How Neal Stephenson's Unions of Metaverse Users May Arise

Reader Luther Weymann, who was a successful tech exec before becoming a virtual world fan in his retirement, isn't convinced by Neal Stephenson's call for metaverse users to unionize:

Any attempt at collective bargaining in a virtual world will require a massive legal department with huge overhead to administer the quirks of the people and failures of the system. The simple decision for any board of directors of a virtual world company would be the answer of “oh, heck no, we aren’t doing that!”

He's probably right if we assume that Metaverse-based unions must have the exact same structure and legal status as real world labor unions. But historically, ad hoc collectives of virtual world users often are able to change company policies to benefit users. Local favorite Second Life famously had a user-driven "tax revolt" movement which successfully pressured Linden Lab to change its pricing structures. It's fair to assume every virtual world has had (or will have) its own instances of collective user protest, because virtual world companies are utterly dependent on sustained user activity and growth.

We saw the latest example of that just last week, around the use of NFTs in online game worlds:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer quickly cancels NFT plans after fan outcry

Apparently, that statement did not calm the anti-NFT sentiment among potential players. A few hours after deleting that tweet, GSC Game World posted a Thursday evening follow-up, saying, "We hear you. Based on the feedback we've received, we've made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The interests of our fans and players are the top priority for the team. We're making this game for you to enjoy—whatever the cost is. If you care, we care, too."

... Plenty of other established gaming companies are still plowing ahead with NFT plans, though. Ubisoft has already distributed the first free in-game items through its baffling Quartz NFT system. That decision led French trade union Solidaires Informatique, which represents some Ubisoft employees in France, to issue a statement calling the company's plan "a useless, costly, ecologically mortifying technology" that has been "widely criticized by our players, bringing no improvements [or] benefits to our games."

Interesting that a real world labor union is now involved in the protest against NFTs!

In any case, given companies' extreme sensitivity to consumer outcries among its users -- and the popularity of platforms like Discord, where protests can be organized and planned -- I expect we'll see more forms of collective organization emerge.

Especially on metaverse-related platforms, which totally depend on user-generated content to survive. With so much money at stake, and so many creators depending on these platforms for some or even all of their real life income, I would not be surprised if we see creators forming what are effectively trade unions or guilds, similar to those in the film industry.  To Luther's point, it might require a massive legal department with huge overhead to deal with them. But then again, the alternative is losing these creators to competing metaverse-related platforms, eager for their talent.

Comments

[camilia fid3lis nee Patchouli Woollahra]

This is how you give ROBLOX problems: get the content creators unionised and demanding a bigger cut of the pie or they all purge their content and walk.