New World Notes

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:

Rec Room Fact Check: World Likely Has 4-5 Million Active Users, Not 37M

Great news for Rec Room:

Rec Room, a free to download and play cross-platform social gaming company, has raised $145 million, funding that it will use to continue building out its tools and audience of gamers using them to create their own experiences across mobile devices, game consoles, PC and VR headsets (operating systems/platforms supported include iOS, Xbox, PlayStation, Oculus, Steam and, as of August, Android). The funding is being led by Coatue Management, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures and Madrona Venture Group, and it is coming in at a $3.5 billion valuation...

It has now racked up 37 million users who build and play games in “rooms” where they virtually hang out with other users. Although it’s not clear how many active users there are out of that 37 million figure...

It's actually somewhat clear how many people are active in Rec Room:

Facebook Whistleblower Airs Valid Concerns About the Metaverse -- But Misses the Proteus Effect of Avatars

I've been wondering what Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen thought about Meta's plans to make the Metaverse, and she finally aired her concerns with Time magazine:

When I asked her about the metaverse, Haugen’s answer focused on the extra forms of surveillance that would be necessary for any meaningful kind of metaverse experience. “I am worried that if companies become metaverse companies, individuals won’t get to consent anymore on whether or not to have Facebook’s sensors—their microphones in their homes,” Haugen told me. “This company—which has already shown it lies to us whenever it’s in its own interests—we’re supposed to put cameras and microphones for them in our homes?” she said.

This is all very valid and reflects what VR pioneers like Avi Bar-Zeev and Jaron Lanier have been saying (screaming into the void?) for the last few years.

Haugen raises another concern beyond privacy that needs a bit of unpacking:

ROBLOX Reportedly Pressures Journalist Covering Platform's In-Game Market "In Which Children Are Encouraged to Gamble Real Money"

This is a pretty jaw-dropping video for anyone following the Metaverse, a follow-up to an equally head-turning video from last Summer -- both by freelance UK journalist Quintin Smith (Wired, Edge, Eurogamer, Kotaku). His first video report looked into the ways ROBLOX monetizes user creators on its massively popular platform -- roughly half of whom are minors -- with mechanics that he deems so exploitative, he compares them to the infamous scrip that abusive companies used to "pay" its workers. 

In this new video, Quintin covers a number of bombshells, including:

• A ROBLOX spokesman reached out to Smith and requested that he remove the original video for unspecified inaccuracies.
• Shortly after Quintin's first video, ROBLOX removed language from its website which marketed the platform as an opportunity for kids "to make serious cash".
• There's an abusive ecosystem of third party ROBLOX creators and black market operators thriving outside the platform -- in part because ROBLOX the company removed its internal community forum.
• Perhaps most surprising to me, ROBLOX runs what is effectively an in-game stock market/casino of purchasable and re-sellable branded virtual items -- some of them created in partnership with major companies like Vans -- "in which children are encouraged to gamble real money".  

Little or nothing of these last two points have been covered by reporters heralding ROBLOX as the Metaverse, even after it became one of the most powerful game companies on the NASDAQ.  Or as Smith puts it, related to the internal gambling/stock market: "I can't believe the market analysts missed this when ROBLOX became a publicly traded company and went through an exhaustive valuation."

Part of the problem is that little or none of the media who report on ROBLOX actually use the platform to any great degree -- or worse, don't even seek out and talk with creators on the platform.

Quintin Smith's advice to reporters who want to follow up on his research:

"First and foremost," Quintin tells me, "I'd advise them to take what Roblox say with a grain of salt. It's clear from my conversations with Roblox users that almost every aspect of the platform is failing the users in one way or another -- moderation, remuneration, safety, monetization - so when Roblox talk about introducing new features, I'm not sure we have any reason to believe that they'll keep these 40,000,000 daily users safe and happy."

And that requires connecting with ROBLOX creators across various social media platforms:

Neal Stephenson: The Metaverse Isn't Dystopian, the Problem is Monetizing User Data -- And We Need Collective Bargaining to Make It Better

Really great Kara Swisher interview with Neal Stephenson, who's now on tour to promote his latest novel, Termination Shock. Unsurprisingly, much of their chat focuses on Snowcrash and the Metaverse's white hot influence on current technology. As I wrote last Summer, Stephenson does not (contrary to common opinion), consider the Metaverse dystopian:

Snowcrash is clearly a dystopian novel, although it's kinda poking fun at dystopian novels... the Metaverse I think is kind of neutral, it's certainly part of this dystopian world, but in and of itself, it's just an entertainment medium, it's not inherently bad.

The dystopian potential, he goes on, lies in how social media companies like Meta make money -- and their plans to do so in similar ways, in the Metaverse:

They came up with a business model that's not really anticipated in Snowcrash, which is that you can give people a free-to-play application and then monetize their eyeballs and personal data... in retrospect that seems kinda like the obvious play, but I didn't see it coming, necessarily.

So I think that's what we need to be focused on when we're talking about the future of Metaverse-type applications: The business model that is making it possible for people to make money off it.

Instead of allowing that to happen, Neal supports the idea of consumers rallying together, to demand a stake in their future on these platforms:

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:

In Case You Care, Facebook Horizon Worlds is Here

Now in open Beta if you have a Quest 2. I'm maybe cursed by too much knowledge (and don't own a Quest 2 yet), but it looks like Rec Room but with way less user-generated creativity or a leg-less VRChat without the utterly cool ecosystem of community-driven creativity.) But maybe I'm being unfair?

About 14,000 People Watched Geoff Keighley's Game Awards in Geoff Keighley's World in Core

I told you about Core hosting a live in-world viewing of Geoff Keihley's Game Awards show which streamed last night, so here's a pretty good data point on user interest right now:

Based on the "total played" count of Axial Tilt (the Core experience where the show was streamed, which also has Geoff in the credits) about 14,000 people showed up for the Awards. (Only a few hundred had played before the show.) That's not too bad, given that Core probably has monthly active users in the mid six figures. It also suggests not many new people joined Core to watch the show from there, but that's not surprising, as gamers are already accustomed to watching it from their streaming option of choice.

Speaking of the Awards themselves:

Dear New York Times: Here's What Stylish Marriages in the Metaverse Actually Look Like

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

It’s not my place to mock anyone’s wedding photo, even if that photo is featured in the New York Times, but I certainly feel free to mock the New York Times’ Style section touting this particular virtual wedding service. (Pictured at right -- seriously.) 

Even with images from the days of system layers and flexi, Second Life wedding photos are so much better. (Unsurprisingly, Second Life also has a thriving industry of virtual wedding planners, which I wrote about for Avenue magazine.)

I thought I might collect a few pictures from Second Life, in case the couple from the Times article ever decides to do a vow renewal. Like the couple in the picture below, celebrating their first year with an epic ceremony. (It was posted by the bride Anna Katherine, who hired a team of photographers for the event.)

Second Life also has a great variety of weddings, not just the traditional formal Western ceremony. Here is a beautifully vibrant “Big Fat Indian Wedding”:

It’s by Cereza Chan, an events photographer. She has shot more than one wedding, and this one is gorgeous.  

For more gorgeous examples of SL weddings, click here:

Core Creators Getting Video Streaming Capability - Preview Tomorrow to Watch the Game Awards Live in Core

Core, the Epic-funded "ROBLOX but built on Unreal" platform, is soon going to add a video streaming option for its creators, giving them (as a spokesman tells me), "the ability to stream directly into the games, worlds and events they create." It's being previewed tomorrow in a live, in-world stream of Geoff Keighley's widely watched Game Awards show, in a Core-based world that Geoff himself executive produced: Axial Tilt. 

Core PR is describing the event as the show's "FIRST METAVERSE EXPERIENCE ON CORE", which is somewhat odd, because Core's own CEO prefers to call Core a "multiverse" and not a metaverse. But then again, he said that 9 whole months ago before a decades' worth barrage of Metaverse buzz.

Anyway, here's how to join the live watch: