A decade and change ago we had Second Life, a 3D game world built like an open system.
After many struggles, Second Life achieved social stability. The company has mostly a hands-off attitude and a minimal "governance" group of about half a dozen people. There are landlords and tenants, with grumbling on both sides, in more or less balance. Griefing is rare. The large-scale scams, such as a fake bank, are gone. Copying and uploading content happens occasionally but is not a huge problem. Land use is all over the place, but there are coherent communities. The main viewer is a third party open source system, and Open Simulator still chugs along, offering an option for people who want an environment under different ownership.
Ease of use is a serious problem in many dimensions. Just becoming a new users is frustrating. Upon entry, you go through a basic orientation and are dumped into a transit point full of jerks and scammers. It's like the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. You've been dumped into a large city, and, other than some signs suggesting various destinations, you're on your own. It really is a virtual world, not a game. What you do in it is entirely up to you. The world is indifferent to you. This throws many new users.
Then they discover their default avatar sucks, that the clothing system is really complicated, and the good stuff costs money, or good free stuff has to be searched out.
If they make it to day 3, they'll start to get the place figured out. But the new user experience is harsh.
Most of the people making metaverse noises are not far enough along to reach these problems, let alone solve them.
> Then they discover their default avatar sucks, that the clothing system is really complicated, and the good stuff costs money, or good free stuff has to be searched out.
In snow crash most of the population wanders around with a default avatar to save on cost
Here's Luca Grabacr's view of Second Life as the Metaverse.[1] She's the poet philosopher of Second Life. Her quiet, detailed videos of Second Life at its best show what the Metaverse can be.
This doesn't sound particularly different from when I was active on there a decade ago.
Does Linden Labs still have a weird habit of banning people running large "Internet meme"/chan-culture sims? (Actually, TBH, that almost seems forward-thinking nowadays...)
After many struggles, Second Life achieved social stability. The company has mostly a hands-off attitude and a minimal "governance" group of about half a dozen people. There are landlords and tenants, with grumbling on both sides, in more or less balance. Griefing is rare. The large-scale scams, such as a fake bank, are gone. Copying and uploading content happens occasionally but is not a huge problem. Land use is all over the place, but there are coherent communities. The main viewer is a third party open source system, and Open Simulator still chugs along, offering an option for people who want an environment under different ownership.
Ease of use is a serious problem in many dimensions. Just becoming a new users is frustrating. Upon entry, you go through a basic orientation and are dumped into a transit point full of jerks and scammers. It's like the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. You've been dumped into a large city, and, other than some signs suggesting various destinations, you're on your own. It really is a virtual world, not a game. What you do in it is entirely up to you. The world is indifferent to you. This throws many new users.
Then they discover their default avatar sucks, that the clothing system is really complicated, and the good stuff costs money, or good free stuff has to be searched out.
If they make it to day 3, they'll start to get the place figured out. But the new user experience is harsh.
Most of the people making metaverse noises are not far enough along to reach these problems, let alone solve them.