Pros & Cons of Real Work Meetings in the Metaverse Vs. Zoom, Slack, Etc.

New World Notes readers all being brilliant, there's a good back and forth on the topic of using Metaverse platforms for real world meetings, both pro and con. First here's the Con case from Luther Weymann, who was a successful tech exec before becoming a virtual world fan in his retirement:

People just want to get stuff done efficiently. Which is easier, a Zoom meeting or logging into a virtual world? Why am I looking at avatars when I could be looking at real people? Always a Zoom meeting. Which is more efficient, using web services like banking, paying for your phone, ordering something, or logging into a virtual world to do the same thing? Always the vendor's web service. Which is more sociable, video calling your friends or your mom on your phone or logging into a virtual world and voicing with their avatar? Give me a break! The video call every time. There is a long list of why real-life trumps virtual worlds almost every time.

Now, what makes for a fun hobby? Or a fun way to make some money if you have the skillset? Or if you are single and got nothing to do tonight but watch old TV reruns, isn't a virtual world better than that? Of course, it is. I've been almost daily in SL since my first avatar eighteen years this January 2022. Maybe I don't understand what the future holds.

It seems to me that most humans understand that to get their life things accomplished, it's easier in real life. And to enjoy their downtime, they can try virtual worlds. So, I don't understand how you sell a virtual world as a got-to-use important service.

Fellow reader "lkosov" has a qualified Pro argument in response:

As a counterpoint to Luther's comments about efficiency (and sociability), I believe the written conveyance of information is still vastly more efficient than the spoken. If it's an actual meeting of substance, I would 100x rather have it done via text in a virtual world, even an IRC channel, than via voice in Zoom.

It's more efficient, it's less stressful, and it's more accessible. "When did Indira say the new product deployment was? Isn't that going to conflict with what Rolf is proposing right now? Do I interrupt Rolf and derail the entire meeting for two minutes for no good reason, or just frickin' scroll the chat back thirty lines?" Doesn't seem like a difficult choice, to me.

More sociable? Imagine you're in a virtual class in the metaverse and can sit next to your friends, and then walk together to the next class/an arcade/whatever. Imagine sitting at a desk or a table with two or three dozen poses and animations you can select as appropriate, instead of having to feign interest and emotion for the webcam. Imagine (your avatar) always having neat hair and clean clothes to wear. Imagine (your avatar) not having bags under your eyes from working 14-hour days for seven months straight. SL's annual resident-vs-Lindens snowball fight is, I think, next weekend? I'd gladly do something like that as a "teambuilding exercise" once a week at work (employees-vs-management?) instead of the usual IRL social horror shows that people inflict on others, and I say that because it sounds fun, not (just...) because there are many days I'd love to ding my manager in the earhole with an icy sphere.

That sounds right, especially the snowball part. Personally I think it's less a case of either/or, than both/and. In other words:

Yes, for real world business meetings, we will typically prefer Zoom and other video platforms in some contexts, and a Slack/Discord messaging service for others. But that doesn't preclude virtual world experiences in still other contexts, both as team building and freeform, serendipitous conversations.

It's why my favorite Metaverse moment this year was the Breakroom chat with Philip Rosedale (watch and listen above), with a roaring bonfire and spatial audio to feel a sense of presence, and a sense of trust and security close to what a real bonfire in the woods might bring.

Comments

[George Djorgovski]

Talking about what the Metaverse will or will not be good for on the basis of what we have now is a little bit like forecasting the uses of the Web circa 1992 while using CompuServe or Prodigy with a 300 baud dial-up modem. The technology will get much better, the interfaces will get much better, old industries will be transformed or extinct, and new industries will appear. It may be useful to think of the Metaverse as the next evolutionary stage of the Internet (or at least the Web), and it will span the same or a larger spectrum of uses and activities as it does today.

[Luther Weymann]

I agree with George. One day that big glass wall in front of you with its artificial intelligence, cameras, and microphones built into the glass will light up because you said, "Hey, mom?". Your mother, someplace else in the world, will say "Yes honey?" and there you will stand facing each other. "Mom, let's walk through the finished interior of my new house the designer sent me." Telling the AI what to do, you and your mom will seamlessly enter the front door of your new house through a virtual world looking exactly like the real world of your new home. No goggles, remote cameras, microphones, flickering, lag, pixels, prims, scripting, or animations required, just you and your mom in real life walking through a virtual world. That's one possible metaverse future. If human stupidity does not ruin our world for us, one day, the metaverse and the natural world could be seamless.

[Iggy 1.0]

I can say with utmost confidence that for my colleagues and students, there's 0% interest in virtual worlds. On the other hand, we just had 10 hours of successful, face-to-face meetings for job candidates via Zoom.

My Gen Z students, like their Millennial predecessors, want "authenticity" in their interactions for serious matters (gaming is a diversion). Any time you have a woman with horns and wings or a dude like Philip's avatar with a Glam codpiece, you are in a game.

Sorry, folks. Won't fly at my workplace. Never did, never will.

[Wagner James Au]

"or my colleagues and students, there's 0% interest in virtual worlds"

Did you ask them if they play Minecraft, ROBLOX, or Fortnite?

[lkosov]

> want "authenticity" in their interactions for serious matters (gaming is a diversion).

That's odd, because the Gen Z and millennial folks I talk to in virtual worlds - be it IRC, or Discord, or online games - view games as Serious Business. I know a college student who's married in a mobile MMO called Toram, apparently quite happily. Not sure how much more seriously he can be taking it...

> we just had 10 hours of successful, face-to-face meetings for job candidates via Zoom.

...and let's be honest, they'd have been 100% as "successful" conducted via text on Jabber. Possibly even more successful, if the positions being applied for require written communication more than the ability to feign being extroverted for ten minutes. Hell, I'd rather hit an applicant with three written questions in rapid succession, see if they're focused enough to answer all of 'em (and meaningfully...) than try to have a conversation over Zoom. Voice is still the least-efficient means of accurately conveying information.

--lkosov, having flashbacks to the time a coworker with an accent kept referring to node.js as what sounded for all the world like "nude juice"