Some weeks ago, as part of the Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, I got to see a fascinating documentary about life in a virtual world. Knit’s Island portrays a bunch of people spending a good part of their lives as an avatar in a game environment. While most of us spend some time playing games and, in that sense, know what it’s like to ‘live’ in a virtual environment, the people depicted in this film go a few steps further. The main characters of the documentary have spent thousands of hours as their virtual alter ego, doing little else than wandering, foraging, cooking, eating, chatting and partying. While they are, in fact, playing a game (zombie survival game DayZ), the game only forms the backdrop of a second life that goes much further and deeper than killing zombies or developing survival skills. They have made friends, live in communities, act as leaders or followers. Most of all, they have found something in this virtual world that’s lacking elsewhere; friends, excitement, safety and even tranquility. In other words, these people consider their virtual world more meaningful than their actual lonely, boring, unsafe, or otherwise unfulfilling real environment.
While the topic of the film is quite unique, so is the fact that it is entirely shot/captured in-game. As a result, we get to see the characters, and the film’s makers, only as their avatars and only in their beloved virtual world. As a viewer, one is thus also immersed into this world, making the experiences and motivations of the players even more palpable. Not in the least because, at times, and when zombies are nowhere to be seen, DayZ offers a
beautiful and wondrous world that could feature in a nature documentary. In one enticing scene, a group of players embarks on a long hike to the end of the virtual world (not knowing whether their world has an end at all) and it genuinely felt like an adventure I would have loved to join.
Going into the film, I was hoping it would offer some insight into the present and future of virtual worlds or virtual practices in general. Even though DayZ is a far cry from most imaginations of a full-fledged virtual world, such as the Metaverse, it does reveal quite a bit about the motivations for people to spend their time in a virtual world. As said, DayZ offers little more than a mostly empty, virtual space where people can hang out - alone or together - develop their character and engage with some basic activities such as chopping wood and making a fire. In that sense it offers freedom to do whatever you want, e.g. to go on a killing spree, but only within the confines of a rather boring world. This is clearly not everyone’s cup of tea. And perhaps this will be true for future iterations of virtual worlds as well; spending time as an avatar may simply be like a hobby that appeals to some people, but not everyone. After all, gaming – let alone something like life-action role-playing - is also only a thing for a very small group of people.
Yet, most depictions of the Metaverse suggest a much richer and fantastic experience. And, perhaps more importantly, a true Metaverse will not only be about fun and leisurely activities. It will also offer more practical uses, for instance related to shopping, education, or healthcare. In such a future, joining the Metaverse will be less like a hobby and more like a common practice. Nevertheless, to me, Knit’s Island made it clear that we should not so much ask whether the Metaverse will become a reality, or not. Instead, we should more carefully consider who, and under what circumstances, will be attracted by a future virtual world. Chances are that mass adoption hinges on practical applications, rather than leisurely ones.
As virtual practices are typically much cheaper than physical ones, money is likely to be an important driver for adoption. This is true for users, but also for suppliers of services and perhaps in the future we will only be able to see a doctor or in a virtual world. Physical experiences, and face-to-face contact may thus become luxuries for the happy few. On the other hand, to get the best Metaverse experience, one will have to spend quite a bit of money on hardware and subscriptions.
Also, instead of (implicitly) waiting for a breakthrough of the Metaverse (e.g. when the technology is ‘ready’ and technical standards are in place), we should consider it more as something that will gradually emerge over time. Not so much in terms of the technology, but in terms of growing demand and emerging social practices. As gaming environments become richer, more people (not just kids) will experience the value of online worlds and discover things that are simply not possible in real life. It is very well possible that, based on our virtual experiences, we’ll increasingly consider real life as limited, boring, limiting, dangerous, expensive etc. Importantly, this is not about directly substituting real life experiences with virtual ones. It’s thus not about substituting an actual Mediterranean beach with VR goggles and a tanning lamp. If we’ll ever skip a beach holiday, it will be because we have something far more exciting to do in a virtual environment.
Finally, Knit’s Island shows us a virtual world that is – by design – full of friction. In this game world, to get from A to B your character must walk the entire distance or drive a car if you can afford the costs. Likewise, your avatar must eat and drink and when it dies, you have to start all over again. This kind of friction makes a lot of sense in a game. Overcoming friction is the essence of many - if not all – (video)games, otherwise there’s no challenge. By contrast, most aspects of current forms of digitalization in our everyday lives is all about reducing friction and hence saving time and money. In other words, why on earth would we choose to walk an avatar from one shop to the other to find a product of our liking, instead of simply clicking a few hyperlinks? For a future Metaverse, the question is thus whether it can combine the practical benefits of the frictionless services that we are already used to, while at the same time offer a meaningful, friction-heavy, experience that has value in and of itself. After all, can something be truly fun and meaningful without any effort of our own?
