Sample Virtual Worlds Examined

For an upcoming effort I have been asked for an overview of Virtual-Meta worlds and their potential uses in areas like retail and beyond. Recall we worked with IBM on an experiment with 'Second Life' in the 80s.   Below are a list of such worlds, only a few that I have looked at,  via ChatGPT.  Looking in particular how these do/can link with AI enhancement. 

There are many virtual worlds that exist, each with their own unique features and user communities. Here are some examples of popular virtual worlds:

1. Second Life: As mentioned earlier, Second Life is a virtual world where users can create their own avatars and explore a vast virtual world.

2.Minecraft: While Minecraft is primarily a game, it can also be considered a virtual world. In Minecraft, users can build and explore their own virtual environments, and interact with other players in multiplayer mode.

3.Roblox: Roblox is a platform that allows users to create and play their own games, as well as socialize and interact with other users in a virtual world.

4.VRChat: VRChat is a virtual reality platform where users can create and customize avatars, explore virtual worlds, and interact with other users in real-time.

5. IMVU: IMVU is a virtual world where users can create and customize avatars, socialize with other users, and even shop for virtual goods using real money.

6. Entropia Universe: Entropia Universe is a virtual world where users can explore a vast universe, hunt creatures, mine resources, and even engage in real-money transactions.

7. Kaneva: Kaneva is a virtual world that allows users to create and customize avatars, explore virtual environments, and interact with other users in real-time.

These are just a few examples of the many virtual worlds that exist. Each virtual world has its own unique features and user community, and users can choose to participate in the virtual world that best fits their interests and preferences.

Driving Value with the Metaverse in the Enterprise

Irving talks some of the work that IBM did with the Virtual World  'Second Life' in the mid 2000's at IBM which we also participated in, a nice look with lots of interesting links.  This also fills me in on lots of later work, such as metaverse located meetings and task interactions.  Could not get our folks interested  Much of that was documented in this blog.  Is the addition can AI 'Enhancement' enough to make the proposition much more interesting?  Will search, examine these for later comment.

A collection of observations, news and resources on the changing nature of innovation, technology, leadership, and other subjects      By Irving Wladawsky-Berger 

Driving Value with the Metaverse in the Enterprise     (much more at the link)

A killer app is an IT application whose value to individuals and companies is relatively simple to explain, its use is fairly intuitive, and the application turns out to be so useful that it can singlehandedly propel the success of a new product or service. Word processing and spreadsheets, for example, were major factors in the widespread adoption of personal computers in the 1980s.

I got interested in 3D immersive environments in the mid-2000s when IBM launched an exploratory initiative on the topic. As part of these efforts, we conducted a number of experiments on Second Life, a platform that allowed its users to develop a variety of virtual world applications. We built a number of workplace applications, including virtual meetings, and online events, and even built a virtual replica of Beijing’s Forbidden City in partnership with the Palace Museum that was opened to the public. But, despite our high expectations, we couldn’t find any compelling enterprise killer apps, and after about three years, the project was dissolved. In the ensuing years, 3D immersive technologies and applications continued to advance, but mostly focused on video-games and related industries.

The past few years have seen a surge of interest in the metaverse and extended reality. “After desktop computing, the consumer internet and the smartphone boom, the consumer-computing industry is past due its Next Big Thing,” wrote The Economist in  “A reality check for the metaverse is coming,” an article in its 2022 year-end issue. “[A]n internet which is still largely flat — based on two-dimensional text, images and video — is ripe for replacement with one that is three-dimensional and immersive.” ... ' 

Horizon World Metaverse Good Enough?

 Had a brief demo of the Horizon Meta Verse with regards to user experience.  In past years I had used and developed trial 'worlds' in the Second Life virtual world,  there we experimented with working and meeting in such VR worlds.  It as not good enough. Here there is much, much to do to make this viable.   Below a short recent article. 

Horizon Worlds metaverse app so bad that Meta has to force employees to use it  Ben Lovejoy  - Oct. 7th 2022 4:21 am PT

It seems Meta is having problems persuading even its own employees to don one of its virtual reality headsets and use its primary metaverse app, Horizon Worlds. So much so that an internal memo says the company would “hold managers accountable” for their teams using it.

It’s one of a set of leaked memos that suggest Apple may not have too much to fear from Meta’s competition to its own upcoming VR/AR headsets …

Background

Horizon Worlds is a free virtual reality environment that forms the company’s main metaverse platform. Here’s how Meta describes it:

A social experience where you can explore, play and create with others in VR. 

Horizon invites you to explore an ever-expanding universe of virtual experiences designed and built by the entire community. Everything you see in Horizon, including the Plaza and worlds created by our teams at Facebook, has been built with the Horizon creation tools. In Horizon, you can build the things you want to see and places you want to visit. 

Horizon makes it easy to meet up with your friends or explore with new people. Once you’re there, you can join a Party to chat together as you navigate Horizon and check out featured worlds in the Horizon Plaza to see what’s new. You can also navigate to the menu, where you can search the published worlds in Horizon by name and find new places to explore.

It is currently available through the company’s Oculus Rift S and Meta Quest 2 VR headsets, and will be available on the upcoming Meta Quest Pro VR/AR headset, which is expected to have a similar spec to the long-awaited Apple Headset.

We last month got an early look at the Meta Quest Pro, when what appears to be a finished model was left in a hotel room.

Meta staff being forced to use Horizon Worlds

Part of Meta’s vision for Horizon Worlds is that it will be used by businesses as well as consumers, but so far it appears that even the company’s own staff are struggling to think of a reason to do so.

The Verge obtained memos from the company’s Metaverse lead, Vishal Shah, in which he announced a plan for essentially force employees to use it.

A key issue with Horizon’s development to date, according to Shah’s internal memos, is that the people building it inside Meta appear to not be using it that much. “For many of us, we don’t spend that much time in Horizon and our dogfooding dashboards show this pretty clearly,” he wrote to employees on September 15th. “Why is that? Why don’t we love the product we’ve built so much that we use it all the time? The simple truth is, if we don’t love it, how can we expect our users to love it?”

In a follow-up memo dated September 30th, Shah said that employees still weren’t using Horizon enough, writing that a plan was being made to “hold managers accountable” for having their teams use Horizon at least once a week. “Everyone in this organization should make it their mission to fall in love with Horizon Worlds. You can’t do that without using it. Get in there. Organize times to do it with your colleagues or friends, in both internal builds but also the public build so you can interact with our community.”

Major quality problems

Even Shah admits that the app is suffering from major quality issues.

In one of the memos […] Shah, said the team would remain in a “quality lockdown” for the rest of the year to “ensure that we fix our quality gaps and performance issues before we open up Horizon to more users” […]

“Currently, feedback from our creators, users, playtesters, and many of us on the team is that the aggregate weight of papercuts, stability issues, and bugs is making it too hard for our community to experience the magic of Horizon” […]

He went on to call out specific issues with Horizon, writing that “our onboarding experience is confusing and frustrating for users”

The company responded to The Verge’s report by saying that it is “always making quality improvements” and that the app was “a multiyear journey.”

Apple is believed to be working on three headsets for launch next year, with the first of these expected to go head-to-head with the Meta Quest Pro. The company’s long-term aim is believed to be a pair of normal-looking eyeglasses with AR overlays, widely referred to as Apple Glasses.    ... ' 

The Meta Virtual Bar Experience

Reminds me of some of the silliness of Second Life, a decade plus ago.  Is this different?   Or is it no sillier than most advertisement?  

ACM TECHNEWS

Belly Up to a Virtual Bar,   By The Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2022

Patrons like Maryana Ryumshin, who attends Wisher Vodka's online establishment, say they go there to socialize.

Some companies are linking their virtual drinks to real-world alcohol; Wisher, for example, sells non-fungible tokens of cocktails, and sends customers who buy them a case of its vodka.

The virtual bars also host events, with Absolut Vodka fronting a two-week online party tied to the Coachella music festival with an online bar, dance floor, and music.

In April, Heineken claimed to have created the world's first virtual beer, along with a digital brewery where avatars can sample the drink and tour the facility where it is manufactured.

From The Wall Street Journal

View Full Article -     May Require Paid Subscription

Ready to go beyond Zoom to Virtual Worlds?

Something we explored, but it was overall not very successful.  Even allowed us to construct part of the real-world operational process world to interact with.    If you are talking to a group of  plant managers, why not include the simulation of a manufacturing line that is a twin of the real thing?  Interact with virtual streams of data from the real thing? Makes some kinds of training more natural.  But now have needs changed enough to make it more reasonable?   A broader means of remote work?

Zoom Not Cutting It for You? Try Exploring a Virtual World   By Louise Matsakis  in Wired

If you’re craving more from your video chats, think outside the box. From Second Life to Online Town, there are plenty of places to gather while staying at home.

"... It’s time to think out of the Zoom box. Why not add a virtual world to your next video call? Having a place to socialize, even a digital one, can make connecting through a computer far more enjoyable—even if you think you don’t like videogames. Virtual worlds like Second Life, as well as massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft, have been around for decades, but the Covid-19 lockdown presents an opportunity to revisit them and to explore what we want in an online destination. “I think the new demands of the shelter-in-place orders may prompt interesting new designs for virtual spaces and also help us rethink assumptions,” says Nick Yee, the cofounder of Quantic Foundry, a gaming market research firm, and the author of The Proteus Paradox: How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us—and How They Don’t. “Why do we need virtual chairs if our virtual bodies never get tired?”

Linden Labs Gives up on VR Spin off

Note our examination of virtual world retail, mentioned here earlier.  This piece gives us a look at the current status of world tech with current supporting tech like VR.   Last I looked SL was not heavily used.

Why 'Second Life' developer Linden Lab gave up on its VR spin-off
'We decided that Linden Lab wanted to become cash-positive.’
Nick Summers, @nisummers in Engadget
  
Second Life developer Linden Lab has sold Sansar, a platform for virtual 'scenes' that could be explored with a VR headset or traditional PC setup.

Back in 2016, I described the service as "WordPress for social VR." A foundation that allowed creators to import custom assets and quickly build their own shareable world. The company hoped that this mix would attract commercial clients — think museums, car manufacturers and record labels — that want their own VR experience but don't have the technical expertise to deal with game engines and digital distribution.

Similarly, Linden Lab hoped Sansar would attract users who crave diverse worlds — like those promised in movies such as Ready Player One — and, if they have a creative spark, possibly make their own assets that can be shared and sold to the rest of the community.

Sansar's VR compatibility was a big draw. At the time, there were many 3D chat room experiences — including Second Life — but few that allowed large groups to strap on a headset and freely converse. Linden Lab knew that the number of people with high-end VR headsets was small, though. And the team didn't want to dilute the experience so it could run on mobile-powered hardware like Google Cardboard and Samsung's Gear VR.    ... " 

Revisiting Virtual Worlds

As I have chronicled here, we looked closely at the Virtual World Idea, with the support of some management.   But it never stuck well enough, had too many problems involved with just getting things done.  And the older generations rolled their eyes.  But now that is turning over, and changes are underway, does it have a place?

    Its not augmenting reality, but replacing it with one that's potentially built for the job at hand.   A piece about changes being considered.  More closely connected to an effort called Sansar, which appears to bring it closer to game environments, which we also sought to make this useful for business.   Note that IEEE has a Virtual Worlds Standards Group, but a quick look at it shows the work is still thin. 

Looking Back at Second Life

Yes, it still exists, and has roughly the same number of users.   Surprised me.   This all came out a decade ago.  We did quite a bit of experimentation with it.  Worked with several large IT  groups looking at ways to make it useful.  Even a way to do research in that other world that might mirror our real world.    At the end of the day it was not very useful for us.  Does it still merit examination as an environment for marketing experiments,  or a retail architecture?  Experimented with using worlds to interact with the abstractness of data.  Virtualitics is doing that today.  Good piece that shows what Second Life is today. 

Returning to Second Life
Long after its grandest ambitions have faded, the platform still boasts people and profit.   By Samuel Axon in ArsTechnica .... " 

Sansar is a Virtual World using VR

We explored SL, built locations, thought of advertising there, swam through our data, had group meetings.  Click the tags below for more on all that.

The VR successor to 'Second Life' is now in public beta

Explore Sansar with a HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, or a regular Windows PC.

Sansar, the VR platform by Second Life creator Linden Lab, is now available for everyone to explore. The public "creator beta" follows a private "creator preview," which allowed developers and aspiring level designers to try Sansar's building tools. That period was crucial given, like Second Life, Linden Lab is banking on the community to populate Sansar with interesting experiences. Today, there are "hundreds" of places to explore, including museums, theaters and tropical temples. Some are virtual postcards, while others have games and stories inside them. Everything is free to try too, whether you're playing on a PC, Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.  .... " 

Building Virtual Reality Cities

An interesting example that reminds me of Second Life.   But of course now using headgear rather than on screen.  Is the difference in 3D quality important for this kind of experience?   " .... Imageen has launched a new virtual reality (VR) experience from Estudiofuture, Tarraco VR, now available for download on Gear VR for free. Tarraco VR allows users to travel to the 2nd Century, the ancient city of Tarraco, and view the many entertainment wonders the era offers. ... " 

Exploring Data Visually in Virtual Reality

This has been long time thread here.  We explored the use of VR and Augmented reality to create environments for understanding complex data.

The image at the right shows an example of linking visualized data into a virtual reality space.   Never clearly successful,  but continue to monitor.  Here, new examinations of the use of current virtual reality hardware and software.

VR as the Next Social Network

In CWorld: VR as social network. I mentioned this in a recent post that talked about using it to better understand social behavior.  It has been been mentioned by some players as the ultimate interface.   But I did hear the same thing mentioned for virtual worlds like Second Life.  I say, not in its current form.

Multi Person Virtual Reality

Microsoft Lab research.  Not of the Second Life style, but wearing head sets and exploring a common space.  Look forward to seeing Hololens in more practical applications.

In Technology Review:
" ... Augmented or mixed reality, which renders virtual images in a view of the real world, can be spectacular to experience. But it may be even more fun when you bring a friend.

Researchers in the Microsoft lab of Jaron Lanier are experimenting with multi-person augmented reality, and the results of their work could help shape the way the technology is commercialized and used. Lanier was a pioneer of virtual and augmented, or mixed, reality in the 1980s.

Microsoft is testing a commercial augmented reality product, called HoloLens. Lanier stresses that his work is separate from HoloLens and does not reflect how that product will develop. Still, multi-person mixed reality is a long-standing challenge for those interested in the technology. Beyond gaming, there is hope that virtual and augmented reality could prove useful for communications, collaboration, and for new ways of accessing and handling information. .... "

Trying Again in the Metaverse

If has been quite a long time since I heard the term Metaverse.  Yet I attended the building of a huge IBM Second Life complex as a representative of our enterprise.   Shopped in the aisles of a virtual store. Interacted with abstract data as I floated through clusters of learned attraction. (Right)

Virtually walked through the halls of a building we constructed that directly mirrored the physical building I worked in.  Had meetings about doing focus groups with the virtual inhabitants.   Talked to a number of startups there.

It peaked at a million users. But then it seemed every one lost interest in navigable, 3D spaces that mimicked the real world.  Focused artificial worlds, like a 3D CAD system are common.  Yet we don't expect them to allow us to stroll through them with our colleagues, or set up social camp there.

For a business/social example, see Fidelity's Stockcity.

Second Life still exists.  And, they say, is profitable.  An interesting article says they have figured out how to make it and other virtual worlds successful.  New companies involved.  And new technologies to deliver the experience, like Oculus.  And managers of super social networks like Facebook.

Will they achieve really immersive experience that include rich communications with others?  and create profitable businesses.

The Aloft Butler Brings you a Toothbrush

Finally a closer look at the hospitality robotic butler at the Aloft in Cupertino.  I remember when there was a version of the Aloft in Second Life that I 'stayed' in, but that is long gone.    Being used mostly to deliver things to your door.  How will this evolve?

" ... If a guest is staying at the Aloft hotel in Cupertino, Calif. and asks for a comb or a late-night snack, the guest may be surprised at who -- or what -- brings it to the room.

The Aloft Hotel in the Silicon Valley city has been using an autonomous robot as a butler, delivering small items that guests might have forgotten to pack, like toothpaste or a razor, along with snacks and candy.

The robot, dubbed Butlr, has worked out so well that another one of the hotel chain's properties has begun using its own robot and a third has plans in the works to adopt another. ... " 

Shopping in Virtual Reality

Spent some time looking at how people might shop using virtual reality.  In particular was part of a retail innovation group that looked at Second Life for this.  That broader 3D environment there did change the result. Our outcome was that VR, as it existed then, did not promote shopping for the CPG categories we examined. But should the virtual environment mimic live retal?  Clearly for some domains, especially those that integrated complex 3D interaction, or information,  the outcome would be different. Retailwire examines this in a discussion.   Worth a yet closer look.  Glad to share informally.   Any other reactions?

" ... According to Walker Sands' "2015 Future of Retail Study," more than a third of consumers would do more online shopping if they were able to try on a products virtually using a device like Oculus Rift. What do you think the arrival of virtual reality technology will mean for e-commerce? How will it affect physical stores?  ... " 

Team Innovation and the Art of Problem Solving

A High school oriented piece that is quite useful.    Would have loved to have seen this kind of thing when I was in school, or when I had bright kids in school.  Pass it on to yours.

" .. Talk of innovation is everywhere in the business world. To be an innovator is to position yourself on the path to a successful life and career. In this second part of a four-part audio webcast for educators on innovation and the art of problem solving, Saikat Chaudhuri, executive director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School, and Rob Shelton, global innovation strategy lead at PwC, discuss innovation in action — from some inspiring examples to an explanation of why innovation is a team sport. ...  "

Newspaper Goes to Virtual Reality

A curious example of how newspapers are looking at using virtual reality.  Look at the tag link below  for examples about how we experimented with this.   I have not though, been in Second Life for a number of years.  It has not led to the establishment of useful virtual spaces in VR as yet. The gaming angle in VR has not combined well with serious business applications.

" ...  Gannett (GCI), publisher of USA Today and dozens of regional publications, has released its debut report made specifically for the Oculus VR headset: an interactive view of a farm in Iowa designed to accompany a series of newspaper articles being published by the Register this week. It’s the very start of what will likely be a wave of journalistic experiments with virtual reality in the next few years, and this project shows that there’s still some thinking to be done about what news organizations should be trying to accomplish in the medium. ... " 

Tesco CEO on E-Commerce

Been looking at how retailers address e-commerce futures.  Here a piece by the Tesco CEO on e-commerce.  Not too unexpected.

" ... Tesco group chief executive Philip Clarke discusses the opportunities that exist at the intersection of media, ecommerce and big data. As the second largest retailer in the world, Tesco is moving  in the direction of becoming a media and technology company and the leading multi-channel retailer. The objective of Tesco is to put the customer back in control and enabling the customer to engage and transact with Tesco via his/her preferred channel. The percentage of digital sales is growing and that brings big challenges but also offers huge opportunities. An interesting talk about customer loyalty, delivering personalized experiences and the insights from the data they have that helps Tesco to understand and respond to customers’ lifestyles. ... " 

Virtual Retail Shopping vs Shelf Research

Will we eventually be using virtual reality to shop?  Another area of examination in the innovation center.  The recent emergence of Oculus and Google Glass brings the idea to the surface again. Virtual shelves are being used to shelf test presence, but not often full presence for shopping.  Had a long conversation recently about the difference between augmented reality and virtual reality.  The former will likely prevail for now except in the most specialized areas. The picture at the right shows an example of virtual shelf research at Full Scale Virtual Research.