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Roblox Developer Conference Attendees Receive Free Quest Pros Ahead of Quest 3 Launch
Roblox has done very well on Quest. When it launched on the standalone VR platform back in July, it managed to break one million downloads in its first five days, essentially making the online game the hottest social VR platform currently available on Quest. Now Roblox has also showered attendees at its annual developer conference this past weekend with free Quest Pros.
Despite being in direct competition with Meta’s Horizon Worlds social VR platform, there doesn’t seem to be any bad blood over the explosive growth of Roblox on Quest.
A message was sent to attendees at RDC23 this past weekend, stating that Meta is footing the bill to provide a heap of free Quest Pros, its $1,000 mixed reality standalone.
“The news is out! We want to give a special thanks to our partner meta. They have offered to provide all RDC23 attendees with Meta Quest Pro headsets to help you create the best Roblox experiences for VR,” the message reads.
Developers didn’t have to wait long, as they collected their free Quest Pros on site at RDC23.
During the RDC 2023 keynote, Baszucki also revealed that Roblox now features “over 50,000 experiences that are ready right now on Meta Quest.”
Roblox is currently available on the Quest platform via App Lab, however the company says it’s set for its “full” release on Quest sometime in September. Baszucki didn’t specify when, although it’s a good bet that the popular social platform will be a launch day title on Quest 3, which could come as early as September 27th during Connect, Meta’s annual developer conference.
The company also announced Roblox is headed to PlayStation in October, however it’s not clear if that will include PSVR or PSVR 2 support as well.
Meta’s New First-person Shooter Aims to Highlight Improvements to ‘Horizon Worlds’
Meta introduced a new game called ‘Super Rumble‘ to Horizon Worlds, something the company hopes will showcase a new generation of improved experiences on its own social VR platform.
Released after a successful beta weekend in May, the free-for-all first-person shooter is said to highlight new improvements to Horizon Worlds, such as “better graphics, deeper gameplay, and a variety of quests and rewards.”
Players can choose from six superpowers before each session, allowing them to outmaneuver opponents and develop their playstyles. Here’s how Meta describes each power:
- Super Dash gives you super speed
- Super Jump lets you launch into the air with explosive force
- Super Ammo saves you from having to reload
- Super Tough reduces the damage you’ll take from each hit
- Super Net lets you immobilize other players
- Super Punch lets you attack with a powerful punch
Super Rumble is aiming to offer a fast-paced experience, which serves up to two to six players, with each match lasting five minutes. The game also serves as a launching point for a new integrated system of player levels, quests, rewards, the latter of which includes avatar clothing, emotes, and nameplate titles.
Check out the action below:
We’ve seen a few first-party worlds alongside a number of third-party brand engagement experiences on Horizon Worlds since the platform launched in late 2021, however going the ‘full featured’ minigame route is a fairly recent move that has more potential to attract and keep users. It’s certainly helped Rec Room to become one of the most prolific social VR platforms to thrive on both VR headsets and traditional flatscreen devices.
Interestingly enough, this comes only one day after Meta opened Quest up the online gaming powerhouse Roblox, which is in direct competition with Horizon Worlds. Now, Quest users can choose between Roblox, Rec Room, VRChat, Horizon Worlds, and Gym Class to name a few of the top free social VR platforms.
‘Roblox’ Launches on Quest Store, Casting a Shadow on Meta’s Own Social VR Platform
One of the biggest names in social gaming is now officially on the official Quest Store, launching out of App Lab starting today. Roblox is home to tens of millions of daily users and user-generated experiences, casting a clear shadow on Meta’s own social VR platform, Horizon Worlds.
Update (September 27th, 2023): CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Roblox will be available on the official Quest Store starting today, coming out of its two months on App Lab. The company says that you can purchase items within an experience, you won’t be able to buy additional Robux from your Quest device. This functionality is on the way, Meta says. The original article follows below:
Original Article (July 12th, 2023):
A Curious Proposition
Meta confirmed today that Roblox is coming to Quest “in the coming weeks” starting as an Open Beta on App Lab before eventually graduating to a full launch on the main Quest store.
On one hand, the move is a win for Meta. Roblox is one of the most popular social gaming and user-generated content platforms; playing in a similar ballpark with the likes of Minecraft and Fortnite. Getting Roblox onto Quest brings a valuable and recognizable IP to the platform, along with a huge new social graph of non-VR players.
On the other hand, Roblox is very nearly a direct competitor to Meta’s own social VR platform, Horizon Worlds. Both Horizon and Roblox are heavily focused on social experiences and user-generated content. But compared to Horizon, which caters only to the smaller demographic of VR players, Roblox has some 66 million daily active players across Xbox, iOS, Android, desktop—and soon, Quest.
For comparison, that means the number of people playing Roblox every day (66 million) is more than the total number of Quest headsets ever sold (believed to be around 20 million).
So ambitious creators looking to build content for the largest audience (and largest return-on-investment) will see the scale tipped vastly toward Roblox over Horizon.
Whether or not Roblox on Quest will stifle the fledgling Horizon remains to be seen, but needless to say this is an awkward situation. Not just for Meta though; Roblox also represents a looming threat to other social VR applications like VRChat and Rec Room.
Roblox Content Compatibility on Quest
Roblox currently has some 15 million playable experiences for users to choose from, but not all (probably not most) will be suitable to play on Quest.
Meta says the Roblox Open Beta on Quest is a “great opportunity for the Roblox developer community to optimize their existing games for Quest and build new ones for VR while gathering input and feedback from the Quest community.”
That said, Roblox Corp plans to automatically enable VR support for some portion of existing Roblox experiences, though exactly how many is unclear.
“[…] we have automatically updated the Access setting for some of the experiences that use default player scripts to include support for VR devices. We have found that experiences that use default player scripts typically run well in VR without modifications. Automatically publishing these experiences allows us to seed our library of experiences that support VR devices,” the company says in its announcement of Roblox on Quest.
Presently it isn’t clear if or how the company plans to ensure that user-generated Roblox experiences on meet minimum performance expectations on Quest.
Modernized PC VR Support for Roblox
Roblox has offered PC VR support for many years at this point and the company appears committed to continue supporting the platform in addition to Quest.
Less than a month ago Roblox Corp announced that it would adopt OpenXR to future-proof its VR support, including for PC VR headsets. The update also included improvements to correctly synchronizing the player’s VR playspace and scale to that of the current experience.
Additional reporting by Scott Hayden
Sonic the Hedgehog’s next video game is in Roblox
There's a new Sonic the Hedgehog game out, but it's only available in Roblox.
Roblox is Dead, Long Live Roblox
As I do every day, this morning I made myself a coffee and sat down to trawl my Feedly feed looking for interesting things happening in the world. Usually, it’s a long list of crypto news, NFT scandals and metaverse conversations, all nestled among news pieces about new videogames. One article leapt out at me right away concerning the recent stock drop for Roblox.
On 19th November 2021 Roblox stock hit an all-time high for its short life on the markets, it sat around $134.72. At this point in the company’s history things were beginning to heat up. ‘Metaverse’, technology’s latest and greatest buzzword was being thrown around with Roblox firmly rooted in the centre as gaming’s most popular take on the futuristic concept.
CEO David Baszucki has firmly held the view that Roblox was always a metaverse project, even if the name hadn’t reached mainstream levels. When talking to Bloomberg in November, Baszucki states “We don’t usually think of ourselves as a videogame company. That said, there are millions of creators who make amazing games and experiences on the platform.” When asked how far away the metaverse is, he follows up with “we’re actually in the middle of it right now. There are over 200 million people on Roblox every month. They have an identity, they have an avatar. They do stuff together”.
Whenever an article about the metaverse surfaces, Roblox is guaranteed to feature, and it’s easy to see why. Over the past few months, Roblox has hosted experiences from some of the most famous brands; Nike, Gucci, Vans, and more recently, Nickelodeon. Roblox isn’t shy about partnering with various entertainment giants, whether they’re musicians like Twenty-One Pilots and Lil Was X or awards shows such as Fashion Awards or the Grammy awards.
However, over recent months the once favourable Roblox stock is seeing some struggle on the market. On 14th March 2022, the stock dropped to just $36.68, and while it has climbed a little to hover around the $50 mark in recent days, it’s still a fair way from only a few months ago. So, why is this metaverse aspiring platform starting to struggle? Well, there are several reasons.
Covid Stock
When the Roblox stock started to really pick up steam, society was reaching the tip of the downswing in Covid cases and lockdowns. The period we all spent at home with our kids was coming to an end. During those numerous lockdowns, Roblox had become a daily interaction for many children as they reached out to their friends and family, to play games together or just hang out in lieu of being able to do it in ‘real life’.
At the height of Covid-19, parents and teachers swarmed Roblox as a way to not only keep their children occupied but also educated. Lessons were conducted within Roblox experiences in an attempt to bring some normalcy to the routines of children.
Now, many (many) months since the outbreak of Covid-19, children are back in school; they can play sports together again, they’re lined up in classrooms ready to take their seats; and while Roblox still demands their attention in their free time, the days of always being online to escape a bleak reality have ended.
While children and adults are still pouring millions of hours into Roblox, it’s clear that investors began looking for a way out as soon as the market placed less importance on the platform. Then, a few months past Roblox was hit with repeated instances of controversy, surely shifting the investors’ focus once more.
Child Exploitation and Child Safety
On 4th April 2022, British communications regulator Ofcom published a report on children’s interactions online. In the report, Ofcom goes into detail about how children use their time in our constantly online world. Surveying groups of parents and children alike, Ofcom found that 18% of children aged 4-5 play games online. This stat grows to 38% for kids aged 5-7, then 69% for the 8-11 year bracket. While we can’t see a breakdown of how many of these children are playing Roblox, the above ‘200 million players’ figure gives us a confident idea that there are more than a few.
Over recent months Roblox has come under scrutiny for its lacklustre attempts at safeguarding children on the platform. There are hundreds of thousands of experiences on the Roblox platform; in 2021, 107,737 experiences reached 10k or more visits. Much like Apple’s App Store or the Steam store for PC, it’s increasingly difficult to police the individual games and the entirety of the content. This is why Roblox has sadly suffered from creators making school shooter simulations or areas which solicit sexual content destined for older users, without being properly age-gated.
There is also very little in the way of chat moderation for young users. Each experience within Roblox features a chat box allowing free communication, but of course, without a mod in every chat, it opens up the possibility that any child could be exposed to harassment, bullying or inappropriate content.
These issues recently hit the headlines after YouTube creators ‘People Make Games’ uncovered a large number of children were being put at risk within Roblox experiences or were being exploited when these children were creating their own games, items for sale, or experiences. Roblox has forever marketed itself as a safe place for children to use their creativity and develop games, but the report from ‘People Make Games’, further summed up by Eurogamer, shows that many kids aren’t being reimbursed for working on games or fly under the radar of workplace legislations.
Metaverse Scepticism and Fatigue
Roblox is highlighting, for better or worse, the pitfalls of the supposed metaverse. We’ve written extensively at gmw3 on the topic of the metaverse; it’s something that, when handled correctly, can be enticing and exciting. But for the metaverse to exist, certain aspects of technology need to come together and build a cohesive vision.
When we break down exactly how Roblox positions itself as a metaverse property, we can see certain stumbling blocks emerge. I’ve already touched on the lack of safety protocols for Roblox, but this highlights a growing problem across all metaverse platforms – without a centralised ‘leader’ overseeing platforms, aspects such as child safety, online bullying and black market sales will become rife. We must pose the question, how can we, as users, stay safe when there is nobody to answer to?
Speaking of decentralisation, Roblox is, and always will be, overseen by the Roblox Corporation. Investors looking to Roblox to lead the way into the metaverse must, by now, be seeing that there are limits to this idea. After all, Nickelodeon, Nike and Vans would have all been subject to scrutiny from those at the top of the chain, revealing that while Roblox can be seen as metaverse-aspiring, it’s still a walled garden in which the caretakers rule the roost.
The Metaverse Shift
So, where have these investors moved to? Well, without being able to dig too deeply due to the availability of reports, it’s clear that many brands are moving full-steam into the metaverse big four, Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, Somnium Space and Decentraland on their own, or by buying up LAND parcels. LAND purchasing is rising rapidly; in 2021 LAND sales topped out at $500 million and are scheduled to double throughout 2022.
This rapid shift from Roblox to the big four metaverse projects becomes more meaningful to investors given the value of these LAND parcels and the ease with which they could be sold on. Ultimately, Roblox only offers monetisation through the item sales – bags, clothes and other wearables – where the Roblox Corporation usually takes a 30% cut from the revenue. Whereas somewhere like Decentraland offers more incentive for investors to create and monetise their LAND through sales of NFTs and non-intrusive advertising.
Let’s look at Decentraland as our key example of investment growth. Plot number X-73 x Y38 is a relatively small and unassuming parcel of LAND. The closest district is called District X; when explored there are a few small buildings on neighbouring plots, it’s just South of Vegas City. When the LAND was put up for sale initially it sold for the equivalent of $134.16 in 2017. On 3rd January 2022, this exact plot of LAND resold (due to it being an NFT) for $17,499.97. And this isn’t even near any of the big money areas, like the fashion district.
Another example would be ATARI in Sandbox, who in earlier years purchased a huge swathe of LAND for 2020 prices, which would have reached a maximum $70k floor price. They however sold 360 parcels to Republic Realm for around $4.3 million in November 2021. Investors will see this and make the jump, because experiences in Roblox, such as NIKELAND, cannot be resold or repurposed.
Is it all Downhill?
With all of this discussed, Roblox isn’t going anywhere, of course. It still has power in drawing users to the platform through its constant partnerships with big brands and its easy to play engine which runs on practically all hardware. And, it’s still a leading player in constructing what a metaverse property could look like.
But there’s no doubting a strong shift from investors who once saw Roblox as a safe bet. It’s the same confidence that many parents give to the platform when letting their kids log in, it’s not misguided, but everything has changed over the past year, through social changes and investigations which hurt the mission statement of the Roblox Corporation. It is worth noting that since the People Make Games YouTube video aired, Roblox has announced a commitment to safety and protecting creators.
On top of this, while Roblox and the media as a whole, see the metaverse potential, it could be seen as lacking in comparison. The lack of decentralisation, ownership of more digital goods and the freedom of building and construction, could eventually hurt the brand as more competitors enter the fray.
Can We Make the Metaverse a Safe Space For All?
From mid-90s forums to Facebook live streams, the topic of free speech on the internet is a decades-old conversation. As Web3 evolves and the building blocks of the metaverse take shape, AR and VR will lead to new forms of communication technology. Immersive experiences, such as 360-degree videos and avatar-based community spaces, will soon become common ways for users to interact with other people in real time.
While these experiences are sure to transform how users connect, exchange information and express themselves online, there’s also room for them to do much more than overcome barriers of physical space. Potential issues — such as personal space violations, hate speech, verbal harassment and underaged access to explicit content — are just a few of the concerns that are being tied to the emerging metaverse. It’s for this very reason that frightening stories are starting to trickle into our newsfeeds — such as tales about online “groping” incidents in Meta’s Horizon Worlds, or reports of children being exposed to explicit content in popular metaverse gaming platforms, such as Roblox.
Let’s dive deeper into some examples of present-day safety concerns in the nascent days of Web3. We’ll also go over some solutions being suggested by experts, as well as how we can try to learn from some of our past mistakes in previous tech eras.
First — has the internet ever been truly safe?
For many years now, freedom of expression has been seen as a fundamental principle of successful modern society. Even UNESCO states that: “The principle of freedom of expression and human rights must apply not only to traditional media but also to the internet and all types of emerging media platforms, which will contribute to development, democracy and dialogue.”
Since its inception, the internet has enabled people from all corners of the globe to come together and be heard. The earliest era of the internet — now referred to as Web1 — was largely uncontrolled by media organisations, showing us the wonders of where effective, unrestricted speech could go. Public forums, chat rooms and early website builders allowed just about anyone to exchange ideas or discourse without the governance of online guidelines or oversight from policymakers.
The early days of the web also introduced two key components: free speech and anonymity. Anonymity granted users a newfangled sense of freedom and privacy, along with the liberty to detach their legal and physical identity from their internet persona if they so desired. An open, anonymous internet also allowed users to be more transparent, more objective and less biased when building friendships or connections. Platforms that required people to communicate using their real identities also weren’t really a thing yet — meaning that users could also choose to their personal data entirely offline.
Of course, this framework also moulded the internet into a de-facto “wild west” of sorts. Hate speech, should it have cropped up, was seldom regulated — and those who engaged in any sort of illegal activity were able to do so while more easily dodging accountability. In the words of an old Web1 expert: “It [was] almost impossible to control illegal activity, which [was] perpetrated or discussed over the internet since, in most cases, police [were] not able to track the offender down.”
In Web2, a good chunk of the internet was eventually consumed by Big Tech monopolies (namely Facebook and Google). With large teams and sophisticated content moderation models in place, centralised platforms found ways to mitigate online abuse and explicit content in a bid to keep communications safer and more age-appropriate.
Facebook, for example, has always enforced a set of Community Standards to regulate all content shared on its grounds. This regulatory framework has enabled a system where any inappropriate content is governed by a team of moderators — who are always working to remove rules-violating content from the platform. However, platforms like Facebook and Google have also famously compromised users’ rights to free expression and privacy. In the last decade, the ethics behind Big Tech’s content moderation systems have also been the subject of extensive questioning and scrutiny.
The short answer? No, the internet has never been truly safe. The freer terrain of Web1 allowed for more unregulated expression and personal privacy but put in little stops to curb online harassment or prevent underaged audiences from being able to access explicit content. Web2 has arguably done a better job at the latter, but it has been at the expense of our privacy and rights to ownership.
We’re now faced with the risks that will come with a more immersive internet. Unlike previous iterations of the web, user interactions will be encouraged to mirror real-world actions in the metaverse. While this will allow for more lifelike experiences and limitless opportunities for users to create and monetise, there’s a high probability that this model will also further exacerbate challenges for user safety.
Can we ensure safe communication in shared metaverse spaces?
As the concepts of physical and digital will be converged in the metaverse, it’s looking like the lines between good and bad contact might be as well. In light of this, concerns around physical and sexual assault have been raised — with many experts calling for increased preventative measures before the metaverse becomes more widely accessible.
Early iterations of Meta’s first Web3 offering — Horizon Worlds — was one such example of this. As Mark Zuckerberg’s first version of a metaverse space launched its first beta release in late 2021, so did the floodgates for safety concerns.
While running a beta test in Horizon Worlds, a woman alleged that she was “virtually groped” inside the platform by other male users. Not long after this encounter, another woman reported being “verbally and sexually harassed” by three or four male avatars inside Horizon Venues.
“Sexual harassment is no joke on the regular internet, but being in VR adds another layer that makes the event more intense,” the first subject remarked. “Not only was I groped last night, but there were other people who supported this behaviour — which made me feel isolated.”
In all, the idea that female users could see their safety compromised in the metaverse is extremely concerning. In a 2021 survey by Reach3 Insights and Lenovo, 59% of women reported feeling the need to hide their gender while playing games online, in an effort to avoid being harassed. If we compare this data with growing initiatives to make Web3 more inclusive and welcoming for women, we can see that these numbers are trending in the wrong direction.
While Meta responded to the virtual assault quite rapidly, their action generated a mixed response. To deter any VR groping from taking place inside their virtual world, the company introduced the Personal Boundary feature for the Horizon series: an imagined “4-foot zone of personal space” that will encircle each users’ avatar to prevent any unwanted interactions.
According to Meta staff: “Personal Boundary builds upon our existing harassment measures that were already in place — for example, where an avatar’s hands would disappear if they encroached upon someone’s personal space.” Moreover, they’ve argued that having the Personal Boundary system on by default will “help to set behavioural norms” — a feature that will be “important for a relatively new medium like VR.”
Will we see similar personal space boundaries envelop our metaverse avatars in all of our future online journeys? Will there be an increased need for women to adopt them while participating in online activities?
Right now, it’s hard to tell — and even Meta’s representatives aren’t entirely sure if their latest solution is totally foolproof. According to Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s VP of AR and VR, moderating the “toxic environment” in a metaverse space “at any meaningful scale is practically impossible.” But while there may not be a magical answer, it’s becoming clear that — at the very least — new safety protocols will need to be outlined and evaluated as they are adapted to the conditions of Web3.
Can we keep explicit content age-restricted in the metaverse?
In any case, ensuring that the web is safe for younger audiences will always be paramount. Children born today will never have known a world without the internet or social networks, meaning that the likelihood that they’ll encounter something inappropriate will certainly increase as they become more active online.
Studies have shown that 56% of children aged 11 to 16 have viewed explicit material online, while one-third of British children have encountered sexist, racist or discriminatory content at some point in their lives. Examples of inappropriate materials that children have reported finding access to include pornographic material, explicit language, racist, sexist or violent imagery and unmoderated discourse.
Roblox, currently one of the most popular children’s games in the world, has been referred to as a “primitive metaverse” akin to decentralised Web3 platforms — namely for its ability to offer more immersive gaming experiences, a robust community and a space for users to submit and generate their own content. The gaming giant also recently came under fire for failing to regulate a plethora of games hosted on its platform. In spaces code-named as “condos”, pint-sized avatars could be found participating in sex acts and exchanging sexually explicit dialogue.
Recent reports have also accused gaming platform VRChat — an application with a minimum age rating of 13 — of providing all users with open access to “metaverse strip clubs”. While posing as a 13-year-old girl, a BBC researcher alleges being subjected to sexual materials, racist insults, instances of grooming and even rape threats. Also, due to the experience being more immersive, the researcher also noted the capacity for users to act out sex acts in front of other users’ avatars.
Like Meta, Roblox has since outlined a plan to enhance safety for its user community. Big Tech companies appear to be racing to build metaverse spaces that will follow a set of strict guidelines — especially as they become increasingly more immersive and lifelike. Will decentralised platforms be able to achieve the same, or have the “condos” of Roblox given us an omen for how difficult these new spaces will be to police?
Just how harmful could a misguided metaverse be?
Given that the metaverse will allow such a wide range of interpersonal interactions, it’s only logical to assume that not all actions or expressions will be positive.
Dr. Liraz Margalit, a digital psychologist who studies online behaviour, asserts that — like many already do on the internet — people will find ways where they can behave differently in the metaverse than they can in real life. While remarking on the dangers of future metaverse interaction, she’s claimed that: “You have the anonymity and you have the disinhibition effect. [Platforms can] provide you with the playground to do anything you want.”
We’re also posed with a significant question — is sexual harassment in the VR world still considered a form of assault? Should all metaverse platforms consider the need for imaginary “shields” or boundaries to deter the invasion of a user’s personal space? According to experts, sexual harassment in VR is still considered a form of assault — with “groping” or virtual coercion still being defined as offences, even if there’s no physical contact involved.
Katherine Cross, a PhD student researcher of online harassment at the University of Washington, has defined it well: “At the end of the day, the nature of virtual-reality spaces is such that it is designed to trick the user into thinking they are physically in a certain space, that their every bodily action is occurring in a 3D environment.” As a result, these incidents are “likely to produce similar emotional and psychological reactions as occurrences of assault in real life.”
Moreover, we know that harmful online content can have a wide-reaching impact in the real world. Of course, where lines are drawn is largely dependent on laws, norms and expectations of particular users and platforms. However, there’s still no denying that any form of hate speech, harassment and misinformation can lead to greater risks in the offline world — such as the potential for targeted violence, social or political consequences and emotional damage.
What are some proposed safety solutions?
In order to create safer and more welcoming environments, metaverse platforms will need to ensure they equip their spaces with moderation tools that will prevent and discourage misuse. It’s also becoming clearer that there is a need for policymakers to begin tailoring internet safety laws so that they can better meet the growing needs of Web3. But in a decentralised internet no longer moderated by Big Tech platforms, how can this be achieved?
According to the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children), “improvements in online safety are a matter of urgency.” And while the risks associated with VR and the metaverse haven’t yet been outlined in the UK’s upcoming Online Safety Bill, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has stated that the legislation will begin covering these new technologies. When passed, the bill will impose stricter mandates on what platforms and providers can share — with a primary goal of protecting children from explicit content.
A recent report on metaverse content moderation from ITIF has also emphasised the importance of third-party platforms mediating channels where immersive activity will take place:
“Without proper consideration for these shifting parameters of speech in immersive spaces, content moderation approaches — and the policies that restrict them — could have a chilling effect on individual expression or allow harmful speech to proliferate.”
ITIF suggests that policymakers should work with industry leaders to “mitigate the greatest potential harms from immersive content.” However, it’s also critical that all platforms — centralised or decentralised — are armed with the necessary tools and knowledge to establish proper content moderation approaches that will protect users from harm.
One solution is for platforms to implement protections (such as established community guidelines) against real-world harms that could occur from activities in the metaverse — including non-consensual pornography, fraud, child endangerment and other forms of defamatory content. Another includes the creation of working groups that will provide guidance on intellectual property and copyright protections, to “promote innovation, fair compensation and creative expression in immersive experiences.”
In decentralised spaces, owners should also consider establishing voluntary guidelines that will encourage users to “identify, respond to and report on harmful content and content moderation activities.”
In Web3, decentralised platforms should ultimately find ways to harmonise safety and privacy by implementing user controls that will allow individuals to shape their own experiences and meet their needs and expectations. Age-gating controls could be put in place for underaged users, but we could one day interact within spaces where adult users would be given their own set of controls (such as determining how wide of a shield they’d like around their avatar, or which filters they’d like to enable). This would allow them to engage or not engage with certain types of objects or environments and make these decisions themselves.
Final thoughts
Throughout the internet’s lifespan, online platforms have continued to innovate to meet the cultural and societal requirements of users. Over the years, however, platforms have also struggled to provide a balance of established rules, content moderation, user privacy and individual user controls. Like other digital platforms, the metaverse will inherit many of these challenges — and as our world continues to explore a more immersive future, many of them will need to be reevaluated.
With that being said, it’s also become abundantly clear that many of us are not looking for a regulatory framework like Facebook’s to govern us any longer. Instead, Web3 should be a place where we can learn from both Web1 and Web2’s mistakes — where users, developers and policymakers can evaluate the lessons we’ve learned and build spaces that are safer, more open and more equitable than ever before.
In a decentralised internet, it’s important that we also try to build spaces that will encourage, rather than force approaches to keeping users safe. It’s hoped that users and developers will continue to be educated, that industry standards will continue to be revised and that effective self-regulation frameworks will continue to be built.
Should the Metaverse be Gamified?
When discussing the metaverse it’s clear big brands and tech giants have a conundrum on their hands – exactly how do they get the public to engage with something which seems so fantastical? Some of the aspects of the metaverse being discussed currently are pulled directly from sci-fi novels and movies.
How do the big corporations help the public visualise a decentralised digital space? Where ownership is everything and our physical lives merge with our online selves seamlessly? A place where we can replicate our homes in cyberspace, or live an entirely new life built around blockchain.
These ideas almost feel unbelievable in the same way that our smartphones once did when mobile phones could only log on to the internet using WAP and charged by the minute. Even the idea of paying for a coffee by tapping a watch on a card device seemed far-fetched until a few years ago.
The answer may lay within the industry which has been embracing metaverse concepts for years – videogames. Gaming already allows for virtual selves, digital currency, utilises both virtual and augmented reality, forms cooperation and instant messaging between individuals or within a large group. So, if gaming is leading the way to the metaverse, does the metaverse need to be initially gamified?
It’s clear that most instances of what we would call the metaverse are stemming from videogames. Not only do so many games feature aspects of an active metaverse, but they also steer the technologies, such as processing power and graphical interfacing. It’s no wonder that younger generations, the ones who dive headlong into games such as Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox, are embracing new experiences like Somnium Space, The Sandbox and Decentraland after seeing many familiarities.
Internal or External
Perhaps we need to veer away from the metaverse for a moment and look at intrinsic and extrinsic ideals. To put it simply, to act intrinsically can be reading a book for pleasure, whereas extrinsically would be reading a book in order to study for a test. It can be seen as internal and external goals or drives.
If the big tech players were to gamify the metaverse, they would be extrinsically affecting the audience, giving them a reason to be there. It’s an outside influence, similar to adding a ‘like’ system to social media. Users then seek out likes, or in this example, points, achievements or challenges overcome. Rather than interacting with the ‘product’ in a more organic way through discovery because discovery can be scary for some users.
An example of this is Roblox. Do users venture onto the Roblox platform to interact with other users within an experience, or do they come for the gaming aspects? One could argue that it works in stages; the player comes for the games, then interacts with various experiences and possibly makes friends, or discovers creativity, turning them into a user who splits their time differently.
This is a tactic used often within gaming; implementing goals to drive interaction. The launch of the Xbox 360 in 2005 introduced an Achievement system, which used points to reward players for exploring or meeting targets. This was then implemented for PlayStation 3, then on Steam for PC users. Players began chasing achievements and trophies, which urged them to explore areas or take on tougher challenges. It was partly pavlovian, realising serotonin when the message of a new trophy was displayed, but it also fed into our natural human need to explore and be rewarded.
Social Farming
To see how tech companies have incentivised users, let’s examine Farmville, a game that swept across Facebook for several years. A game that required little more effort than signing into the social website to grow some crops. Facebook didn’t program the game, nor did they design any aspect of it – that goes to Zynga – but they allowed its placement on their platform. They allowed it knowing that it would bring more people to their social space. There’s no way of knowing how impactful the game was on growing Facebook’s user base, but at the time seemingly everyone knew about Farmville.
Six months after release, when Farmville was hitting its stride, the game had 72.9 million active players, that was 20% of Facebook’s users at the time. These numbers only grew as the popularity of social media exploded. Between April 2009 and July 2011, Facebook’s user base grew from 200 million to 750 million, and Farmville was asking each player to message their friends and ask them to come and play.
At the time, it was an extension to social interactions – something to do with your mother or sibling while online. Mark Pincus, who was chief executive of Zynga at the time, remarked to the New York Times: “we thought of it as this new dimension in your social, not just a way to get games to people.”
The Farmville example shows how a game can guide users towards a new experience or technology. Many of the players who swarmed to Facebook back then were older demographics and while they were there after they’d harvested their crops, they could check in on the family, share a photo or do some shopping. As time passed, the games faded into the background but Facebook was still a place where users checked in every day. Now they weren’t being incentivised, they were simply engaging with a new technology – social media.
Digital connections
What could be a possible first step for consumers? Much like Farmville in our above example, users need to be given an entertaining reason to log in. In a recent interview, co-founder of The Sandbox, Sebastien Borget referred to the mega-corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Meta and their intentions for the metaverse. He said: “We don’t think those companies can build something truly fun that’s catered to the users because they’ve been so focused on their key business model and how to satisfy shareholders.”
Discovering a new technology should be fun. It’s the reason most of us downloaded a game on our first smartphone – so we could pinch, stretch, swipe, flick and really get to grips with the technology. Now those actions are used when browsing a web page or editing a photo. There needs to be a reason – something to cause excitement.
The ‘reasons’ don’t need to be games, they could be experiences like concerts, celebrity meet and greets, album listening parties or fashion shows. These events and practices are already occurring throughout metaverse aspiring videogames and as long as the activity rewards the player or features interactivity, it is likely users will attend. The question then becomes ‘how does the metaverse retain visitors?’ Through ownership.
That doesn’t necessarily mean purchasing NFTs or owning land where you build a mansion or storefront; but by guiding users through how they can own their metaverse existence and how it relates to those around them. The reason people stayed with Facebook after finishing their last game of Farmville was connection. They were connecting with family or friends, or perhaps a different game. They came for a reason and stayed because of connection. This is what the metaverse – whichever version we embrace – needs to achieve.