Dispatches from the Social Metaverse
Platforms for People 7
Social VR Platforms . . . . . . People . . . . . . Companies . . . . . . Society
Instead of contesting the meaning of the Metaverse, prompted by a billionaire’s billion dollar moves, I stepped in and out of Social VR — the part of the Metaverse for people — every day last week.
My view is that the Metaverse began when life began communicating with other aspects of itself. It’s a mental layer on top of the biological layer on top of the geophysical layer we call Earth. But I will pontificate no more on these matters. Not now anyway.
I try to keep up with what’s actually going on and one Social VR start-up that got my attention is the Help Club.
I heard you could just drop in, so I did. Of course nothing is that simple, but their process was very quick and easy, which is remarkable, especially since I was being granted access to some kind of universe of self-help group worlds.
I had about 40 minutes before their next event so I left the Help Club and jumped over to Horizon Venues, where I had recently seen His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kid Cudi, in different theaters.
I learned three things from that pop and spiritual adventure:
- I can go to concerts in VR and see artists and entertainers I would never experience any other way. I’m not checking out Kid Cudi except in VR, where it was free, easy, up close and personal.
- Horizon Venues is a great way to fill a little time and maybe stumble on something cool
- There are generally more people enjoying themselves in small groups in the Lobby than there are in any of the six theaters, maybe in all of them put together. The action is in the Lobby. People like hanging out with their friends and they don’t need a lot of razzle-dazzle to have a good time doing it.
For this visit to Venues I started out in Theater 3 with some MMA. A couple of very toned men pummeling each other. One kick was coming right at me but fortunately the Thai opponent’s head got in the way. Snapped it right back at me. I felt it but the Thai guy just sneered and pranced around like it didn’t bother him.
I spawned into the Theater 2, which turned out to be my first Billie Eilish show.
Live concert. She was quite large compared to my avatar and she got very close to us, which means she got very close to the camera because in VR you are the camera.
She was wearing heavy medical boots on both feet and explained that her ankles were totally screwed up but she’d do her best. Screwed up ankles didn’t stop her from bouncing around, a lot.
I didn’t know much about her but she sure drew me in. Young and not very polished but she was singing about what she knew and she could hold a big crowd.
VR transitions are abrupt.
One minute you’re rockin’ with Billie — switch apps and you’re back in the Help Club, joining a circle with 9–10 other avatars in the time it would have taken to get a real car out of the real concert parking lot.
I vaguely understood from the registration I did earlier that I was now in a drop-in support group to talk about how we’re doing and how we’d like to feel better. A host, was leading a round of check-ins. Most people brought up mild or moderate concerns but a few brought up recent accomplishments.
More Learning:
4. If you tell people they can talk about how they’re feeling, and they have a sense of safety, they will. You will hear things not usually expressed because we don’t usually have permission.
I don’t know the full back story of the Help Club. I won’t try to project its future on the basis of the meetings I attended last week. I went three times to see if the first one was an anomaly. Nope. Mildly refreshing, all of them.
Also a start-up app operating smoothly, like a much more mature organization.
I am part of EvolVR, a more mature organization that has been operating in Social VR for over three years; that is, all the years VR was supposedly a big disappointment and taking way too long. It might have been lagging behind planning department spreadsheets but it’s been working very nicely for the people who missed out on all the disappointment.
I led a meditation for a group of us flying low and slow over Proxima B, orbiting our Sun’s nearest neighbor. I also led a group discussion focused on Saying Goodbye. It was similar to the Help Club but it had a theme, expressing our grief. Turns out we need permission for that too.
I was in Meta’s Horizon Worlds several times during the week. First, for a Leadership meeting, with serious intent and direction. Actually talking about how we talk to each other, in a circle in a virtual place.
Later I went back for a world hopping tour with the wise and wonderful rcdegs, a master world builder who would rather build inclusive communities than anything..
It’s not a tidy narrative.
Baggage from everything is already in VR.
Many people see what an opportunity we have to get things better this time, to tamp down old patterns before they get established in this new way of being together — XR, VR, Spatial Media.
People are doing this hard work. People who the corporate teams behind the Social VR platforms refer to as ‘Our Users.’ People who aren’t getting paid but who are working their ass off because they feel like it.
A Sunday EvolVR Gathering wrapped up one week and moved us together into another.
We began in a world like Mount St. Helens right after the volcano of 1980 and ended in a world with trees and new life. In between we did a little healing because it was a three Act play and we were all in it. Taking Sunday morning in VR deeper than previously imagined.
A rare thing. Surprise. Wonder that worlds could work in such a healing way. Where we need to put our attention now.
/Platforms for People #7 — previous issue, Platforms for People #6
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The Social VR Platforms, Companies, People, and Society tabs at the top of the article are linked to our growing base of very brief, right-to-the-point pieces about social aspects of the Metaverse.
Platforms for People is currently produced by Tom Nickel. I welcome contributions and expect that a publishing collective will emerge.
