The latest New Yorker takes a fun trip through the world of VR as documented by longtime staff writer and humorist Patricia Marx, who not being a hardcore, wide-eyed technologist, takes some detours others might not choose. (For instance, into AltSpace VR, one of the lesser used social VR platforms, while only briefly mentioning the far larger and probably more interesting VRChat.) Fellow virtual world blogger Ryan Schultz gets a good if candid shout-out ("'Describing himself in the realm outside his Oculus, he wrote, 'To be honest, I kinda suck at this whole reality business.'”), while Philip Rosedale and High Fidelity gets a whole section devoted to him:
“We’re going to do the holodeck thing and jump to somewhere new,” Philip Rosedale’s avatar said to my avatar, both constructed from selfies we had taken. When he is not posing as a bunch of pixels conjured by data, Rosedale resembles a Danish movie star, but his stand-in was a dead ringer for Andy Warhol. Mine had a Nancy Pelosi-in-leggings vibe. “Just press the Enter key and you’re going to disappear. I’ll be right behind you,” Rosedale added, and, presto, I was making my way down the steep stone steps of Queen Nefertari’s tomb, trying not to trip, although, in fact, I was sitting in a small room at Stanford, wearing a headset and manipulating a joystick with my thumb. Rosedale was doing the same in a room down the hall. In 2003, he created Second Life, an artificial world not unlike The Sims, that’s accessible through a computer. At its peak, in 2007, Second Life’s active population was a million. So-called residents can marry, have babies, buy or rent property, construct buildings, go dancing, take classes at accredited colleges (on a pirate ship, if that’s your thing), shop, and earn virtual money that can be converted to the real thing. (Some users make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year selling virtual clothes for avatars.)
... A few worlds later, the panda bear that represented Rosedale suggested that we visit his office. Not the real one, in San Francisco, which costs twenty grand a month. High Fidelity gave that up for a virtual office, availing itself of the open-source platform the company is developing which facilitates virtual meetings. The program is not yet offered to the public, so, for now, High Fidelity is High Fidelity’s most enthusiastic customer.
“This is where we work now. We’ve been meeting here for the past several months,” Rosedale said, opening his laptop to reveal a tropical-island landscape that looked to me like “Brigadoon” set in Malibu. A few avatars congregated in a conference room that has a whiteboard for jotting down notes, and others could be seen paired off in snuggeries equipped with sound isolation for confidential chats (“It’s like the real world, only better,” Rosedale said), relaxing in cabanas on the edge of an emerald sea, or doing whatever it is that people do around the campfire.
Not sure why Philip gets the "Danish" qualifier (anyone seeing a, say, Mads Mikkelsen resemblance?) but maybe that's just me. Marx's wry humor and enjoyment of many VR experiences comes through -- along with this notable observation, and a not very convincing reply:
My Oculus Quest now sits on a bench at home in my foyer, making me feel guilty whenever I walk by. Keram Malicki-Sanchez, an actor and futurist and the founder and director of Canada’s longest-running V.R. conference, told me (by old-fashioned e-mail from Toronto) that my response was typical: “People are dismayed when they find their V.R. headsets collecting dust, having believed that they would use them all the time.” This, however, is the correct scenario; V.R., he said, is a tool—not a television—akin to a typewriter, a piano, or a toaster oven.
If that's really VR's fate, we should scale back our expectations for the technology, because few people actually own a piano, or want to dedicate their career to toasting.
Sigh, it was always my dream to get a story about Second Life in the New Yorker. So while I didn't have anything to do with this, I'm feeling proud of "Young Philip" (the Dane!) and his ability to drive interest and visibility to the space. Some day...!
Posted by: Catherine Smith | Tuesday, December 03, 2019 at 11:36 AM
It's nice to see a genuine take from someone without an agenda. Thanks for sharing the story.
I bought an HTC Vive last year, and somewhat to my surprise, I've used it enough to upgrade to a Valve Index this year. Friends love it too. I use it just about every morning to work out: Beat Saber with wrist and leg weights is a hell of a lot more fun than the gym.
My VR rig has definitely not been collecting dust.
It is also nice to see Catherine is still hanging about! Hi Catherine!
Posted by: FlipperPA | Wednesday, December 04, 2019 at 06:19 PM
"If that's really VR's fate, we should scale back our expectations for the technology, because few people actually own a piano, or want to dedicate their career to toasting."
One has to wonder what it takes to create a man who dedicates his life to shitting on other people's dreams.
Posted by: n/a | Friday, December 06, 2019 at 09:39 AM