

"Bitcoin's daily transaction rate to remain well below 500,000 a day."

Fortunately for artists around the world, there is ArtByte, the digital currency supporting the arts. Secure and faster than Bitcoin, no scaling problems.

Think of it as $Lindens, but in RL.

[Tim King]

Resolutions 2018:
- Not be amazed at how fast VR grows in popularity. lol

- Maybe buy a VR headset during end of year discounts

- Wagner James Au gets digitized and body disappears, re-emerges somewhere inside a VR world. Continues reporting.

Predictions 2018:
- bitcoin is too erratic to predict for me. But governments will scrutinize more and this have a negative overall effect.

- Worldwide number of VR sets sold in 2018 will almost double the number sold in 2017. Mainly due to the current cyclic loop pattern of; increased production of units & greater production efficiency = decreased pricing per unit.

- Sales revenue for VR software in 2018 will more than double revenue of 2017.

- Second Life - not much over all change in account numbers, but less overall user time spent in world as other forms of VR and leisure software bite into user's free time.

- Sansar & High Fidelity - Not ready for prime time in 2018, but will continue to quietly prepare for 2019 release and a 2020 VR boom.

- Several notable real world businesses convert to entirely virtual operations with no brick and mortal office locations.

- Number of virtual workers increase. Working at home and communicating through VR. Some virtually appear at the work place in the form of an avatar on screen or via a mobile office robot.

- Astronauts employ a holographic communications set up in the international space station. Family members interact with astronauts.

Well, that's it for now. What do you think? lol