Listen to the Metaverse veteran tell the lessons of the industry in the past 19 years

In 2003, Wagner James Au was a young freelance writer in the Bay Area, covering massively multiplayer games like The Sims Online for Salon and Wired. During that time, he was assigned to review a new virtual world game, Second Life, made by a company called Linden Labs. He began learning about this nascent digital world, and soon after, he met the developers, who made him an intriguing offer to work on the game as a journalist. Au could cover everything about Second Life, including weirdness, harassment, and cybercrime. Eventually, Au wrote the definitive book about the game, The Birth of Second Life: Notes from a New World. Today, he still covers Second Life's development in detail on his blog, Notes from a New World, the longest-running metadata news site. His most recent article is about Russian Second Life players who run digital businesses in the game and are now trying to evade sanctions by fleeing the country.

In short, Au is one of the few people who has real opinions and experience with the Metaverse community. Ever since Facebook changed its name to Meta, the concept of the Metaverse has been consumed by a sudden hype cycle. Brands have flocked to this space, people have started to publish all kinds of news about the Metaverse, and many people have dismissed the Metaverse as "useless". But as Au's experience shows, millions of people have been working diligently and creating in the digital world for decades.

Au is a keen observer of the space and, to some extent, an advocate for the digital world. But at the same time, he is also a journalist and critic. He is optimistic about the prospects of the Metaverse community, but also deeply explores the extreme behaviors that may burn everything. He also has his own unique insights on Meta's entry into the Metaverse.

Charlie Warzel : The Metaverse is still very popular, and Facebook has been committed to building it. You have been documenting the development of the Metaverse community for decades. Can you tell us about the scale of Second Life today?

Wagner James Au : After 20 years of development, Second Life currently has a lot of active users, about 600,000 monthly active users and about 200,000 daily active users. The reason why I have always been interested in this game and am willing to spend energy writing related articles is because I see that there are many things worth exploring in it, and users have always been very interested in these contents.

Warzel : When people talk about the virtual internet, there are often all kinds of wild speculations. As a reporter, what did you learn from visiting Second Life?

Au : There are two big things that are happening. First, if you give a community of users powerful enough tools to create creators, the things they create in these worlds are going to be much more interesting than what a large company could create, as you can see with Second Life.

Secondly, we have recreated all the major challenges and complex social structures in real life in digital social space in some way. For example, the issue of race is one of them. In the metaverse, if you can set your avatar at will, what race would you choose? Are there any restrictions, and will there be issues of discrimination and harassment? In Second Life, these issues have led to long-term disputes, and Meta will have to address them. Racism will not disappear no matter what avatar people choose. People often say that the virtual world is freer than the real world, but the reality is that the virtual world will become more chaotic because there are no constraints, and this is also the challenge faced by the metaverse.

Warzel : I often hear people say that users can sometimes create more interesting things than companies can, and I feel like that's true of a lot of social media. Twitter is probably the best example, where users created a lot of new uses, and then the platform had to program them in. Do you see anything like that in Second Life?

Au : One of my favorite examples is about a mathematician who built a house that transcends three dimensions—a house that’s shaped like a four-dimensional hypercube. Once you pass through this house, it keeps regenerating in some way. It’s a really mind-blowing idea that no game company would have thought of. The first person I met in Second Life was a woman who built a mansion by the sea. I learned from her conversation that she was homeless in real life and built this Second Life home in an abandoned apartment in Vancouver. She had a background in computer work and cobbled together an internet connection, and this Second Life was her escape from real life. So people come to Second Life from all different backgrounds, and if you give them the tools to build, they can create something that will amaze you.

Warzel : The reason I ask this question is that I think a lot of people who don't know Second Life have a big misunderstanding about it. But I also know that these gamers are real people, not a group of introverted, escapist people.

Au : People's prejudice against Second Life may be partly due to its name, and I think Linden Labs also knows that it may be accused of helping people escape reality. But you know, no one can predict what happens on the Internet. Some users will build things they see on TV in Second Life, such as the Kardashian family's big house - people often like to recreate things that they are familiar with but can't reach. Of course, this is only a part of the people. Some, such as the mathematician mentioned earlier, will use Second Life to do physics experiments. As for the homeless woman, she has now made building things in the virtual world her career.

What is also overlooked is that in its early days, Second Life could be integrated with the real economy, so people could make money by making content for the game. Philip Rosenadale, one of the creators of Second Life, once mentioned that there were 1,600 Second Life users making $10,000 or more per year from selling virtual content. I've heard that some people are making millions of dollars. This is not just Second Life, there are similar phenomena in other games like Roblox and Fortnite.

Warzel : It's not surprising that Second Life has such a vibrant game economy, but it's surprising that it remains fresh. Why do people stay on the platform because they've invested time and energy in it, or is there something else that attracts them?

Au : The time investment is very important to them. Many Second Life users have been playing for 10, 15, or even close to 20 years. They have spent thousands of dollars on virtual content and made friends in the game. But the specific user behavior varies from person to person. Some monthly users are not very active. They just log in to the community occasionally or visit a favorite place to check the latest changes. Many people are also using VRChat, an online virtual reality platform. So when I say there are 600,000 monthly active users, it doesn't mean that all of them are active on this platform all the time. They may log in to Second Life for an hour, then use VRChat for a while, or organize a party with friends on Discord. In short, they will migrate back and forth between different platforms.

Warzel : That sounds interesting. My idea is that Discord could become something like the American TV Guide, where each platform is a different channel and people can switch back and forth depending on what's playing.

Au ：I think this is exactly what Mark Zuckerberg and other metaverse builders should strive for. The community is more important than the platform itself. Generally, there are few communities that can always use a fixed platform. Once they feel that they are not treated fairly, they will leave.

Warzel : Can you tell me specifically what unfair treatment there is?

Au : Take Meta's Horizon Worlds VR platform, for example. They launched with very limited creation and monetization tools and barely built a community. From what I've learned so far, Meta hasn't worked with any community teams. Linden Lab has instilled a culture of creativity and free expression in Second Life, and respects user anonymity. Linden Labs knows that some rules can't be enforced and that community members need to be heard. Horizon didn't value the community, and hundreds of thousands of people left after trying it.

Warzel: How does this community cultivation work in practice, with dedicated staff welcoming people into Second Life?

Au : There are indeed welcoming people, and sometimes it is done by volunteers. There were also large social and community projects in the early days of Second Life. Philip Rosedale had the initial idea for Second Life when he attended the Burning Man Festival. In 2003, the first events they held in the game were Burning Man events to help get the community on track. The game places great emphasis on serendipity and free participation of users. To achieve this, not only does it require a corresponding community environment, but it also requires a lot of management and guidance. In the end, the game attracted different gamers, including mathematicians, hippies, and people from all walks of life.

Warzel : In a sense, Facebook or Meta are trying to foster healthy communities. Companies that are only concerned with growth tend to neglect community building. And I'm also shocked that they haven't learned any lessons from past platform iterations.

Au : It’s also surprising that Meta’s team includes some Second Life employees, such as the former CTO of Linden Labs, and Jim Purbrick, a former Linden Labs employee. Just before Meta launched Horizon, he warned the Meta team that guidance was needed on harassment on the platform, and the company did not heed his advice. Of course, we have also seen some well-documented examples of a woman being sexually assaulted on their platform [in November 2021, a tester reported that she was harassed in Horizon Worlds]. Building a metaverse platform is not easy and there are many problems that need to be solved, but it seems that Meta was only focused on throwing money at it and ignored the importance of strategy.

Warzel : We are in the middle of a metaverse hype cycle right now, thanks to Facebook. What do you think about this? How do you feel when you see people imagining the future before they’ve learned to reflect on the past?

Au : Overall, I'm optimistic because I've long seen the promise of the Metaverse and the amazing changes it will bring. However, this hype wave is quite similar to the one in 2008, and everything seems to be repeating itself - the same story, the same perception, the same mistakes. In the 2008 hype, the technology was not ready for the mass market. But today, with the emergence of Roblox and Fortnite and other platforms, the Metaverse has entered the public's vision. At present, there are more than 500 million active users on the broad Metaverse platform. Everything is gradually getting on track, and I am very excited.

Warzel : In your opinion, what mistakes are being repeated?

Au : First of all, there is definitely the issue of harassment, but there are other issues as well. Between 2006 and 2008, many companies opened stores in the Metaverse, including Intel, IBM, American Apparel, Nissan, and NBC, which all created their own spaces in Second Life. But in 2008, the Second Life user base was not large enough to support these stores, and most brands thought that their stores in the virtual world had the same influence as offline companies (which was not the case). As a result, they spent tens of millions of dollars to build stores, but only a dozen people visited them.

After witnessing this, people at the time lost confidence in the Metaverse, and I am really worried that this situation will happen again. But the problem is not with the users, but with these companies not taking good care of their own Metaverse communities and truly considering the feelings of community members.

Warzel : Just now you mentioned that humans will reshape old social structures and problems in the digital world. What makes me sad is that many metaverse companies are only thinking about making money and profits, but they could have created more infinite possibilities and realized any vision, but the result is that Meta and other companies say, we want to use the metaverse for video conferencing and charge high mortgages by selling virtual land. What do you think of this situation?

Au : I think these actions are doomed to fail and lose a lot of money. Once people only focus on how to make money quickly, they will miss a lot of opportunities. I like to observe what the younger generation is doing. What Generation Z is doing in the Metaverse is like what the early Second Life users did, but on a much larger scale. What people should realize is that the younger Metaverse users are not trying to recreate a second space because the virtual space is real enough for them. When you watch people playing Fortnite on Twitch, they are already touting each other and talking about various issues in geopolitics or pop culture. The virtual world is just a way to participate, and it is still closely integrated with real life. In the future, this generation of Metaverse users will grow up from these experiences and innovate on traditional social media.

Warzel : I like your statement that the experience of the virtual world is closely integrated with real life. I think this also coincides with your previous point that the virtual world is not an anti-social or escapist world, it is just a derivative part of the real world. In your opinion, what kind of experience do people want to get from the metaverse?

Au : They just want to create, socialize or have fun in it. Some people want to create new social experiences that they can't get in the real world. As long as you are willing to spend enough time in the virtual world, you can always build some interesting social relationships in it. Mark Zuckerberg believes that people only build relationships with friends on virtual platforms, but I actually think that we now have the opportunity to build global connections and communicate and interact with anyone.

Warzel : When I hear stories like this, it reminds me of my biggest fear about this technology, which is that it will become lifeless and soulless, financialized by companies trying to build overly commercialized platforms. I know Web3 and the Metaverse are not the same concept, but what makes me uneasy about Web3 is how it tokenizes everything it touches and turns it into some kind of financial instrument. Are you also worried that this will happen in the Metaverse space?

Au : I'm really surprised by the hype you mentioned about NFTs and the crypto-based metaverse. Generally speaking, few people are collecting NFTs, and there are many more people who own content in Second Life than NFTs. Metaverse platforms like Decentraland that are linked to NFTs have only a very small user base, most of which are people who have invested in it. If you buy land in Decentraland, you definitely want people to move in.

In my opinion, those Web3 platforms that want to enter the Metaverse have put the cart before the horse. If you launch a speculative product, such as releasing a new coin, so that people can enter the digital world, then although people may participate, they may not always participate. From a basic philosophical perspective, something is valuable only when a group decides that it has value. However, these Crypto Metaverse platforms do not put the community first, including Meta. They only want to collect user data for marketing without considering the interests and feelings of the community.

Warzel : What do you think the odds are right now? If the company screws up their Metaverse project, will it set the entire process back or completely stymie it?

Au : The most critical thing now is Meta. Many observers think that since they invented the Metaverse, everything they have now is part of the Metaverse. Of course, they are just a new entrant into an old system. If Meta takes action, it may succeed, but they have not taken action yet.

However, I also don’t think society has fully realized the far-reaching impact that most children today play Roblox, and they are creating value for gaming companies and trying to make money. Many of Roblox’s monetization models are questionable and may even involve child labor. However, there may not be many people in Congress who know that this is an issue they may need to pay attention to.

I would say that the Metaverse is already facing a lot of real problems. The problems of the space are real and huge. There have long been concerns that the Metaverse is a threat to national security. In the early 2000s, I interviewed a terrorism expert who told me that jihadist groups at the time had been planning and trying to carry out terrorist attacks in Second Life. The Snowden leaks showed that the NSA had investigators in Second Life trying to uncover the conspiracy. I think after the events in Ukraine, people will pay more attention to the role of platforms in that conflict. People are already worried that anonymous people will use the system in Second Life to move money, so I worry that the Metaverse will be destroyed by large companies like Meta who don't understand it, and I also worry that large institutions don't realize the seriousness of the problem now.

Warzel : You make a very good point, and there are some things that are being reported about P2E games today. One of the very dystopian ideas is that we are entering an era of "shitty jobs," where people work on these platforms, doing repetitive tasks overall, and ultimately making less and less money. Are you worried that the digital economy will eventually disappear as a result? Putting aside the ethical issues, do you think that if these platforms are allowed to develop without effective regulation, people will eventually lose themselves and become disconnected from the real world?

Au : To be honest, this is a challenge for us because we need to use a variety of devices. In some ways, smartphones and social networks may be more problematic than metaverse platforms. Metaverse platforms have unlimited possibilities, but as you said, they do have a lot of problems, so when we explore building these platforms, we must pay attention to the balance between platform functionality and real-life community participation. In fact, Facebook and Twitter are still better at operating social media than building the metaverse.

Warzel : Why do you say that?

Au : There is a difference between social media and the virtual world, because in the virtual world, you can get a sense of immersion and a sense of reality of interacting with real people. The virtual world can truly achieve user participation, rather than the illusion of interactive participation in social media. Although it sounds a bit utopian, in the virtual world, people start out as fair participants, which is a feature that many social media do not have. I think that for many people, the virtual world is the best way to participate. On the one hand, you can experience real interpersonal communication, and on the other hand, you also maintain enough social distance and can show and express yourself in your own way. So some people feel that they can be themselves more in the virtual world than in the real world.

Warzel : I've never thought about it this way, and it's a really interesting angle. In my opinion, social media has increased the distance between people and allowed people to do things that they would never try in real life. However, this has also lowered the entry barrier to the Internet, and some users can even post some obscene text content without thinking. In the virtual world, this situation may be improved to a certain extent, because people will participate in it with their personal image, and everyone can see you, so people will think more about their actions. Of course, without a series of restrictions such as avatars, some people may feel freer, which is also worth thinking about.

Au : In the future, competition among major platforms will become more and more fierce because they have different visions for digital life. I hope that those platforms that truly consider user feelings will ultimately win.

Original title: Lessons From 19 Years in the Metaverse

Original author: Charlie Warzel

Original source: The Atlantic Newsletter

Original translation: Kxp, BlockBeats