Networked virtual spaces

In the final section of the course we will be designing a scene for a virtual reality headset.

While virtual reality has not seen widespread adoption yet, many are predicting and planning for a future in which networked virtual spaces are an everyday part of life and work.

Networked games, including text-based MUDs (multi-user dungeon games) and MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing games) using 2d and 3d graphics, introduced a social element to gaming that is a precedent for modern virtual spaces.

MUDs

Ultima Online

EVE Online

World of Warcraft

Networked games created a precendent and pioneered the technology for networked virtual spaces. While the gameplay consisted of goals in fictional worlds, players often experienced social interaction outside of the goals of the game. Metatexts existed based on gameplay and later influenced gameplay. The effect of networked gameplay was to introduce social elements that grew into the "real" world.

Jon Rafman Conversation with Nicholas O'Brien, Kool-Aid Man in Second Life (2009) from Jon Rafman on Vimeo.

Second Life, released in 2003, was the first networked virtual space that did not have a gameplay element as it's main focus. Instead, players built spaces that resembled the real world and created new online communities with economic activity, real estate, art galleries, performances and other recreations of real life.

Second Life was the first widespread use of a platform that was described as a metaverse, the concept of an internet based immersive virtual world.

Many games and social networked experiences followed. During the pandemic starting in 2020, a new need for virtual experiences was introduced rather suddenly as work, education and social lives moved to platforms like Zoom and Discord.

gather.town

New platforms add VR hardware to enhance the immersiveness of metaverse experiences.

In recent years, beginning with Microsoft's introduction of VR functionality on it's Teams platform and the launch of Facebook's Horizon, a social VR platform, there has been a focus on creating metaverse applications for work as well as gaming and socializing.

Today, it's unclear if we will one day live in world that is more virtual than real, or some hybrid of virtual and real content, but many serious questions face the future implementation of virtual spaces, such as the relationship between virtual space and property ownership, closed vs open spaced, proprietary vs open source software and hardware. In many ways, we still have the ability to design what this future will look like.

The Future is a Dead Mall - Decentraland and the Metaverse