FlipperPA has a good analysis of multiplayer Beat Saber, which has evolved to become a supportive social VR community that reminds him of Second Life in its early "small town" years -- except instead of communicating via text, socialization is through real gestures:
It may be by complete accident, but it seems like they may have made the friendliest online community I have ever been a part of:
- All players can create avatars and have a name.
- Players can gesture with their hands, and you can see their heads move as well.
- There is no voice interaction
- There is no chat window.
This has led to a rich language of gestures evolving: players enthusiastically wave hello when a new player joins the game. It is common to see people clapping to the person who won the round, and the winner graciously taking a “namaste” bow. People wave goodbye, and gesture up to the center board in between songs to encourage a newcomer to select the song they would like to play next. It is incredibly friendly and warm. Has Beat Saber accidentally stumbled on a wonderful way for us to communicate in games?
I enjoyed the solo Beat Saber for awhile but after it began to feel repetitive, gave up on it. Clearly a community of players has remained, and evolved:
FlipperPA estimates there's about 1000 regulars in Beat Saber multiplayer mode, which to judge by Steam stats, sounds about right. What's also true is that the game continues to rank high among VR titles made for far more money:
"It is interesting to see a game developed by a small indie studio (Beat Saber) and one by an individual (Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades) developed by an old SL friend from Indigo Crew, Anton Hand, competing with Half-Life: Alyx and Skyrim VR, developed by major game development studios," as Flipper puts it. The community aspect is likely a large part of that long-term success.
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